How to access emails from our office

We will usually communicate with you by email unless you tell us you would prefer another way. If an email contains any personal and sensitive information, we will need to make sure it is sent to you securely.  Information on this page tells you what you need to do if you receive a secure email from us.

Most people think emails are similar to sending a letter by post, but is more like sending a postcard.  Anyone who can access that postcard before it is delivered can read the contents.  We need to therefore take extra steps to protect any emails that contain personal and sensitive information.  We do this by encrypting the email to make it more secure.  An encrypted email is one that you need a code to be able to open.

We use Microsoft 365 to send emails.  This gives us the option to send an encrypted message using Microsoft 365 Message Encryption which scrambles the message.  If you have a Microsoft 365 account, you should be able to read the message the same way as you would with an unencrypted email.

Choose the ‘sign in with a one-time passcode’ option to open the email. You will then receive by email the one-time passcode which you can then use to open the email. **

If you are using an Apple device, you will need to know your email application ID password before trying to open the email.  Choose ‘Read message’ which will then give you the option to ‘sign in with [email provider] ID’. Please choose this option. Do NOT select the one-time passcode option. Sign in using your email provider password to open the email.

If you would like to know more  about signing up for Office 365, you can find out more HERE.

Please check your email Junk or Spam folder. If our emails are going into your email Junk or Spam folder, you can mark the message as ‘not spam’ and move it to your Inbox.  Click on one of the links below to take you to the relevant email provider guidance.

• Microsoft – Mail goes to the Junk folder by mistake (support.microsoft.com)
• Gmail – Mark or unmark Spam in Gmail (support.google.com)
• Yahoo – Manage spam and mailing lists in Yahoo Mail (help.yahoo.com)
• AOL Help – Manage spam and privacy in AOL Mail (help.aol.com)

We do all we can to make sure that we protect the information we store and handle.  We do not recommend sending an unencrypted email if we think that it needs an extra level of protection.  However, if you are experiencing problems opening encrypted emails from us, please let us know.  We will find another way to send you the email securely.  You can tell us that you do not want to receive encrypted emails but you must understand and accept that this means that your personal or sensitive information will be more at risk.

To stop your email being caught in our email filtering system please avoid the following:

• Using all capital letters in the subject line of your email.
• Using exclamation marks in the subject line.
• Attaching very large files to your email.
• Attaching files that contain macros (a tool that automates tasks or performs an action).

There may be other reasons an email may be automatically blocked, so if you are concerned that we have not received your email please contact us.