In these times of uncertainty due to the COVID-19 outbreak, ALCS, like other organisations, has followed government guidelines. We have temporarily closed our office at London Bridge and since late March, all of our staff have been working remotely from home. While this has posed some logistical challenges, our staff are continuing to collect income, register and update details for members, and answer queries. We have been informed about problems with receiving mail from the post office and so we ask you to please email your queries wherever possible.

A question many members will have is: “How will the outbreak impact on our payments this year?” Six weeks into the outbreak, it is too early to be able to give a definitive answer to this, but I want to reassure you that income is still being collected, both from within the UK and overseas and we plan to distribute this money as normal come September and March. It is very much business as usual at ALCS.

This week, we received an update from the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) on the Schools’ Licence. This is our largest source of income and confirmation that payment had been received by CLA covering all state schools is particularly good news for our textbook writers. We will be able to pay fees due to these members in September 2020.

We are in contact with all of our partners and as a clearer picture emerges, we plan to share more information on the impact of COVID-19 on ALCS and our distributions in the coming weeks and months. In the meantime, please continue to email, use our website to register and update your works, and most importantly stay safe!