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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

  Dear [user:displayname | default:member], Bookings for this years conference are now open, the event will take place on the 23rd and 24th November with dinner and awards ceremony on the night of the 23rd. This is ADSO’s 8th Annual Conference and our flagship event, the planning team are working towards a varied programme looking at … Continued

The Democracy Commission was brought together by Kirklees Council to investigate what a strong and healthy local democracy should look like in Kirklees – for the next generation, and beyond. They were asked to gather evidence about local democracy and make recommendations based on what they learned. You can read the draft report here: Kirklees … Continued

On Friday 21 April the ADSO London Branch held its Annual Seminar at the offices of London Councils in Southwark. The event was well attended with around 60 delegates, speakers, sponsors and Committee Members present. The day was very successful with a lot of thoughtful contributions from all parties.   The day began with an … Continued

Blog post for the Lawyers in Local Government weekly newsletter by ADSO Chair, John Austin.   So the Prime Minister has decided on a general election in June. How many of us saw that coming? Being recently retired and hoping never to work on another election again (thus currently not answering my phone!) my sympathies … Continued