Important changes to the way that secure emails are sent

From the beginning of September 2020, Birmingham City Council and Birmingham Children's Trust will start using Microsoft’s Office Message Encryption (OME) process for sending sensitive information and large document files. 

As this new process works with other Microsoft Office 365 tools that the council already uses, email encryption and sharing documents will become much easier and more secure.

To ‘decrypt’ and open a secure email, you will firstly need to enable your access by following a one-time activation process.

More information about this activation process and how to decrypt and open a secure email, is explained in an easy to follow step-by-step guide.

How you'll know that an email is from us

Please note that we will only ever contact you from a Birmingham City Council email address ending “@birmingham.gov.uk” or a Birmingham Children’s Trust email address ending “@birminghamchildrenstrust.gov.uk”. 

To help you to recognise a genuine secure email, you can view examples of emails sent from Birmingham City Council and Birmingham Children’s Trust using the new process.