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 your friends and families.
Conference reflections & raffle donation
Having had a few weeks to reflect, I thought that conference was brilliant this year. There was a real buzz throughout and it was great to meet so many people – some old acquaintances and some new.
It is an eternal frustration to me that I can’t take part in more sessions as they are all so interesting and I know I would gain wider perspectives and insights. That said I was lucky enough to be in the session run by colleagues from Wirral Council who set out their journey to achieving Team of the Year. It was an amazing session, delivered honestly, which set out the ways in which Democratic Services rose to some incredible challenges and came out the other side stronger and even more cohesive. It reminded me of the resilience and adaptability that runs through our sector, characterised by people who are can do and always prepared to go the extra mile.
We were delighted that the raffle at the conference raised £693, thank you to all of you who supported it with your generous donations and to our sponsors for their raffle prizes. ADSO has match funded that amount so £1,386 is going to the Lord Mayor of Oxford’s charities; Asylum Welcome (www.asylum-welcome.org); Humanity First UK (www.hfuk.org); and Oxford Community Action (www.oxfordcommunityaction.org).
Covid Inquiry
You may think that I have too much time on my hands but in recent weeks I have been closely following the Covid Inquiry. Clearly this is a very complex and multi-faceted piece of work that is seeking to deal with a very difficult and sensitive issue that has affected us all in some way or another. That said I was genuinely struck by the relevance that many of the themes have to our sector. Putting party politics to one side, the Inquiry has directly and indirectly focused on the themes of leadership, governance, decision making and transparency.
The Inquiry has a strong focus on the machinery of government and how officers work with politicians. It is shining a light on the importance of the effective relationship between policy makers, officers and the basis upon which decisions are made. An implicit part of this has involved scrutiny of the records that were kept (and where they were absent) and the extent to which that information and advice was used as a basis for sound decision making and ensuring transparency.
As a sector we all know the importance of getting these things right and I have found it fascinating that an awful lot of what we see as the bread and butter of good governance has been the subject of close scrutiny and evaluation. I will be interested in seeing the findings when they emerge. That said, we in local government should be proud that, for the most part, we continue to maintain high standards of governance, transparency and decision-making whist facilitating and navigating complex political environments.
Consultation: Mapping the Improvement and Assurance Framework for Local Government – Part 2
Our colleagues at the Local Government Association are currently undertaking detailed consultation relating to work on their Improvement and Assurance Framework.
Currently, there is no document or framework which sets out, in one place, the various required elements of council assurance and how they all fit together. The LGA believe that mapping such a framework would be useful – both for councils and the public.
The aim of this work is to:
- Describe the assurance framework for the local government sector which currently exists but is not yet written down;
- Improve understanding of how the various elements of assurance work together to increase clarity and transparency;
- Support improvement of practice;
- Consider whether any of the current checks and balances could be simplified, improved or enhanced to provide greater assurance for the sector;
- Consider if any further action is required to ensure that support and assurance for those requiring a higher level of assurance are used suitably and in the timeliest way possible.
Please take time to take part in the consultation which can be found here.
ADSO Webinars and Training offer
We finished off this year’s round of webinars with a thought-provoking session from Grace Pollard and Stephanie Riches from New Local on Community Power. The webinar recording and PowerPoint from their session are now available on our webinar page as are recordings from all this year’s webinars to watch at your leisure. If you have any suggestions for webinars you would like to see in 2024, please email info@adso.co.uk
You can find details on our Qualifications, Training and webinar offer in the Training section of the website including the first tranche of 2024 Training courses which are now open for bookings.
Role of Monitoring Officer
With the role of the MO a topical subject at the moment both within and outside ADSO, you may be interested in the following report from Grant Thornton in a Local Government Lawyer article of 7 December:
Carl Whistlecraft, ADSO Non-Executive Director