We are delighted to announce that NPA will now form part of Davies’ existing Claims Solutions business in the UK, adding 24/7 home emergency assistance service to its existing range of end-to-end claims solutions. NPA CEO Nick Haycock will continue to lead the business and will report to Davies’ Managing Director, Russell Crewe. All 190 NPA employees will continue in their roles as Davies colleagues. With all major UK political parties committed to the expansion of new home building, Davies sees the potential for strong organic growth, as well as using NPA to support 24/7 support in its wider claims operations.
In 2020 Davies deepened its claims capability in the UK, most notably in December when it added new motor claims capability through the acquisition of VRG, offering end-to-end insurance-related vehicle rental, third party intervention and new vehicle replacement through its tech enabled platform; and BMTS, the specialist vehicle inspection and expert witness services to the insurance, legal and private sectors.
Globally Davies has more than 4,000 colleagues, with operating centres across the UK, Ireland, Bermuda, the US and Canada. The business delivers professional services and technology solutions across the risk and insurance value chain, including excellence in claims, underwriting, distribution, regulation, customer experience, human capital, digital transformation & change management.
There will be no immediate change to current operating practices, but we look forward to some very exciting times, as commented on by the CEO’s of NPA and Davies.
Dan Saulter, Group CEO, Davies commented: “It’s great to welcome Nick and the whole NPA team to Davies. The deal brings a team of home emergency experts who will complement our end-to-end claims solutions and broaden our capabilities for our clients. Many of our clients are seeking to work with fewer strategic partners, who can provide a diverse range of solutions, deepening the breadth of our services remains a central pillar to our growth strategy. With new house-building expected to gather pace in the UK in the coming years, we are excited to be able to invest and grow in NPA to deliver organic growth in the years ahead.”
Nick Haycock, CEO, NPA added: “We are delighted to join Davies and bring a new set of technical expertise to the firm. Davies’ story of growth and investment in people and technology is one that resonated with our team. The culture at Davies was an important factor for us and this deal will give our employees more career development opportunities, as well as give them access to employee initiatives such as the Davies Disruptive Thinking innovation lab and their focus on giving back to local communities through The Davies Foundation.”
The last 12 months have been incredibly busy for npa24:7. We moved into our new offices in September 2019, dealt with another busy Christmas period, launched a brand new home emergency membership service in June, alongside moving to a fully home working operation due to Covid-19.
Amongst all that, we have managed to achieve 3 ISO accreditations!
We achieved ISO9001 for Quality Management in March this year. This month, we have added ISO14001 for Environmental Management and ISO27001 for Information Security.
A big thanks to the team for their hard work in securing these certificates during a period of massive change for the business, while keeping everything running as normal for our customers.
Over recent months, a team from npa24:7 and our Partner – Collinson Insurance Services, have been working with our developers and web agency; Lightbox Digital to deliver point of sale Quote and Buy and policy administration for home emergency insurance policies.
This step will see npa24:7 able to provide an ever-broader set of services to the home emergency sector, from point of sale, policy issue, premium collection and customer service, all the way through to claim and resolution. Our newly appointed Sales and Service team were recruited and trained during lockdown and are already providing great customer service.
Simon Jones – Head of Multi-Lines Insurance from Collinson Insurance Services said;
“We are delighted to be further developing our Partnership with npa24:7 and harnessing their technology and agility to continue to provide and evolve ever better customer experience from end to end. With our underwriting, partnerships and marketing expertise allied to the technology and service excellence of npa24:7 we can provide an unrivalled service to our clients and their customers in turn.”
Nick Haycock – Managing Director of npa24:7 adds;
“We have big plans for this department, as this will open up more opportunities for new business, we’re already ‘the home emergency experts’, this just adds more weight so we can compete with larger organisations.“
We’re delighted that Collinson chose npa24:7 as the partner for this project and we’re looking forward to continuing our great working relationship.
On Thursday, 19th September a team of 5 from npa24:7 took part in the CRASH Wildgoose Chase.
npa24:7’s team, called Goosebusters, was made up of Kelly Baber, Sarah Kerr, Sandra Price, Joey Abubaker and Tony Kinch.
The team spent the day running around London on a custom-made treasure hunt with the aim of raising money for the brilliant CRASH charity. Even though the treasure hunt was challenging, they really had fun taking part.
The event started with a briefing where the team was given their only tool for the treasure hunt; an iPad. The team then had to travel to various GPS locations to unlock different challenges from finding a pub to pour a pint of local beer to recording their own rock music video!
There were plenty of opportunities for the members of the team to make fools of themselves throughout the day and they really got stuck in.
At the end of the evening, at the Winners Award Ceremony, it was announced the team came in 6th place with 870 points! There were 25 teams taking part, so this is a fantastic achievement.
This year’s Wildgoose Chase raised a brilliant £26,000 for CRASH. CRASH Senior Partnership Manager, Kate Marsh, had this to say: “Your support means CRASH can help homelessness charities and hospices with their building projects, creating places that care for people who are homeless or those receiving end of life care in a hospice. So, thank you very much for taking part.”
npa24:7 would also like to extend our congratulations to Goosebusters 2.0 for being crowned the Wildgoose Chase Champions 2019 and to Top-Geese for winning the best fancy-dress prize.
npa24:7 hopes to take part again next year. Now we’ve taken part in one, there’l be some better tactics up the team’s sleeves so watch out Goosebusters 2.0, npa24:7 will be coming after your trophy!
In collaboration with Taylor Wimpey, a team of 5 from npa24:7 are taking part in the CRASH Wildgoose Chase. Sarah Kerr, Kelly Baber, Sandra Price, Gary Pendry and Tony Kinch will be travelling around London armed with an iPad as their guide on a custom-made treasure hunt in aid of the CRASH Charity.
But who is CRASH?
CRASH is a unique, practical charity that assists homelessness and hospice charities with construction-related projects. Their support helps charities with the practical elements of their building projects, creating better places for people to live and work. They offer free professional expertise, pro-bono or discounted building material sourcing and specifying, as well as awarding cash grants donated by the property industry.
The Chase
The Chase is on Thursday, 19th September 2019, starting at 1 pm for a pre-challenge briefing. The Chase itself lasts for 2 hours. During this time the teams will be running around London testing their teamwork, communication and creativity to find all of the treasures on their list. After the challenge, all teams will reconvene for the post-challenge reception before the winner is announced at Winners Award Ceremony. The event ends at 7 pm.
Donations
Charities like this wouldn’t be able to survive without donations, and you can visit our Virgin Money Giving page to sponsor our team on their day’s activities. All donations are given to CRASH to help fund their vital work assisting homelessness and hospice charities. With Autumn just around the corner and the nights getting longer and colder, we are reminded of how important the work from organisations, such as CRASH, really is.
A home emergency business is returning to its roots in Halesowen, creating new jobs in the process.
Npa24:7 will move into Hyefield House in Halesowen, following a half a million-pound development of the building.
The move will see the company, which specialises in home emergency repairs, return to from Oldbury to Halesowen where it was founded over two decades ago.
Nick Haycock, Managing Director at npa24:7, said: “The original business was built on a strong foundation of good people from Halesowen, and we have held that close to heart through our long history. We firmly believe in creating local jobs for local people.”
The company says that upwards of 200 employees will be needed in the contact centre during the busy winter months and they will be launching a recruitment campaign throughout August and September.
The company was originally launched in Halesowen as AA Home Assistance, after which it moved around the country and became part of businesses such as Aon and Homeserve.
The move comes after the company, which formed as npa24:7 in 2014, spent five years in Oldbury.
Whilst npa24:7 doesn’t directly build homes, we do offer support to those who do. Because of our strong ties to the housing sector, every year we will hold a range of events and activities to raise money for local homelessness charities.
Last year, for example, we raised money for; Shelter, Birmingham Christmas Shelter, MLSS (Midland Langar Seva Society), as well as the Black Country Food Bank.
We continued this into 2019, starting off the year with a charity bake sale and raffle for Sifa Fireside, who have been promoting health and inclusion for homeless people in Birmingham for over 35 years!
Shelter have released shocking statistics that there are approximately 320,000 homeless people in the UK, which is an increase of 169% from 2010. 24housing have also released information that over 500 people, who were either living on the streets or in temporary accommodation, died last year.
Moves are being made to help reduce the amount of people living on the streets or in temporary accommodation, with Savills announcing that the top 50 Housing Associations plan to build 43% more home a year in 2020/21 than they did in 2016/17. The current conservative government have also pledged to meet the 2015 commitment to deliver 1 million homes by 2020, and to deliver half a million more by the end of 2022.
Through continuing efforts to raise money for charities that support homeless people, and Housing Associations pledging to build more homes, the end of homelessness may be in sight.
Together we can make a difference.