The Chancellor, George Osborne, has stated that the government needs to get to the bottom of allegations against politicians over child abuse claims in the 1980s. Speaking from India, where he is touring with the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, Osborne said: “We need to get to the truth…We need to get to the bottom of what happened in many of our institutions, including potentially at Westminster.”

The Home Secretary, Theresa May, has been asked to set up an inquiry into how the Home Office handled the allegations at the time. There has also been a call for a full public inquiry to run alongside a criminal investigation.

A Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programme can be very beneficial for your career. By advancing your knowledge and skills, you can be confident that you are working at the top end of your profession. You will be competent in your role and enjoy a rewarding career.

CPD programmes can prove to be a useful tool when trying to understand your strengths and weaknesses within the workplace. You can focus on the specific areas that you need to work on, enabling you to improve your skills.

If you are prepared to put in the time and effort to be part of a CPD programme, you can reap many benefits.

Benefits of a CPD programme

ILSPA is delighted to launch our new website. After months of planning, preparations, and the wonderful work of our design and IT team, our vision has become a reality.

Our new site has been designed with our visitors, Members and Students in mind. We have aimed to make the site easier to navigate and have presented information in a way which is clearer, more accessible and visually appealing.

With the fantastic launch of ILSPA’s new website comes our new Legal Secretaries Diploma course.

We have added an additional unit to the course on Family Law and Practice, which means that Students will have even better job prospects once they have qualified. The course now covers the four most common practice areas which are worked on in law firms and legal departments.

Not only have we added an extra unit to the course, but Students are now able to study online. The online course material provides a learning aid for both distance learning and evening class Students.

All the course material can be accessed through the Membership area of our website, which includes a wealth of Student resources to help and support Students throughout their studies.

A Document Management System (DMS) is a computer software package that records, tracks and stores electronic documents. The type and size of the system for each law firm can vary, but employees are always individually trained, based on the type of document management system that they are using. Then they can use the law firm’s in-house system with the knowledge that is required in handling such sensitive information that is dealt with in this type of profession.

This month we are continuing our review of recent changes to Civil Litigation Procedure. Our focus in this article will be on a new procedure that must be followed before any Court action can be taken in road traffic claims (RTAs), claims against employers or public liability claims. This procedure is referred to as the RTA pre-action protocols.

Following on from my last article about collaborating using Google Docs, I have put together a list of four helpful things you can do with Google Docs to improve your workflow.

1) Create a PDF file

Creating a PDF file used to require all sorts of cumbersome software and add-ons for word processors. These days anyone can create a PDF document without pulling a single hair out. All you need to do is create a standard document in Google Docs and click File>Download As and select PDF Document.

You can also download the document in various other formats, including HTML.

2) Do your research from Google Docs

We are delighted to share some wonderful news with you. Rebecca Saville, who won the title of Up and Coming Legal PA of the Year, recently passed the Legal Secretaries Diploma course and received a distinction for her work. Well done, Rebecca! 

Every year, Strictly Recruitment holds the Legal PA of the Year Awards in London. They launched the awards in 2012 to recognise the vital role Legal PAs, Secretaries, Support Staff Managers and Team Leaders play in the industry. The awards are the only scheme of this kind to be fully supported by the legal profession.

Are you looking for Legal Secretary or PA work? Look no further than ILSPA’s Legal Secretary Jobs Board. Our board is the UK’s largest niche recruitment site for Legal Secretaries and PAs and currently it advertises over 2,000 jobs in the legal profession.

Vacancies are posted by a variety of legal recruiters and law firms throughout the UK. The board also aggregates Legal Secretary and PA jobs listed across the Internet from jobs boards such as totallylegal.com and legalprospects.co.uk.

The top recruiter at present on ILSPA’s Legal Secretary Jobs Board is Professionals in Law. Professionals in Law support legal recruitment in London and the UK's major cities, as well as internationally.

The Children and Families Act 2014 introduces fundamental changes to the way in which children in care will be dealt with. This Act seems to cover everything, from banning smoking in cars to how the most vulnerable children with special needs should be treated. This legislation represents one of the biggest shake-ups in childcare seen in decades.

One of the most important features of the Children and Families Act 2014 is expediting the adoption process, in terms of both attempting to make it easier to adopt children and reducing the length of time that care proceedings take through the court system, with a new maximum of 26 weeks.

Expediting the Adoption System