On the day of the Royal Wedding and the FA Cup final – whose idea was that! – the ADSO newsletter takes precedence, and quite rightly so. There have been a number of developments in the last week which I am keen to share with you. As I said in my newsletter back in February, if you have any items of interest and work you would like promoted or showcased please do get in touch.
CONFERENCE 2018
You will no doubt be aware that this year’s conference will be held on Thursday 22 and Friday 23 November, at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel, Nottingham. We are currently working to develop an exciting programme for you and will share our plans shortly. A small working group made of regional representatives and board members is considering a range of options. If you have any ideas for content, speakers etc please do get in touch.
One of the key parts of the conference is to recognise the hard work that you undertake. Please seriously consider nominating your teams and/or colleagues in recognition of any innovative or work worthy of praise. One of the consistent messages that has been picked up over the years is the fact that some colleagues feel the democratic services function is under valued in their authorities. If we are to change that we need to showcase our work, and this is an excellent opportunity to do just that. Please do. Bookings and submission for awards applications will open in July. Watch this space.
RESPONSES TO CONSULTATIONS
We have submitted responses to a number of consultations in recent weeks.
• We have submitted a response to the Committee in Standards in Public Life on the Review of Local Government Ethical Standards: Stakeholder Consultation.
• We also commented on the Government’s response to the Select Committees Committees on Standards in Public Life Review of Intimidation in Public Life. Again,
• As you will recall from discussions on the forum and from earlier newsletters we responded to the Communities and Local Government (CLG) Select Committee inquiry into overview and scrutiny in local government. We have subsequently replied to the Government’s response, I am pleased to report that on the Friday 18 May, ADSO was asked to assist Department of Housing and Communities in Local Government with the drafting of guidance and any legislation that may be required. This is excellent news.
Copy of all responses can be found here:
NON-EXECUTIVES
We are currently involved in a national project to strengthen governance for Non–Executives across different sectors. This came about following a report published by the RSA in 2017: https://www.thersa.org/globalassets/pdfs/reports/rsa_who-governs-our-schools-report.pdf which concluded, amongst other things that, Agencies across the governance landscape need to work together to establish a cross-sector working group or commission on governance. Recommendation 29. We are excited by the opportunity to be involved in this project and will keep you posted and seek views. I attended a roundtable discussion in April to explore options. This will be followed up by a series of similar events across sectors.
Dave
Vice Chair