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High Court Enforcement up until 31 March 2004, had been a patchwork of service provision. The changes that came about on 1 April 2004 this year gave court users choice of who they used and the service provider, and the real opportunity to explore new ways of working across a national platform

Providing a national service was key to major Court Users, who wanted a one stop national service with a consistency of service and access to information from the field on what was happening to their Writs. Shergroup was the only Sheriff's office to take up the challenge. Having some 5 years ago set-up the Sheriffs Lodgment Centre (SLC) to transfer Writs of Fi Fa to the High Court for execution, for their business and for every other Sheriff business, they decided to build on the SLC success, by planning their own new national team.

Sherforce Enforcement Officers have now levied on a staggering 23,000+ items in inventories stored on their new database system. From the mundane to the highly unusual, Sherforce Enforcement Officers are making their mark as smooth operators in the field of enforcement.

After only 5 months 55 trained officers are offering their clients true National coverage. Sherforce Enforcement Officers are spread across the regions and are now set to ramp up to a team in excess of 100 now that the landscape of business post 1 April has been established. Each Officer is appointed having displayed local knowledge and are given their own nominated postcode or postcodes. The Enforcement Officers held their first quarterly conference in Birmingham in July to meet the requirement under the new High Court Enforcement Officer Regulations 2004 for continuous professional development.

Sherforce Enforcement Officers are linked to a central computer system called SHERPA, which provides all users with unique real time web access to Enforcement Officer reports.

Former administrations had tried and failed to pick through the Gordian knot of change, and left well alone. No one was prepared to tackle enforcement.

Claire Sandbrook - Shergroup CEO said

What was needed was a fresh approach to the delivery of High Court Enforcement services, with a clear focus in the enforcement of High Court Writs of Fi Fa. Our Sherforce Enforcement Officers are incentivised on collecting money, for our clients and for themselves. They always push for cleared funds from judgment debtors, making it clear that failure to co-operate could result in loss of goods."

To us, the lack of determination, and complete woolliness of other service providers has been the downfall of the civil court enforcement process."

The Writ is clear in its command "Seize and Sell". It doesn't say, "Seize and hope in a couple of weeks time a cheque will come in", or "Seize but never remove goods because it's complicated, expensive or too difficult". That said, Claire went on to say that the culture of "woolliness" was one she had had to flush out of her own organisation, with almost a Dickensian culture to the issue of enforcing the judgment."

Sheriffs Officers have to learn that they have to step up their game to compete not only with each other, but in the wider enforcement market, and clearly this was the thrust of the Government reform. Although as managers we can surround the Officers with technology and a modern management structure, ultimately the enforcement officers have to want to change, to evolve, and deliver a service. The monopoly of the past has made old style enforcement officers lethargic, and dare I say it, lazy", Claire said in her usual straightforward fashion. "I am not interested in sticking up for the past, or trying to maintain the status quo. My team have to deliver, they are measured to deliver, and more importantly they want to deliver. We have changed the culture we inherited, so that our Officers are accountable for their actions."

This new approach, even with all the meticulous planning that went into the launch in April has not been without its teething problems. Claire when asked was honest about these difficulties. She likened them to "growing pains" and added, "Sherforce is a massive logistical exercise. Its not just about turning up and taking an inventory - anyone can do that - we're building something more sustainable with results built on cash recovered, and working with our clients, to understand the limitations of using a Writ.

Claire and her team have taken the clear and unambiguous meaning of the Writ, as required in law and turned it into a modern day service delivery maxim.

Enforcement Officers have been trained to collect debt, to confront the judgment debtor fairly and professionally about the whole command in the Writ and to seek payment.

The field officers are supported by a by dedicated call centre to ensure contact is maintained with debtors and that they are aware of the consequences of non payment.

And finally for those judgment debtors, who want to pay, Sherforce offers a trained Debtor Services Team who will discuss with them how to pay and monitor payment plans where this is agreeable to our clients. This idea which has been rejected by other High Court service providers operates post levy - with the power of the Writ behind the call and proves that even more cash can be collected. Sherforce can even provide debtors with a Shergroup Payment Card for direct payments into any post office, a scheme that helps keep their payments on track and has been a major success for the Group in increasing collections particularly where the judgment debtor has limited assets and therefore a limited ability to pay.

The real measure of the success of the Sherforce is the amount collected on behalf of clients since April 2004 - over 7,250,000! And over 23,000 items levied and catalogued - now that's what we call Enforcement Service Delivery!