I hope you have been able to enjoy a ‘lockdown eased’ activity amongst all the election preparation. I attended my first ‘in the garden, rule of 6’ gathering a week ago and felt like a six year old at their first birthday party (no party bags unfortunately but there was cake!). And I have just successfully booked theatre tickets for July – oh joy!
ADSO in the High Court – Remote meetings
As you know, ADSO and LLG were in the High Court on Wednesday 21st arguing for a continuation of remote meetings. The judges have gone away to deliberate and prepare their judgement. We have no timescale as yet for when their decision will be announced. We will let you know as soon as we can.
Thanks to all those who have contributed to the crowdfunding appeal. This has included sponsors/partners MVI Audio Visual, Public-I, VP-AV Ltd, FCS Software and Televic Conference. NALC and SLCC have also kindly pledged donations. What is also encouraging is to see so many contributions from individuals and local authorities. Please continue to encourage your authority to contribute. ADSO and LLG will still be bearing a significant amount of the cost but your contributions will really help towards the final legal bill. Thank you again.
School Appeals Webinar – survey of views
As mentioned in previous newsletters, we are working on a webinar around the subject of school appeals. We are now seeking your views on this to make the webinar as useful as possible. Please could you complete the short survey in the link below by the end of April to inform the content of the webinar:
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/BK2YFNP
ADSO Online Training and courses
On a smaller scale, but equally challenging, I’m delighted to be able to update you on our progress in moving all our training online and to tell you about a new course we are developing that we plan to offer in May. We have had an amazing response to our virtual training programme. All the courses we have been able to offer this year have been fully booked, some oversubscribed, and feedback to our trainers on course quality has been very positive, despite the challenges of delivering in a virtual environment.
Watch this space for this brand new course coming soon (in May). Specifically designed for those taking their first steps into the world of Democratic Services, this course is aimed at those in the first six to eight weeks of starting. The course is the induction you wish you’d had. It gives a basic introduction to the statutory framework we work under and why things are important. The course breaks through the jargon we all love to use and gives next steps for learners to guide their future development, signposting development in their own workplace and giving them the building blocks to undertake further training or to start one of the ADSO qualifications.
The course is in its final stages of development but what we are seeking to cover includes:
- The local Council – what, how, why
- Making decisions
- Supporting meetings
- Working with local Politicians
This includes activities to explore ….
- Jargon busting – so many specialist terms but what do they mean?
- Agenda and minutes – why we do them, why are they important, why clarity is essential for good governance
- A whistle stop tour of overview and scrutiny
- Councillors/Officers have different roles – what does it mean to be politically aware?
The course is a short half day so most topics will be covered at a high level, just enough to set the scene and ensure that, by the end of the course participants will….
- Understand what a local Council is and how it is funded
- Know the different types of local Council and what services they provide
- Understand how decisions are made and the DSO’s role in supporting this, both in and out of meetings
- Have a sense of how accountability works in local government and how Councils and Councillors are held to account
- Have considered the impact of politics and what this means for DSO’s as an officer of the Council
There will be a flyer and course dates announced very soon on the website.
This is our first brand new course for some time and we are really grateful to those of you who gave their views and helped shape the course via our Members Forum Thread. I know Peter Sass and Lennox Beattie who have been writing the course found your inputs and suggestions very helpful: https://www.adso.co.uk/forums/topic/training-for-new-dsos/
We have decided to stick to a short ‘one workshop’ format in the hope that we can offer it at regular points over the year to catch new entrants as they arrive – no one wants to wait a year for their induction!
Enjoy the sunshine and stay well.
Susan Biddle, Director of Training