NATIONAL ALC CHAIRMAN’S LATEST OPEN LETTER
National ALC’s chairman, Cllr Sue Baxter, has published an open letter which thanks councillors for their hard work, pays particular tribute to clerks and staff, calls for councils to be at the heart of building back communities as we move into the recovery phase, and references the work to ensure the government is aware of the financial challenges facing our sector.
ITV NEWS STORY ON COUNCIL FUNDING ITV Central ran a story last week including interviews with Shrewsbury Town Council and Castle Donington Parish Council. The piece warns that if help is not forthcoming some of the services communities take for granted may be at risk, with Sue Baxter calling for financial support and for working with the government to find a solution.
CHANGES TO LOCKDOWN RESTRICTIONS
Last week the government announced further changes to the rules around lockdown and social distancing. While the restrictions are lifting and we can soon start meeting outdoors in small groups, the guidance from the government still does not allow for multi-household groups to meet indoors. So at this time, advice to local councils is council meetings should still only be taking place remotely, through online or telephone conferencing facilities.
LCR SPRING EDITION FEATURING A CORONAVIRUS SPECIAL GOES DIGITAL
As mentioned last week, the Spring edition of NALC’s magazine, LCR, has been made freely available online and includes a section related to the coronavirus. It also provides tips and inspiration from councils successfully engaging with their young people and making strides on the climate emergency, and a round-up of what it is believed needs to be done to encourage more candidates to stand for election.
WEBINAR ON RECOVERING FROM LOCKDOWN
An HR webinar on managing our activities as restrictions are reduced is available in the member's area of National ALCs website (login required) under Development Tools.
REOPENING HIGH STREETS SAFELY FUND
Last week the government announced the new Reopening High Streets Safely Fund. There is reference to local councils in the guidance. We should expect our principal councils to be in touch if they haven’t already.
UPDATED LEGAL GUIDANCE ON PROCUREMENT
Legal Topic Note 87 has been re-published with an update to the procurement threshold levels for the purposes of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. The figures in Model Standing Orders will be updated in due course. This is available in the member's area of National ALCs website (login required).
DID YOU WANT TO NOMINATE SOMEONE IN RECOGNITION OF THEIR COVID RELATED RESPONSE?
There is now a national scheme for nominating those persons who have made the greatest contribution in their communities - the link for making honours nominations is:- https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-honours-nomination-form
TEST, TRACK AND TRACE PILOT FOR COVID CASES IN NORFOLK
Norfolk has been named as one of 11 pilot areas which will play a key role in the government’s efforts to use testing and tracing to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Dr Louise Smith, Norfolk CC’s director of public health, said: “Contact tracing is a proven, effective method of controlling the spread of infectious disease in countries around the world, and I welcome the opportunity to bring that approach to Norfolk to tackle coronavirus. We will respond to any local outbreak as a community, and the plans we’ll be drawing up will reflect that need to work together.” Andrew Proctor, Norfolk County Council leader, said: “We’re delighted than Norfolk has been chosen as a pilot for the test and trace service: robust, comprehensive plans to deal with local outbreaks of COVID-19 are key to allowing our residents to live their lives out of lockdown, and it’s wonderful that Norfolk has the opportunity to be among the first in the country to develop these.” And Tom McCabe, who chairs Norfolk’s strategic co-ordination group said: “Being a pilot for the Test and Trace Service is a great opportunity for Norfolk: these plans will be vital to allow our residents to return to their day to day lives, confident that any cases of COVID-19 will be swiftly brought under control.”
WANTING TO UPGRADE YOUR WEBSITE?
Norfolk ALC has been working closely with Broadland Digital for the last couple of years in managing and supporting the local Norfolk parish websites. Broadland Digital is now able to also offer local parishes a more enhanced bespoke website solution. The new offering has been developed to meet the requirements of parish councils who might want to build on their current website, for example, with a choice of domain name, design upgrades and bespoke email addresses. Sites will also be fully complaint with all the latest accessibility requirements - as are our current Norfolk Parishes sites. Call Broadland Digital a call on 01603 407786 to discuss the needs of your website.
JOIN OUR CONFERENCE CALLS THIS WEEK
Join us for our informal Wednesday weekly Zoom briefings and catch ups:
Clerk Conference calls: South Norfolk, Broadland and GYBC councils at 2pm and North Norfolk, Breckland and BCKLWN councils at 3.30pm.
UPCOMING TRAINING COURSES
Courses with vacancies remaining for June and July are:
Managing Local Councils Meetings during Covid-19 22 June, 11am to 1pm
Alan Fairchild, MBE, FSLCC, has applied the 'Covid19' factor to his ever popular Meeting Law & Good Practice course and this session will deal with arranging and running "virtual" Local Council Meetings.
An Introduction to Neighbourhood Planning 24 June - 10am-12 noon
25 June - 7pm-9pm
Rachel Leggett’s session is designed to give Town and Parish Councils an understanding of what is involved in the development of a Neighbourhood Plan. To include: what is and is not a Neighbourhood Plan, an overview of the Neighbourhood Plan process, how to get started with confidence, developing a vision and objectives, writing the plan, what else could be involved, bringing the Neighbourhood Plan into force and resources needed.
Charities and Parish Councils
26 June - 10am-1pm
Charlotte Stannard will explain the types of trusteeship and the roles and responsibilities that accompany them. It will cover the definition of a charity, governing documents, incorporation liability and some myth busting around parish councils' duties towards charities.
A Good Appraisal
30 June - 10am-11am
Delivery by Chris Moses, LLM Chartered FCIPD, from Personnel Advice and Solutions Ltd (our Associate HR consultant)
This webinar will focus on how to prepare and conduct a productive appraisal, whether you are the appraiser or the appraisee. This course is designed for Clerks, Chairman of Council/Personnel Committee.
Engaging Your Community 1 July - 10am-12 noon
2 July - 7pm-9pm
Delivered by Rachel Leggett, this session is designed to give town and parish councils ideas for engaging their community that go beyond questionnaires, public meetings and posters on noticeboards. To include: community profiling, who are the 'hard to reach', traditional ways to consult: public meetings, questionnaires done well (and badly), creative, engaging, fun and new ideas for engaging and consulting your community, good practice principles and resources
Neighbourhood Planning, Where do we go from here? 8 July - 10am-12 noon
9 July - 7pm-9pm
Rachel Leggett’s session is designed to give an existing Neighbourhood Plan group support in moving forward. To include:
• Establishing a project plan from here – what are the steps you need to undertake?
• Trouble shooting.
• What can you be doing at your desk during lock down?
• Bringing the Neighbourhood Plan into force: examination, referendum, adoption.
• Resources.
Role of the Clerk - Induction Training
3, 10, 17 & 24 July
Delivered by Gabbie, this is our essential foundation training for new Clerks, and covers the your role, the role of the Council and the Councillors as well as powers and duties, standing orders, meetings, finance, information management, planning, elections, casual vacancies and co-option and much more.
Part One - The Core Roles
Part Two - Law & Procedures
Part Three - Finance
Part Four - Management & Community
This course is also suited to Clerks who wish to refresh specific knowledge and can be booked as individual modules - contact Gabbie for more information on this.
Thinking about CiLCA but want to know what's involved before you commit? Book a place on our CiLCA introduction
7 July - 10am to 12 noon
An opportunity to discuss your CiLCA study ambitions with our SLCC recognised Trainer, Gabbie Joyce. We will consider what is involved and how you might prepare for embarking on your learning.
Managing Performance
14 July - 10am-11am
Delivery by Chris Moses, LLM Chartered FCIPD, from Personnel Advice and Solutions Ltd (our Associate HR consultant)
This webinar will consider a best practice policy for managing performance and expectations of performance. This course is designed for Clerks as Managers and employee, Personnel Committee members, other councillors involved/interested in the Council's HR function.
Being An Effective Councillor
21 July and 23 July
Delivered by Gabbie, this course is in two parts and covers roles and responsibilities, getting things done for your community, procedures and law, working with your Clerk, planning, budgeting and finance.
Managing Word and PDF Documents
One-to-One training
Update your existing documents and learn how to create your own documents in Word or PDF format that meet the accessibility standards under the Public Sector Website Accessibility legislation.
Please contact Helen to arrange a session at a convenient time to both parties.
Website Accessibility
One-to-One training
The new web accessibility regulations create legal obligations for public sector websites. These include having a website that is as accessible as possible as well as an accessibility statement.
This course is an individualised experience with an to opportunity look at your own website.
Please contact Helen to arrange session at a convenient time to both parties.
More training courses are scheduled in the autumn, please go to the Calendar for more information and dates.
Finally, please continue to let Gabbie know of your requirements for webinars etc. Keep in touch with her at trainer@norfolkalc.gov.uk.
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Click here to access news from Borough Council of King's Lynn & West Norfolk Click here to access news from Broadland District Council Click here to access news from Great Yarmouth Borough Council
Click here to access news from Norfolk County Council
Click here to access news from North Norfolk District Council
Click here to access news from South Norfolk Council
