For me, and I imagine for most members, March 2021 will signify the anniversary of one year working from home. I certainly didn’t expect to be still doing it full time after six months, let alone 12 months later.

It is quite easy to focus on the negatives associated with working from home for such a prolonged period of time, however there are positives. These included less commuting (I’m sure many of us were glad not to be having to scrape ice off our cars or drive in the snow), and of course taking advantage of technology to assist in greater flexibility in how we deliver and maintain our services.

When reflecting on what the past year has been like for my day job, I thought this would be a good opportunity to give members an insight into some of the things I have been involved in as part of my role as an ALARM Board Director.

Let’s start with the obvious, COVID-19. Over recent months I have started dialogue with the Association of British Insurers (ABI) on issues relating to insurance with care homes, and with the Government on issues relating to their proposed indemnity for community testing. Hopefully we will be in a position to update members on this in the coming months.

As head of the Communications Panel, I have led on a number of publications that will be available to members in the near future, including:

• Contractor risks - a guide developed for all those involved in considering the risks and insurance implications in managing and procuring contracts within their organisations. We have drawn on expertise from both within public service organisations and the insurance industry to provide clear practical advice for those managing contracts.
• Back to basics procurement – the latest addition in our back to basics series takes a look at procurement of insurance and associated services. We give an insight into the current legislation, routes to markets and good practice in your market presentation and evaluation.

While we will be unable to meet face-to-face for the ALARM Conference this year, we are making plans for our extended virtual Conference over five days in June. As well as delivering our ever-popular educational sessions to assist members with their continued professional development, this year, each day we will be delivering wellbeing sessions to help manage your personal resilience during this difficult time. In addition, we will be holding networking sessions at the end of each day that we hope members will find interesting and enjoyable.

Finally, following the Government's recent annountment regarding the possibility of restrictions being lifted in England by the end of June, we will be looking at how we can safely return to face-to-face meetings to compliment our online and virtual offerings.

Wayne Rigby, Insurance Manager, Doncaster Council and ALARM Board Director.