VIRTUAL MEETINGS: As you read this, there is still no firm news on virtual meetings beyond 7th May 2021. We have been issuing for the last two weeks guidance on the approach for Annual Council Meetings and Annual Parish Meetings after this date. If you are currently scheduling work towards these, you may want to consider where there are no local elections to bring the dates forward so they can be held on a virtual meeting platform. Please look at the options open to you in good time.
If you do bring them forward, this will at least get a number of key decisions made. Alternatively councils may want to take their chances on face to face meetings post 7th May '21 and comply with the prevailing government social distancing measures at that time. We will of course re-issue and update any guidance as soon as it lands.
CENSUS '21: Just to call out there are some new resources below on the Census that we have been asked to alert you to. This is fast approaching and it's very important in terms of future funding!
FINANCE & YEAR END TRAINING: Literally just received notification of a significant number of spaces now available with the addition of new dates from The Parkinson Partnership. These are national courses and spaces fill up quickly - so please look now if you want to get on there, however, if you are a councillor please go via your Clerk.BOOK FINANCE COURSES
Finally....I now attend a few meetings with Dorset Council and one is the Digital Place Board. I have been asked to input for parishes and towns as the drive to enhance broadband performance and coverage as well as mobile phone reception. Ahead of my next meeting I'll be reaching out to you for any views, thoughts and issues you have in your communities. It would really help if you can provide some insights for me. If you want to drop me a note now by email please do so.
Until then, keep smiling....
Neil
Please forward this update to elected members so they can also keep up-to-date and have an appreciation of what's happening in the sector.
INFORMATION | GUIDANCE | ADVICE
1. Award Grants to community groups/projects
We are often asked about how a parish or town council can provide help to their local community through the giving of Grants. Many local councils, even the smallest, will use their Section 137 allowance to provide gifts of grants to small charities and organisations that are being run in their areas.
To enable your council to effectively administer the provision of grant funds, either Section 137 or through other spending powers, your council should adopt a Grants Policy. Along with the policy you could also create a Grant Application Form for organisations to complete where they can give details of how much they want and how they are going to use the grant funds. The council can then follow it's own policy to decide if the application will be successful and if funds can be donated. I've attached a couple of example policies below along with some application forms. If you council is interested in adopting a Grants Policy and agreement on a Grant Application Form, you could chose to use any of the examples as they are or with some minor amendments, or could take the best bits from a number and create your own.
The date of the 2021 Census is now rapidly approaching, we have been providing you with resources for a number of weeks now in previous e-newsletters. We have now received some updated information from the Dorset Census Team.
The person who is taking the lead on the 2021 Census in the Dorset is Philip Eades. Philip can be reached via philip.eades98@field.census.gov.uk
Over the past few months Philip has been asked for posters for parish and town council public buildings and notices boards. You can now order these posters directly from him at the email address shown above.
If you require any assets in another language, Philip is also able to provide these. Orders are required to be received by 24th February.
Philip has provided also us with a number of resources and links to further information that your council will find useful. These are all shown below:
3. Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Authority - Consultation of draft Community Safety Plan 2021-24
Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Authority are consulting on their draft Community Safety Plan, which sets out the key challenges and risks they are facing over the coming years. With future financial uncertainty, the plan details what they intend to carry on doing and what they intend to review and do differently, in order to continue to provide a high level of service to their communities. Visit their website to view the draft plan and the accompanying video. The consultation period runs from 17 February until 13 May 2021. If you wish to raise anything specific, or require any further assistance in accessing the information, please email direct toconsultation@dwfire.org.uk.
4. Website offer for smaller parishes
DAPTC have teamed up with the technology company Aubergine to enable smaller parish councils in our membership to obtain a very reasonably priced WCAG (Web Content Accessibilty Guidelines) compliant parish council website. The website is now very close to launch for our first council which is currently being tested, after this we will contact the other councils that expressed interest to let them begin the process of loading up their content. We'll be in touch before the end of February.
Further information on the offer can be found here.
If your council is interested in signing up to this offer, or hearing more please contact the DAPTC office.
5. DAPTC Quarterly Magazine
As well as providing you with this regular E-News, we intend to introduce a quarterly publication which showcases the work being done around the county by our members. Please send into us your news with a view to it being included in the publication.
We would be very happy to receive any photographs (along with your permission to reproduce them) and news articles as soon as you have them. Please send them in to the DAPTC office
The New Councillor Induction training which starts on 29th March 2021 from
5-6.30pm (please note: the 2-3.30pm session is fully booked), will now be run each month for any newly elected / co-opted Councillors. The training is made up of 4 components over the course of their first 4/6 weeks and is booked by the Clerk
~ Attending a council or committee meeting where you have been elected or co-opted
~ Attending one of our monthly drop in sessions called 'What We Do' that gives an overview of the support DAPTC can give (75 mins)
~ The new e-learning module - Introduction to Local Councils (45 mins); available at any day and time as convenient
~ Webinar - New Councillor Induction (90 mins)
All Clerk’s need to do is to book aNew Councillor Induction(4) course for a date that suits and we will automatically enrol you on thee-learning Introduction to Local Councils(3) module. You are then left to pick a convenient date for'What We Do'(2) when we write to confirm 3 & 4. Depending on when you join council 1-4 components may not run in that order. It is more beneficial if you have attended a council meeting as the first step
We hope the above programme helps clerks and chairs get their new councillors hitting the ground running. The cost per delegate is £35 for all three sessions listed above.
On-line training dates coming up in March:
Breaking News...... More Finance dates released via The Parkinson PartnershipBOOK DIRECT NOW
The CiLCA Portfolio Guide 2021 has been recently updated. Take a look at the guide for more information on how the qualification is now administered and what subjects are included in the qualification.
NALC's dedicated Coronavirus webpagenow includes updated information on the possibility of the return of face-to-face meetings, suggestions to help prepare, risk assessment considerations and some tips to help manage remote meetings.
Dorset Councillors play their part in the NALC #makeachange campaign.
As part of the #Makeachange campaign NALC have recorded a series of videos which hears directly from councillors on why they became councillors and what their role is at their local council. Two of these councillors are from Dorset, Cllr Belinda Bawden from Lyme Regis Town Council and Cllr Josephine Parish from Corfe Castle Parish Council. Watch the series of videoshere. Make a Change - Become a Councillor campaign resources
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New legal guidance on procurement
This week NALC updated Legal Topic Note 87 on procurement to take account of procedural procurement changes post-Brexit and includes links to government guidance and a summary of the new advertising requirements. You can access this briefing in the members’ area of theNALC website(login required).
Dorset Council's Local Plan consultation began on 18th January 2021 and will last for eight weeks. For information on where you can view the plan and details of how the consultation will take place, please see the attached document.
You can view and comment on the consultation here.
Better Days - Day Opportunities and Support - Survey
Dorset Council Adult Social Care and Services are keen to hear from you if you use the following services:
Get the latest news from Dorset Council, including leisure centre offers, waste and recycling, libraries and more. Sign up to their various newsletters here.
Community Engagement - Website Content & Navigation
We are looking for more volunteers to join our group to help us review the structure of our content and website navigation to ensure it is user-friendly, accessible and easy to understand. Do you think you could help?
To get involved and join the group, please complete our quick survey here.
The NHS have now started the COVID-19 Vaccine programme. To find out more about the COVID-19 Vaccine please visit the NHS Vaccine Page.
Through our partnership with Dorset CCG, the communications team have asked that we share the attached social media assets which can be used on your website and social media profiles.
