News

Thanks again to all those authorities who submitted entries for the 2018 ADSO awards. You helped make it the most competitive awards to date and all the judges were impressed with the professionalism and commitment shown by every authority who took part. You will hopefully know by now that the London Borough of Sutton received … Continued

Appointment of Officers of the Association   Paragraph 7 of the Articles of Association requires the Officers of the Association to be elected each year at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) in November. For clarification, the Officers are the Chair and Vice Chair, the Board Secretary, the Director of Finance, the Director of Communications and … Continued

The ADSO Awards 2018 ceremony will take place this year at the ADSO Annual conference, something we hold every two years. In 2016 Wigan Council were the winners of the “Democratic Services Team of the Year”, Thurrock Council and Norfolk Council are also past winners. We are now accepting nominations for 2018, with an end of … Continued

ADSO is currently looking for a dynamic organisation to be our main association sponsor. Our current sponsorship agreement with modern.gov comes to and end on 30 June and are looking to attract tenders from organisations to become our main sponsor for the next one or two years. Sponsors play a key role in helping and supporting ADSO … Continued

The Government must encourage a culture change at local authorities to ensure overview and scrutiny is truly independent of the executive and can properly contribute to improving services for taxpayers, the Communities and Local Government Committee concludes. Read the report summary Read the report conclusions and recommendations Read the report: Effectiveness of local authority overview … Continued

The benefits of holding paperless meetings to bring your Council into the digital age are clear to see: you can reduce your carbon footprint; improve access to data at any time; improve security; and save valuable time and resources. It’s a major and convenient upgrade from paper-based meetings.  Many Councils have already gone down this … Continued

The Association of Democratic Services Officers will be electing its officers at the Annual General Meeting on the 23rd November 2017. The officer roles are; Chair, Vice Chair, Board Secretary, Director of Finance, Director of Communications and Director of Development. We are currently accepting nominations for these positions, and your nomination form must be submitted to the … Continued

ADSO has had queries from a number of Authorities about whether our training courses and qualifications are eligible to be funded by the Apprenticeship levy.  These queries included the possibility of setting up a Trailblazer Group in order to establish a new Apprenticeship in Democratic Services. This was discussed at the ADSO Board meeting on … Continued

This was my first IIMC conference and I hope it is not my last. It was a pleasure and privilege to be able to represent ADSO at the conference. There were a number of highlights. Firstly, the people. The atmosphere was relaxed and friendly whilst professional. The range of staff was also interesting and well … Continued