Page 18 - Project Acanthus_Mainstay

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Mainstay: Response to Tender | Project Acanthus - Part One
16. Comment on your overall control environment and give details of any memberships, accreditations, assurances (e.g. ISO 9001, ISAE 3402) or industry recognition in respect of quality of service delivery with particular reference to statutory & regulatory compliance and accounting services.
Mainstay Group has a strong control environment. While we
do not have ISO 9001 or ISAE 3402, we operate in a transparent way and are open to external scrutiny of our systems, processes, and data held. We regularly receive audits from the British Safety Council, Lloyds of London Quality Assurance, Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, Association of Residential Managing Agents and Company auditors. We also have
an in-house team of internal auditors reviewing processes, procedures and our approach to delivering on our promises
to our customers.
Mainstay maintains memberships to primary industry authorities and quality assurance systems, including the Association of Residential Managing Agents (ARMA), Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), The Property Ombudsman (TPO), Institute of Residential Property Management (IRPM), Contractors Health & Safety Assessment Scheme, and the Institute of Workplace and Facilities Management (IWFM).
We are also assessed against the internationally recognised Health and Safety Management System, BS OHSAS 18001. This is assessed and monitored by a reputable quality assurance company, Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA), to
ensure that we meet (and where possible exceed) recognised standards in line with a continual improvement model.
Mainstay is committed to keeping its clients’ and customers’ data safe and we comply with the recent General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). All staff are data protection trained and our technology stops intruders and automatically alerts our IT team to any potential threat. Privacy notices
are given to customers stating what and why we record information, how we use it, and for how long we keep data. Our data is housed in the UK and we operate a full Disaster Recovery system, which can be quickly in place in the event of a major failure.
Mainstay is registered under the Data Protection Act, registration number Z5319196.
Our Quality Assurance systems ensure there are detailed processes in place for the delivery of all financial activities. These processes comply with ICAEW Tech 03/11 Guidance on accounting and reporting in relation to service charge accounts for residential properties, on which variable service charges are paid in accordance with a lease or tenancy agreement.