Budget Council meetings are upon us all. I attended the London branch meeting a week ago and listened to a fantastic presentation from Sam Bailey, the joint branch chair, on Ealing’s approach to the budget setting meeting. Sam was joined by his S.151 officer and it was great to see the excellent joint working and … Continued
The government has issued its response to the Levelling Up Select Committee’s inquiry into council tax collection. Some interesting material here for all councils. DSOs may want to put this before their members. Details can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/council-tax-collection-government-response-to-the-select-committee-report/government-response-to-the-levelling-up-housing-and-communities-select-committee-report-on-council-tax-collection The Levelling Up Committee has published its report on financial distress in local authorities. The report … Continued
Request for case studies for the BBC – Abuse targeted at people within local government by members of the public The BBC is looking at the problem of abuse of local government councillors, officers and other involved such as volunteers. They feel it is a growing problem, worthy of national coverage. They are interested in … Continued
Hello everyone and happy January – I am hoping it will get a little warmer soon as my heating bills are terrifying. I want to trail the 2024 National Training Programme in this newsletter and have a few other things to pass on to you. National Training Programme 2024 We run our training programme on … Continued
Welcome to this week’s newsletter. I’m not sure of the etiquette in terms of wishing you all a happy new year. Is it too late? I’m going with no, so happy new year. I hope you all had a restful festive period and had the chance to wind down and spend time with friends and … Continued
Welcome to 2024 and a very happy new year to you all. I hope you had a great time over the festive period. Now it’s back to normality which I don’t think is necessarily a bad thing after a couple of weeks of festivities. At least I’m beginning to realise what day of the week … Continued
The privilege of holding the pen for the last ADSO newsletter of 2023 falls to me, and what a year it has been! For happy reasons (the birth of my daughter), I was not able to attend the recent conference, but feedback from members and pictures from social media suggest it was a great success. … Continued
Welcome to this week’s newsletter. All of a sudden, it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas, made more obvious by the bombardment of TV ads and the 1970s songs that seem to be playing everywhere at the moment. I hope you are all preparing for a festive break whatever you choose to do with … Continued
I don’t think there is any better way to begin this newsletter than to talk about the ADSO Conference held in Oxford on 23 & 24 November. Mark touched on it last week in his message. Thank you to everyone involved – delegates, sponsors, speakers, workshop & facilitated discussion presenters and the ADSO Board – … Continued
ADSO Conference and Awards 2023 Just reflecting on a busy week ending with the brilliant ADSO Conference and Awards in Oxford. The conference had some great speakers and workshops and was a fantastic occasion for networking and meeting friends old and new. We are still collating feedback so if you were a delegate, please do … Continued