Weekly message from Colin Copus, Non-Executive Director

Report from West Midlands Region
In this week’s newsletter Matt Berry and Mel Harris, Joint Reps for the West Midlands Region, explore what DSOs need to support newly elected councillors as they become accustomed to their roles, work and responsibilities, especially towards their constituents. A big thanks to Matt and Mel for the piece and reflecting on their experiences – a great read for all ADSO members. The full article can be found here:

LGA survey results
The LGA has recently found that more and more councillors are feeling the risk of abuse from members of the public. The LGA survey found that 81% of all their respondent councillors had experienced intimidation or abuse in the last year. DSOs will be helping councillors who experience such problems and this is an issue on which DSOs need to reflect and respond. More can be found here:

LocalGov article – More Councillors feel at risk of abuse – 6 July 2023

Launch of Oflog
The new Oflog was formerly launched by Michael Gove at the LGA conference last week. One of the new body’s aims is to identify ‘weaknesses’ and refer councils to peer improvement through the LGA. There’s some lack of clarity around OfLog’s accountability and whether mission creep will see it mutate into Audit Commission Mk2. Some interesting insights in this piece:

Local Government Chronicle article – Exclusive: Gove – ‘I want Oflog to have greater degree of independence’ – 4 July 2023

Also see here:

Local Government Chronicle article – Lord Morse: Oflog can support further devolution – 7 July 2023

Report from think tank Localis
An interesting new report from the think tank, Localis, calls for more power for councils to be able to level up and stronger devolution. A report councillors should be encouraged to read, which can be found here:

New Publication
There is a new book out in September authored by myself and Prof Steve Leach. The book is called: The Strange Demise of the ‘Local’ in Local Government: Bigger is not Better. The book reviews the relentless move towards bigger and bigger units of local government in England and explores the reasons for, and consequences of, increasing the size of local government.  https://link.springer.com/book/9783031328183

LGA Conference Report
You may have seen on social media that our chair and vice-chair (John Austin & Peter Sass) represented ADSO at the LGA Conference last week in Bournemouth. ADSO shared an exhibition stand with the Centre for Governance & Scrutiny and Lawyers in Local Government under the theme ‘The Good Governance Hub’. John, Peter, and others on the stand had a brief discussion with the new LGA Chair (Councillor Shaun Davies) about the term ‘councils in no overall control’. We asked whether that is the correct terminology, as it implies there is a lack of control? Would the term “with no overall majority” be better? Councillor Davies said that he would support the campaign for remote meetings.

Generally, attending the event was worthwhile as we had a number of interesting conversations with councillors and Chief Executives through the two and a half days. It certainly helped to raise the profile and presence of ADSO. With regard to remote meetings, the message from Government was that there would be no progress during the remaining lifetime of this Parliament. That is disappointing but we will keep plugging away.

IIMC Symposium – Amsterdam – September 2023
Many of you will know that ADSO is a member of the International Institute of Municipal Clerks (IIMC). Region XI of the IIMC covers Europe. As part of that relationship, we are invited to attend the Region XI Symposium in Amsterdam on 21 & 22 September 2023. This is being combined with the VVG conference. VVG is the Dutch equivalent of ADSO.

ADSO has agreed to subsidise members to attend the Symposium up to £400 per person – to a maximum of 15 members. This money will be reimbursed for travel and accommodation on production of receipts. A copy of the symposium programme (plus other details) will be uploaded to the ADSO website this week together with how you can apply for your subsidised place. Please look out for it if you are interested in attending the event.

ADSO Sponsor Manager appointment 
Through the great work of our vice-chair Peter Sass and others, ADSO has significantly increased the number of sponsors supporting our association, both in terms of gold, silver and bronze sponsors as well as those wishing to support the annual conference in November.

So much so that the Board last Friday agreed to appoint Charlotte Sinclair from our South East region as our new sponsorship manager. Charlie will co-ordinate and support the new  arrangements to ensure that we and our sponsors maximise the benefits of our partnership. Welcome to your new role Charlie and we look forward to working with you.

Colin Copus, ADSO Non-Executive Director