Well autumn is officially here; the clocks have gone back and the leaves are turning gold and red and of course it is raining. I am just back from holiday in Provence and had to break my self-imposed rule about not putting the heating on until 1st November, the contrast in weather there and here was too great. Serves me right for going on holiday I hear you say, and you are probably right, but it was by train so I feel virtuous to a small degree.
National Training Programme 2024
Most of my message will be about training (in the broadest sense) as we hurtle towards year end for ADSO’s national training programme and begin to put the schedule for 2024 together. Like this year the application process for courses will be staggered – with places for the next 3-4 months being released 4-8 weeks beforehand. You should expect to see the 2024 programme and the date for application for the first few courses sometime in the next month. We are just putting final touches to the timetable and matching trainers to courses.
We intend to expand the National Programme to include a few new titles in 2024. These are in development and we will let you know when they are ready to run. If all goes to plan these will cover:
- Training for DSOs involved in Planning and Licensing
- Training for DSOs supporting the school appeals process and panels
- A seminar on issues for DSOs becoming Deputy/Monitoring Officers
Our other areas of interest – where we would like to get some new training up and running but may not have the capacity are:
- Working within and supporting areas of no overall control
- Working in areas with combined authorities
- Working through governance system change – committee to cabinet and back again
At present these are ideas on the table and may be part of our expansion into more ‘seminar’ style events – watch this space.
LGA Training for members
We’ve been contacted by colleagues at LGA and asked to publicise two upcoming events for Councillors. Please make sure your Councillors are aware of these, more information is available via the embedded links below:
Cyber security briefings for councillors
The City of London Police is running two Cyber security briefings for Councillors on 13 November and 15 November. The briefing will provide impartial and practical cyber security advice, including examples of current threats relevant to councillors with a range of cyber security experience and options to make them more secure. Please sign up for one of the pilot sessions so popularity can be gauged.
Personal safety for councillors events
A free personal safety for councillors webinar will take place on 30 November. Councils can also request workshops on personal safety or online safety for councillors through our grant funded civility support offer, for more details see the Civility hub.
ADSO conference 2023
You will already know we are fully booked for our conference later in November. For those of you attending I wanted to flag up the facilitated discussions we hold to start the conference. These are an opportunity to join an open discussion around a particular topic and those organised for this year’s conference are:
- Working in a Political Environment with Mark Towers
- Steps into Management with Peter Sass
- Open Surgery – ‘Ask the experts’ with James McLaughlin, Vicky Wemyss-Cooke and Karen Widdowson
- Professional Development for senior DSOs with Susan Biddle
- How to attract good staff and keep them with Tommy Shaw and Fiona Rae
Do have a think about which one interests you most and what you would like to contribute. They are open discussions and their success very much depends on the input of those who attend. They represent for us a really good indicator of what your views and concerns are and this helps steer our actions.
Members Forum
Keeping with the focus on training I see that the regular issue of Member training has come up with Alison Dennett asking about how others incentivise members to attend training. This is one of those issues that never goes away so do share with Alison what you have found useful: https://www.adso.co.uk/forums/topic/member-training-incentives/
I also notice that Rachel and Charlotte from Peterborough got no replies to their call for help on best practice for working with Police and Crime Panels as host authority – do pop along to the Members Forum and help if you have anything useful for them: https://www.adso.co.uk/forums/topic/police-and-crime-panels-4/
Susan Biddle, Director of Training