History

We have a proven track record of over 25 years providing specialist Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) services. We started life back in the early 90s as the specialist Internal Audit team of Haines Watts a national accountancy practice; predominantly servicing large local authority contracts, today we are a diversified business with specialists operating across a range of not for profit and commercial sector clients.

Our origins began from an opportunity identified by one of Validera’s Directors, Barry Potter, who whilst a partner at Haines Watts identified an opportunity to provide specialist support to the in-house team of a County Council. Over time, this service line became known as HW Consulting.

In 1997, Validera Director, Steven Connors, joined the business, the addition of his IT skills complemented the core internal audit offering and through his direction grew our service lines to cover IT audit, fraud review, cyber security, grant certification and compliance.

In 2013 we rebranded to HW Controls & Assurance to more accurately reflect our service offer.

In 2016, Validera Director, Lee Glover joined the business bringing with him a wealth of internal audit experience of other sectors; as an internal audit professional Lee had worked both within in-house teams and some of the largest out sourced providers. Our client base has broadened considerably from our early days and today we provide services across the not for profit and commercial sectors.

Our HW branding remained with us for many years , because we were part of the Haines Watts group of Chartered Accountants. However, following the changes arising from the Financial Reporting Council Ethical Code 2018 we witnessed the move of the large professional service firms beginning to spin off their advisory and consulting arms into separate businesses to better position themselves to meet the needs of their clients; enabling flexibility and access to services. We fully support the intentions of the Ethical Code, however, as an independent member of the group, sitting under the banner of the Haines Watts group was beginning to limit our ability to offer our clients access to the full range of services. So in April 2023 we exited the group.

Given internal audit has always been central to everything we do, we decided to rebrand HW Controls & Assurance Ltd and trade in our new identity Validera – an identity we believe better reflects our position as an independent, experienced, forward thinking, and professional firm.

Today as Validera we continue to offer our clients a flexible, quality service, but with enhanced access to a wider range of strategic business partners to address their specific business needs. Find out more about our partners here: about/strategic-partners

Our name Validera reflects our approach to validating our clients control environments against good practice and ensuring that they suitably support their development in the next era of their own strategic plans; we’re here to help them Comply, Improve and Optimise their operations.

On the 1st December 2023 we became an independent member firm of DFK UK & Ireland, a national association of independent accounting firms and business advisers. DFK UK & Ireland is a national group of DFK International.

DFK is one of the world’s leading associations of independent accounting, tax and business advisory firms brings together strong national firms of public accountants to enable them to provide services of the highest professional standards to their clients. The association has been helping its Member Firms meet the needs of clients with international business interests for more than 60 years. Member Firms are chosen for the quality of service they provide in terms of both technical competence and service delivery.

DFK comprises of 204 member firms with 467 offices across 90 countries and territories and a turnover of $2.4 billion.