Spring has sprung and the sun is shining… long may that last. I personally find that life is much easier with the longer, brighter days. I moved house at the end of summer, so it has been lovely to see the dedication to the garden the previous owner had, we just have to maintain it now…
That all said, I know that Covid and the latest round of colds are having a significant impact in some councils, especially in small teams where the annual, ‘use your leave up’ exodus is taking place. Keep with it, you are doing amazingly in the circumstances.
ADSO Board Meeting
The Board met on Friday, we had some brilliant discussions, and it is good to hear from members across the country. We are currently working to contact authorities who don’t have members, if you have contacts, please do let them know about ADSO. We want the organisation to be representative of all local authorities.
That leads nicely to a call to join us, we want individuals to be involved from across the country and with all levels of experience. In the late summer we will be calling for nominations to stand in the Director positions, if you are interested in standing, do make contact on a confidential basis with any of the Directors or the Company Secretary or with one of the Regional Representatives. None of the positions were contested last year. If a Director role is not for you, we have some vacancies for Regional Representatives, these are often joint or multiple roles and give you great experience and confidence. My own ADSO journey started as a regional representative deputy, before taking the role on myself, then becoming a non-executive director and then communications director. My knowledge, skills and experience have all grown and have certainly helped me in my career in Essex.
Conference 2022
Anyway, enough about me, the Board discussed the annual conference for 2022 and we agreed to go ahead on a face-to-face basis this year, it is such a hard decision and we discussed it at length as there are a lot of different views and considerations, but there were a lot of positive comments about holding it for good networking opportunities and the chance to step back from the day job and learn, especially as many of us now spend much of our time in our spare room or dining room table. Of course, the venue and location won’t suit everyone, but we do try to rotate having held conferences in Bristol, Nottingham and Birmingham in recent years. Look out for information on how to book your place and if you would like to get involved, please let us know.
Carl Whistlecraft – Non-Executive Director Appointment
I am pleased to say the Board have appointed Carl Whistlecraft as Non-Executive Director, former Head of Democracy at Kirklees Council. Carl retired last year and is keen to join us. You can hear more from him in a future newsletter. Having seen what he has done as part of Notwestminster, I am personally really pleased for him to join the Board.
Marianne Unwin also joined the meeting, she was the Rookie of the Year in 2021 at the ADSO Awards, you will hear more from her in a future newsletter. The Board also received reports from each of the Directors including the Annual Accounts, a briefing on the Levelling Up White Paper, research and campaigns support and regional updates. Thank you to everyone on the Board for their contributions.
Review of Local Government Ethical Standards
Many will have seen that that the Government have now responded to the Committee on Standards in Public Life review of local government ethical standards. You may be able to cast your mind back to the publication of the review of the Committee in January 2019, if you haven’t read the 12 pages, you might like to… Local government ethical standards: government response to the Committee on Standards in Public Life report – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The bulletin contains further comment on this and you can find the ADSO response on our website.
Webinar Programme 2022
The Webinar Programme for 2022 is coming together, you can find more details on our website, the first session is 20 April at 11am on the White Paper on Levelling Up.
CfGS annual survey of overview and scrutiny in local government: closing soon
If you are the most senior officer with day-to-day responsibility for overview and scrutiny in your authority, we’d like to strongly encourage you to fill in this year’s annual survey on overview and scrutiny. You can access it here – https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/cfgsannualsurvey2022
Other officers, and councillors, can fill in a shortened version of the survey, available through the same link.
The CfGS annual survey provides a key way for the CfGS to gather evidence on the work, and impact, of scrutiny functions, and how they are supported and managed. It helps them to gather insights that they can use to support councils to improve. Finally, it helps them to make a strong case for the support of scrutiny at the local and national level.
The ability of CfGS to do this hinges on a high overall response rate. Filling in the survey will take about 15 minutes of your time – and the time to respond will shortly come to an end.
If you have any queries about the survey and its uses please contact Ed Hammond on ed.hammond@cfgs.org.uk
Well, that is enough from me and well done and thank you if you got this far! Have a good week and good luck with continued preparations for those of you with elections this year.
Joanna Boaler, Director of Communications