Managing Director Kathryn Riley revealed "We passed our most recent REC audit with flying colours and with lots of companies now asking their suppliers to prove their ethical credentials; we would like to see hirers and candidates doing the same. Poor performance from your recruitment consultant could affect business reputation or how an application is judged; it makes good sense to consider the ethical dimensions of your recruitment agency."

Tom Hadley, Director of Policy and Professional Services at the REC added "Using an REC registered agency is important on a number of levels. First of all it means that the agency signs up to the recruitment industry's Code of Professional Practice which drives best practice in terms of relationships with clients and candidates. Secondly, REC members are ahead of the game in terms of all the latest regulatory developments that impact on recruitment and employment. REC registered agencies are also at the forefront of pro-active initiatives in areas such as diversity & inclusion and youth employment and have access to leading-edge training, mentoring and research. This enables them to work in partnership with their clients to review latest labour market trends, pre-empt future skills needs and deliver a world class recruitment service".

The Apprentice Academy works in conjunction with a number of organisations, creating high quality work experience programmes for school and college leavers within the local area. Offering an alternative career path to academic study, the academy works to equip young people with the valuable skills acquired from on the job training.

Kate joins our newly established London Desk, assisting them with all administration and recruitment support tasks. The team would like to wish Kate the very best of luck on her apprenticeship with Douglas Scott and thanks to the Apprentice Academy for providing us with this opportunity.

Keep your eye on our News and Blog pages for further updates on Kate's progress.

Hi ,

My name is David Walker and I am the PE coordinator at Abbott Community PS. Ms Riley passed me on your delightful email! I must say I was completely taken aback by your proposal to provide our children with a football kit and equipment.

I have only recently begun teaching at Abbott and have started up a school football and tag rugby club with the intention of creating school teams for both. We have recently competed in a year 5/6 tag rugby tournament and qualified for the Manchester finals. The excitement this created among the children was incredible as in previous years they have not really taken
part in out of school competitions. I have also just signed the year 5/6 children up for couple of football tournaments in the new year.

At the minute we are actually short of a proper kit and our equipment does need replenishing so the fact that you have contacted the school about helping out seems to have a bit of divine intervention about it! As a school we would love to take you, and the company you represent, up on your fantastic offer to support us.

Anything you need or any other communications needed Adrian, please feel free to contact me at any time.

Thank you greatly on behalf of myself, Ms Riley and, most importantly, the children from Abbott.

Hope to hear from you soon,

David Walker, PE coordinator Abbott Community PS

Thrilled by the opportunity to make a difference in our community we thought we could go one better and get the squad kitted out, setting ourselves a bit of a challenge in the process. We recently launched a facebook page and although it is still work in progress we want to know we are on the right track, so the challenge is to achieve 1000 likes. If we get that then we will supersize the football kit to include replacements and throw in some balls and training equipment too.

Look out for the facebook link on our Christmas e-card or click on the facebook link at the top of the page to get the ball rolling (geddit?). A tweet would help too.

All Defence Solicitors in North West Area

Our Ref: NA

Date: December 2011

Dear Sirs,

"Stop Delaying Justice Initiative"

I am sure that you are all aware that my colleague, Alison Saunders, the Chief Crown Prosecutor for London, wrote to all solicitors in London outlining the Crown Prosecution Service's approach in relation to the judiciary's initiative called "Stop Delaying Justice".  I wanted to write to you to tell you that I am fully supportive of this initiative which will ensure that all contested trials in the magistrates' courts are fully case managed at the first hearing and disposed of at the second hearing.  Justice has to be swift but it also has to be fair and that is why we will do all in our power to ensure that you and your clients are not prejudiced by the need for speeding up cases in the magistrates' courts in the way that summary jurisdiction was always envisaged.

This whole initiative is being led by the Senior District Judge for England and Wales and the judiciary for the North West and by the end of December 2011 every magistrate, legal advisor and prosecutor will be trained in the requirements of the scheme.  As you know, this will begin on 1 January 2012 in every magistrates' court in the North West.  The Criminal Procedure Rules have been amended appropriately in order for us to deal with these cases justly but swiftly.  This is nothing new in that much of this initiative is based on the Senior Presiding Judge's 2009 Directions in "Essential Case Management; Applying The Criminal Procedure Rules".  However, it is clear that we have not consistently been applying the principals of effective case management (and by "we", I mean all of us in criminal justice).  But now there is no excuse for us not doing so given the challenges being faced by all of us.

This will require significant engagement with you and your colleagues to identify the real issues in any particular case and deal with them at the first hearing rather than in a piecemeal fashion.  This will include oral agreement of Section 9 and Section 10 evidence and early special measures directions.

Bureaucracy is the bain of my life and I will seek to limit its effect by asking the court, for example, to permit oral notices of hearsay and bad character and to waive the requirements for written counter-notices.  The court, will in future, be deciding these applications either at the first hearing or before the commencement of the trial.

The court will also be scrutinising ours and your requirements for the attendance of witnesses.  Substantial research has shown that thousands of witnesses have been warned for court when they proved unnecessary and we will not be doing that after 1 January.

There are many other details in the new initiative such as summarising the defendant's interview rather than relying upon a record of taped interview, agreeing the contents of interviews earlier, and determining the length of a trial with greater clarity in accordance with CPR 3.10 and the principles set out in R v Jisl and Tekin (2004) EWCA Crim 696.

It may be that the requirements of the new scheme need reiterating at every opportunity and I am more than happy to ensure that you and your colleagues have access to any learning that develops as it rolls out, and I am also keen to do any joint training that you think may be necessary in order for us all to be ready to deliver the benefits that this scheme is intended to provide.  I hope that you will let me know if there is any opportunity for such training in the coming weeks.

This initiative is driven by the court but supported by the wider criminal justice service.  It is only one part of the modernisation of criminal justice that will see increased use of electronic files, the roll out of the national Early Guilty Plea Scheme programme and the Criminal Justice Efficiency Programme which includes greater use of video technology and much more streamlined and proportionate case building.

All of this is very demanding for the Crown Prosecution Service, but I recognise that it will be more demanding for the defence community.  I would therefore welcome opportunities to discuss how we may overcome initial obstacles and how we can support you in delivering.

I thank you for taking the time to read this.

Yours faithfully

Nazir Afzal

Chief Crown Prosecutor

CPS North West

The legal recruitment scene remains buoyant and Douglas Scott are working on some fantastic roles in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool.

If you are a Senior Associate or Partner looking to make an informed choice about their next move then you should talk to us. Call free on 0800 043 2585 and ask for Kath Riley if you are looking at Northern based roles or Jon Paul Hanrahan if you are based in the south.

First to join us we have recruitment consultant Craig Heywood, who rejoins us after his spell with us as legal recruitment resourcer earlier on in the year. Approaching the London desk with a bit of a bang, Craig made his first placement within the capital in just over 2 weeks! And now joining forces with Jon Paul Hanrahan, who previously led the Merseyside team here at Douglas Scott, the two are taking the London legal recruitment scene by storm working with a number of London firms.

In order to accommodate the increased demand surrounding our London desk, we have appointed recruitment support Hannah Allan to the Douglas Scott team. Hannah's role will now see her as an initial port of call for new candidates and clients and she will be taking the time to get to know them and their recruitment needs for within the London legal market.  

For all of our current vacancies, please visit the jobs section on our website /jobs/job-search-results.aspx

The evening was a great success and it provided our team with the opportunity to meet with a number of trainee solicitors from a range of firms from right across the region. Plus it gave our Yorkshire team the chance to let their hair down after a busy few months! And of course, as the one to ensure that the night goes with a bang, we ran our signature competition, giving one lucky trainee the chance to walk away with a free iPad!

Joanne Watkinson, head of our Yorkshire desk said of the event

"The team had a great night last night at the Launch Event for the new JLD Leeds Committee. We made one young lady's night by presenting her with a brand new iPad 2 in our business card draw! It was a fantastic event and we all thoroughly enjoyed meeting so many new and up and coming lawyers and Solicitors!!! We definitely plan to work with the JLD again in the near future!!"

And last but not least, we would like to offer a big thankyou to the JLD committee and event organisers for choosing Douglas Scott as their official legal recruitment sponsor. The team had a great night and we look forward working with the Junior Lawyers division again in the future.

The event was a huge success, with hundreds of the next legal movers and shakers in attendance ready to celebrate the start of new MTSG season. With the complementary drinks and buffet in full flow, several members of the team got the opportunity to meet and introduce Douglas Scott to the region's trainee solicitors. And in true Douglas Scott style, we offered two lucky trainees the chance to win a bottle of luxury pink champagne, simply by entering our FREE competition!

Douglas Scott are fully committed to supporting young and trainee solicitor's group within all of our major regions. In addition to our sponsorship deals, we continuously look to work with the committees in order to create several training and development sessions throughout the legal year, with the view to enabling young solicitors across the UK get the best out of their skills.

Finally, we would like to say a huge thankyou to the event organisers for allowing Douglas Scott to be a part of their night and for choosing us to be their official legal recruitment sponsor. The event was a great success and we look forward to working with the MTSG again in the near future.

Promotions, Promotions, Promotions!

Firstly, we are thrilled to announce the continuing success of our team, as not 1, not two, not even three, but four of our consultants have been promoted to the position of Senior Recruitment Consultant within their regional areas. We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Amy Openshaw, Tasmin Sabar and Nicola Hook, who are now senior consultants of their specialist areas in the North West region and finally Claire Watt, who now heads up the Liverpool team. Their promotions come as a recognition of their hard work and exceptional contribution to the ongoing success of Douglas Scott, and we look forward to working with them in their new positions.

Doing our bit...

This week, the team revealed their generous side by doing their little bit for charity, in return for a huge curry lunch all freshly prepared by our very own Tasmin. Digging deep into our pockets the team managed to raise over £260 for Somalian Famine Relief. The event was such a huge success that ideas for our next charity lunch are circulating around the office as we speak!

7 years young...

And last but certainly not least, Douglas Scott are also very excited to announce that this week is in fact our 7^th birthday! Gathering all our regional teams together to enjoy our personalised Slattery's cake, a speech made by Managing Director Kath Riley made us very proud of everything we have achieved in the past seven years, with a toast to many more successful years together. Cheers!

And following the huge success of the last event, the team at Douglas Scott are looking forward to welcoming the new 2011/2012 committee, alongside all the new members of Manchester Trainee Solicitors Group.

Supporting new emerging legal talent is something we take very seriously, so alongside the regular sponsorship deals we make, we are also committed to developing this talent as we put the plans in place for several professional development opportunities throughout the coming year. Keep your eye on our website for more details on a range of forthcoming sessions.

The launch is set to take place Thursday 13^th October at Tiger Tiger in the Printworks, Manchester.