Democracy Club provides some of the most comprehensive election data in the UK. Their digital tools make election information more accessible, user-friendly and readily available online, enhancing the democratic process and boosting voter engagement.
This webinar will explore why Democracy Club thought these services were needed in the first place, how they went about delivering them, and how they have worked with the electoral administration community along the way. The session will be particularly suitable for Electoral and Democratic Services Officers, councillors, or anyone working at a council.
Democracy Club are a not-for-profit Community Interest Company, powered by an incredible community of volunteers. Working in partnership with the Electoral Commission, councils and many other organisations, they build services that get people voting during national and local elections.
With their services becoming more widely adopted, they are starting to think about what they can do beyond elections. The wider aims are to make it easier for people to engage with their democracy and they consider local government as a key starting point. Local governments might be the most important layer of the state for people to understand: they hold lots of power, councillors are more accessible than MPs and the decisions made have direct effects on people’s lives.
Democracy Club are very early along in this journey, so would like to open up the conversation to ADSO members to talk about the challenges and opportunities there are to apply their approach to democracy on the day after polling day.
Our speaker is Sym Roe who founded Democracy Club in mid-2014 and has since been co-director and CEO. He now heads up all technical and delivery operations.
The webinar is sponsored by FCS Software Solutions Ltd https://fcssoftware.co.uk/, specialists in the development of cloud-based solutions for the Democratic Services sector.
ElectionsPro is a cloud-based solution that delivers IER, the annual canvass, elections, and referendums. The solution also includes a cloud-based scanning app, an election staffing portal, a count results and display module, automated NLPG integration, automated local data matching, an automated data governance tool (to support GDPR compliance), and Gov.Notify, email, and SMS integration as standard.
FCS also provide additional electoral services such as the mobile canvass application (CanvassPro) and a fully integrated online, phone and SMS canvass response service.
AppealsPro is the UK’s leading school admission appeals software solution, and in 2024 FCS will be launching ComplaintsPro as part of its case management solution, and are continuing to work with local authorities in the development and trialling of our committee management solution, CommitteesPro.
To register, click on the following link:
https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6970755721753528160
Please note that you will need to be able to login in to GoTo webinar in order to access the webinar. If you are logging in from your workplace, you will need to ensure that GoTo has not been blocked by your organisation. Otherwise, you can log on from your mobile.
Democratic Services have a vital role to play in terms of making sure councils make robust and democratically sound decisions. However, this role as one of the guardians of the democratic process can’t be at the expense of supporting local government to move forward and adapt to its ever challenging and changing context.
The webinar, delivered by the Chief Executive at Adur and Worthing Councils, Dr Catherine Howe, will explore how democratic decision making and design can be harnessed as part of organisational change and the opportunity Democratic Services teams have to support and be part of wider change in Local Government.
The potential impacts of opportunities of new technologies as well as some of the trends in citizen participation will be discussed as well as exploring how Democratic Services could reshape themselves and their skills to be part of that wider conversation and support change inside and outside of an organisation. It will also touch on some examples of the integration of democratic and deliberative approaches as well as looking at ways to kick start democratic innovation.
The webinar is particularly suitable for Senior Democratic Service Officers and Monitoring Officers as well as participation practitioners who want to understand more about how their work can integrate with democratic processes.
The webinar is sponsored by MVI Audio Visual (www.mvi-audiovisual.com), who provide standard software for automatic camera control, name displaying and voting automation in council chambers. Their products are widely used around Europe, including the UK.
Their remote participation product EasyConf Connect is designed for councils to live stream the council meeting, even in hybrid scenarios. It combines remote participants and in-room participants in a unique way. All meeting metadata, like attendance, speech times and voting results, is stored as PDF and can be integrated into the councils document management system.
Please note that you will need to be able to login in to GoTo webinar in order to access the webinar. If you are logging in from your workplace, you will need to ensure that GoTo has not been blocked by your organisation. Otherwise, you can log on from your mobile.
Abuse and intimidation of our elected representatives is one of the biggest threats to our democracy in the UK. In the last seven years, two MPs – Jo Cox and Sir David Amess – were murdered as they met their constituents. Many elected representatives routinely receive abuse. Local Government Association data from 2022 showed that seven out of ten local councillors had experienced abuse and intimidation in the last year.
Building on extensive stakeholder engagement and research, Hannah Phillips of the Jo Cox Foundation will discuss the recently launched Jo Cox Civility Commission: Call to Action, report which offers practical and deliverable recommendations to tackle abuse in politics. Addressing the issue is complex and requires action across multiple different sectors including Parliament, local government, political parties and the police.
The webinar is particularly suitable for Democratic Services Officers. It will outline the nature of the problem of abuse towards elected representatives, explore the recommendations from the Jo Cox Civility Commission: Call to Action especially for local authorities, and discuss ideas for implementing these recommendations.
Please note that you will need to be able to login in to GoTo webinar in order to access the webinar. If you are logging in from your workplace, you will need to ensure that GoTo has not been blocked by your organisation. Otherwise, you can log on from your mobile.
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The webinar is sponsored by Link Support Services (UK) Ltd led by David McGrath who is a Chartered Fellow of the Institute of Personnel Development and former councillor. This year Link celebrates its 30th year providing lively, interactive and bespoke training for elected members and officers. Link supports over 150 public sector bodies in England and Wales including Councils, Combined Authorities, Police and Crime Panels, Fire Authorities and other national organisations such as the Co-op. It’s Link’s 10th year sponsoring ADSO too and we offer over 35 courses for councillors and officers. Courses include: Chairing Skills, Casework and Advocacy skills, Effective Committee membership, Public Speaking, Civic Coaching, Scrutiny, Planning, Licensing, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Local Government Finance and many more.
Link has trained councillors in Personal Safety Skills for over 10 years. As a former front-line councillor in Birmingham (8 years) and community campaigner for over 30 years, David McGrath and his team provide highly practical personal safety training for members (training over 1500 councillors between 2021-23).
Link’s courses look at how members can anticipate, prevent and manage potential risks in a range of typical scenarios (e.g. ‘on the doorstep, in surgeries, in challenging meetings, online and more). This thought-provoking training can be delivered at any point in the municipal year (induction, pre-election, refresher), and can also assist officers to review and bolster their member support strategies.
Visit Link support Services or email Linkukltd@aol.com or call David on 01676 522775 for further details on any of the Link courses.
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This webinar aims to give you a better understanding of mental health, mental illness, the risk and protective factors and the training available for elected members.
Delivered by Ed Davie from the Centre for Mental Health, attendees will be given a taster session of the training he provides including evidence-based tips on improving mental health and background information on the training.
The webinar will be of particular interest to Democratic Services Officers who want to learn more about mental health themselves or are interested in commissioning this training for their members.
Ed is a mental health and local government expert and since 2021 has delivered his bespoke Mental Health for Councillors Training to about 700 elected members in nearly 50 local authorities with over 93% of trainees rating the training as ‘Excellent/Good’. A King’s College London evaluation found that it successfully improved understanding of mental health and how to improve it for elected members and their communities. A more in-depth evaluation by the National Institute for Health Research is currently underway and early findings are very positive.