Weekly message from Priya Patel, Company Secretary (Joint)

I hope you are all feeling the much needed wave of quiet optimism sweeping the country following the prime minister’s statement last week; with gradual unlocking and the prospect of some normality resuming, I cannot help but feel a little bit cheery. I sincerely hope it will not be too much longer until we can see, and hug loved ones. With parents and children alike, no doubt elated to see the back of home schooling!

Remote meetings
We continue to wait with cautious optimism to see what provision the government will make to allow councils to continue with remote and hybrid meetings beyond  May 2021; with ADSO and partners continuing to pursue a court declaration to ensure that councils can move forward with confidence after May 2021. More about that in the following

press release

extension: pdf

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No doubt, many councils will already be turning their thoughts to what their committees/meetings might look like beyond May 2021. Blended, hybrid, remote or wholly in person,  all subject to restrictions/legislation of course. With inclusivity and accessibility being at the heart of everything we do, as always. With these considerations, along with many of us supporting elections leading into May; and the usual tranche of school admission appeals; we are in for a busy start to the summer!

Members’ Forum
It is fantastic to see that the forum is being heavily utilised and providing a means to support one another through a range of areas and issues. Please do continue to use the forum to help navigate your way through the coming months, particularly as we grapple with the challenges of gradually unlocking.

The Local Council’s Governance Toolkit
The Local Governance Toolkit was launched at the SLCC Practitioners Conference last week. The Taskforce who developed the toolkit was chaired by John Austin and together with colleagues from Lawyers in Local Government and the Society of Local Council Clerks they have developed a comprehensive reference guidance on a range of issues including governance, roles, protocols and forms. The toolkit is available to ADSO members via this link https://www.adso.co.uk/adso-training/governance-toolkit/ , (you will need to login first). The toolkit is an evolving document and will be updated as changes in legislation and regulations are introduced. We hope that the toolkit is a resource for all Monitoring Officers and DSOs who work with their local councils as well as for the clerks themselves. If you have any suggestions as to how it can be improved, please let John know.

Law and Practice Virtual Training Course
We still have a few places left on our new virtual training course ‘Law and Practice’.  The course runs over two modules on 3rd and 10th March 9.30am-12.00pm.

This course is aimed at Democratic Services Officers who wish to develop their understanding of the legal framework within which councils operate and the practical application of this to the range of work areas undertaken by democratic services teams. The course content will be relevant both to those who are relatively new to democratic services and officers with a few years’ experience.

The content is also linked to the Law and Practice module of the ADSO Certificate so it will help learners with their research for this module.

For more information and to book a place follow this link  https://www.adso.co.uk/event/module-1-law-and-practice/?instance_id=220

ADSO Webinars
There are still a few places available on our next webinar on Wednesday 10th March from 3.30-4.30pm where Phil O’Brien will make a presentation on the subject of Civic Support.  Phil’s presentation will be followed by a Q&A session where you will have the opportunity to submit questions on the subject directly to Phil.    Also look out for announcements coming soon on a webinar on Wednesday 17th March at 12.30pm on Purdah with Mark Heath

Have a great week all!

Priya Patel, Company Secretary (Joint)

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