Voice For Locals, which was awarded £1.82m by the UK Community Renewal Fund, offers micro and small businesses a range of free skills, marketing and other services to aid their business’ recovery.

More than 1,400 businesses have enrolled to avail of the benefits, of which 250 businesses have innovated new processes in their business, and the goal is to certify 500 businesses over the coming weeks.

Following the success of transforming St George’s Market to trading online and sponsoring High Street Heroes NI – a campaign from Retail NI and supported by Voice for Locals – working relationships have been established with many local councils, business improvement districts (BIDS), enterprise agencies and chambers of commerce across Northern Ireland.

Welcoming the initiative Aidan O’Kane, President of Londonderry Chamber of Commerce, said: “We are delighted to welcome Voice For Locals as a member of the Londonderry Chamber. Voice For Locals aims to help micro and small businesses recover, rebuild and rebound post pandemic. Chamber Members represent the varied business sectors and interests in the area.

“There is a shared ambition to grow the standing of the North West as a great place to live, work and do business. However, our members are facing a perfect storm of challenges including energy hikes, labour shortages, National Insurance increases and Covid-19.

“Looking forward, I would encourage any small business to sign up to the Voice For Locals Initiative. It will allow business owners to increase their visibility and credibility, and boost profitability, to mitigate growing costs.”

Jay Thattai, Founder and Steering Authority at Voice For Locals, said: “We are looking forward to working in partnership with Londonderry Chamber. There are so many synergies and collective efforts yield better results than individual efforts. The membership organisation is a priceless asset to the local business community, helping it navigate some of the hardest times ever faced. The Chamber’s objectives align perfectly with ours in that it wants to support members and help them rebuild and recover.

“We provide the digital tools for data driven business decisions and enable business owners to go digital with mobile apps, get marketed locally, get certified with e-learning courses endorsed by City & Guilds, and avail of personalised business and technology advice, to build a self-reliant economy in the wake of the pandemic.

“The levelling up initiative has been designed to address a number of challenges. At a local level, it allows engagement with a broader audience, on a more consistent basis, thanks to the Voice For Locals digital directory of all rated businesses across Northern Ireland, ni.voiceforlocals.co.uk. Meanwhile, with an expanded digital presence, local businesses can now tap into rest of the UK, Europe and world markets that would have otherwise been unattainable.”

Mr Thattai said: “Each business will have a dedicated landing page with a business description, an enquiry button to generate leads, and pictures and videos featured in the Voice For Locals NI directory. Business owners will be given the tools to collect genuine customer ratings and reviews which will reflect online automatically, encouraging online shoppers to shop locally with confidence.

“This is a personalised small business success programme. A dedicated team is in place to provide mentoring until the business owners become self-reliant. It is completely free and fully funded by the UK Government. The consortium, which includes firms Unloc Limited and TieTa UK, hopes to support even more businesses in the North West as they navigate recovery post pandemic.”

The consortium’s tender win for the project makes it the recipient of the fifth largest grant in the UK and the largest in Northern Ireland. Unloc will provide the technology, marketing and skills development element of the offering while TieTa will offer business and technical support. The team is working closely with City & Guilds to gain recognition for e-learning programmes delivered to local businesses throughout the scheme’s duration.

This project is funded by the UK Government through the UK Community Renewal Fund. For further information log on to voiceforlocals.co.uk

Caption: Jay Thattai, Founder and Steering Authority at Voice For Locals and Aidan O’Kane, President of Londonderry Chamber of Commerce.

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The public consultation was launched in March 2022 on a proposal to introduce statutory regulation of the Pharmacy Technician workforce in Northern Ireland.

The Minister said: “I am pleased to begin establishing pharmacy technicians as a regulated healthcare profession in Northern Ireland. This will be a key enabler to enhancing the contribution that pharmacy technicians can make to the delivery of healthcare across all settings. It will allow the regulator to strengthen its role in protecting patients and promoting high standards, thereby enhancing the public’s confidence and trust in pharmacy practice.

“While there are many practical issues to be worked through with stakeholders, and legislative change required, I have now instructed my Department’s officials to develop a detailed project plan to bring about the statutory regulation of pharmacy technicians by the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland.”

Chief Pharmaceutical Officer Cathy Harrison said: “I welcome the publication of this consultation report, which is a further step towards meeting our ambitions for the development of the pharmacy workforce as set out in the Pharmacy Workforce Review, and I would like to extend my sincere thanks to everyone who took time to provide a response.

“Our population is best served by full utilisation of the skillset of all members of the pharmacy team to ensure that people get the most from their medicines every day. Progressing the registration and regulation of pharmacy technicians as healthcare professionals in their own right will support the transformation of pharmacy services by optimising skill mix and will help to maintain public safety and confidence in the pharmacy profession.”

The consultation closed on 20 May 2022 and the Department has now published a consultation summary report on the feedback received.

A link to the consultation report can be found here Introduction of Statutory Regulation of the Pharmacy Technician Workforce in Northern Ireland | Department of Health (health-ni.gov.uk)

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Voice For Locals, which was awarded £1.82m by the UK Community Renewal Fund, offers micro and small businesses a range of free skills, marketing, and other services to aid their business’ recovery.

The team has digitised more than 230 local firms across Northern Ireland in the last 30 days and 71% of business owners have introduced new innovative processes to their ways of working.

Following the recent success of transforming St George’s Market in Belfast to online trading, Voice For Locals is all set to level up local businesses in high streets and markets in collaboration with local councils, town management, enterprise agencies and chambers of commerce.

Newtownards Chamber of Trade provides professional advice and gives a voice to the business sector in the local area.

In 2019, Newtownards was recognised at the Great British High Street Awards, winning the Champion Award category for Northern Ireland.

Welcoming the initiative Derek Wright, President of the Newtownards Chamber of Trade and a business owner in the town, said: “The Chamber is delighted to welcome Voice For Locals to Newtownards to help micro and small businesses recover, rebuild, and rebound post pandemic. Newtownards is a thriving market town, and we are proud to be one of the high streets that is succeeding and influencing change across the UK, as reflected in our recent Great British High Street award win. However, our members are facing a perfect storm of challenges including energy hikes, labour shortages, National Insurance increases and Covid-19.

“Newtownards boasts a wide variety of shops, many of them independently owned and I would encourage all local businesses to avail of this opportunity. As a local business owner, I have registered for the initiative, and it takes less than ten minutes to sign up.  I am confident Voice For Locals allows business owners to increase their visibility and credibility, and boost profitability to mitigate growing costs.”

Jay Thattai, Founder and Steering Authority at Voice For Locals, said: “We are looking forward to working in partnership with Newtownards Chamber. There are so many synergies and collective efforts yield better results than individual efforts.

“The membership organisation is a priceless asset to the local business community, helping it navigate some of the hardest times the high street has ever faced. The Chamber’s objectives align perfectly with ours in that it wants to support local businesses and help them rebuild and recover.

“We provide the digital tools for data driven business decisions and enable business owners to go digital with mobile apps, get marketed locally, get certified with e-learning courses endorsed by City & Guilds, and avail of personalised business and technology advice, to build a self-reliant economy in the wake of the pandemic.

“It also has a busy market on a Saturday, and we will help traders, who typically rely on in-person footfall, to extend their services online and tap into the world of e-commerce through our ‘Times are Changing’ campaign.

“The levelling up initiative has been designed to address a number of challenges. At a local level, it allows engagement with a broader audience, on a more consistent basis, thanks to the Voice For Locals digital directory of all rated businesses across Northern Ireland, ni.voiceforlocals.co.uk. Meanwhile, with an expanded digital presence, local businesses can now tap into rest of the UK, Europe and world markets that would have otherwise been unattainable.”

Mr Thattai added: “Each business will have a dedicated landing page with a business description, an enquiry button to generate leads, and pictures and videos featured in the Voice For Locals NI directory. Business owners will be given the tools to collect genuine customer ratings and reviews which will reflect online automatically, encouraging online shoppers to shop locally with confidence.

“This is a personalised small business success programme. A dedicated team is in place to provide mentoring until the business owners become self-reliant. It is completely free and fully funded by the UK Government. The consortium, which includes firms Unloc Limited and TieTa UK, hopes to support even more businesses in Newtownards as they navigate recovery post pandemic.”

The consortium’s tender win for the project makes it the recipient of the fifth largest grant in the UK and the largest in Northern Ireland. Unloc will provide the technology, marketing, and skills development element of the offering while TieTa will offer business and technical support. The team is working closely with City & Guilds to gain recognition for e-learning programs delivered to local businesses throughout the scheme’s duration.

This project is funded by the UK Government through the UK Community Renewal Fund. For further information log on to voiceforlocals.co.uk

06 + 30 +52 Derek Wright, President of the Newtownards Chamber of Trade and Jay Thattai, Founder and Steering Authority at Voice For Locals.

09 Derek Wright, President of the Newtownards Chamber of Trade; Tim McKane, Voice for Locals and Jay Thattai, Founder and Steering Authority at Voice For Locals.

50 Jay Thattai, Founder and Steering Authority at Voice For Locals and Derek Wright, President of the Newtownards Chamber of Trade.

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