Happy 30th September all – I am sure the gardens need it but I could have hoped for a less torrential watering this week. I was in City Hall in London with a client on Tuesday watching a torrent of near biblical proportions flood down the slope towards the meeting room windows and wondering if they would hold.
My main messages and updates for this week are to do with recent decisions the Board has made around our training charges. We have not raised our charges for some time but we will have to from January 2020 to ensure we continue to be able to offer you a programme, still very competitively priced. Our Training is excellent value when compared to other providers but we cannot afford not to cover our costs.
Training charges will be increased from 1st January as follows:
- Open Programme training places for ADSO members will increase to £110 + VAT per person
- Open Programme training places for non ADSO members will increase to £160 + VAT per person
- Councils hosting training courses will still be eligible for 2 free places in recognition of their support. Where Councils hosting training courses are not ADSO members they will be eligible for 2 places at the reduced rate of £50 per person.
- Where an individual Council requests we run a course for them from our Open Programme we will charge a flat fee of £780 + VAT for up to 15 people and £910+ VAT for over 15. This fee is based on the assumption that the commissioning Council will supply the venue and refreshments and manage delegate sign up and attendance. ADSO’s fee will cover the trainer and materials costs and any minor adaptations needed to contextualise the programme to the Council’s way of operating. Rates for Councils who are not ADSO members will be proportionately higher and negotiated individually.
- Where a regional rep approaches ADSO with an identified need for a course from our Open Programme ADSO will charge the same delegate rate as for the Open Programme (see 1 and 2 above). The region will supply the free venue with the hosting Council receiving 2 free places as in (3) above and the delegate list, also assisting with local advertising to ensure the course runs with a minimum of 10 paying delegates. ADSO will cover the cost of trainer(s), refreshments, materials and administer the delegate booking process.
- Where courses require more significant adaptation an additional fee will be charged to adapt materials – this may vary but is likely to be in the region of £125 which covers the cost of the trainer changing existing and developing new materials.
- Courses can be developed from scratch and we continue to undertake consultancy – fees for these activities are negotiated on a job by job basis.
- In 2020 we will review the current arrangements around free training places for those on the qualification programme. Decisions regarding this will be communicated via the newsletter.
I hope you will agree these changes are reasonable – particularly as we have not increased our prices for many years. You will notice that we are retaining the pricing differential for those who are members.
The Open Programme for this year is almost complete. We still have places remaining on the ‘Working in a political environment’ course in Birmingham on 11th November – please get in touch with Kate Morris in the usual way to book via the website. Our new Company Secretary Course is being run for the first time this week, we will be looking at how to incorporate it into the open programme over the next couple of months.
Finally …. I have sent an update to regional reps for upcoming meetings. This includes some tentative suggestions for the Open Programme for next year. Please feedback your thoughts to them on the proposed list below – I am also seeking views on whether there is a market for some advanced programmes for managers/senior DSOs to complement our existing programme offer.
- Just a Minute (May 2020)
- The Effective Scrutiny Function (following updating by PF) (March 2020)
- Meetings Procedures (Feb 2020)
- Council and its Governance arrangements (Sept 2020)
- Steps to Management (July 2020)
- To be agreed
Finally, finally.. I am hoping to squeeze in a late afternoon workshop/gathering to get some views on training and future plans at the Conference in November. Look out for notification and come along if you are interested, I look forward to seeing some of you there.
Kind regards,
Susan Biddle
Director of Training