October Employment Update - Contracts of Employment

Bethan Osbornes October Employment Update covers contracts of employment. It answers all the questions below:

• Does the law require an employment contract to be issued?
• What is a Written Statement of Particulars?
• How soon does a Written Statement need to be issued to a new employee?
• What is included in the Statutory Written Statement of Particulars?
• Where do I start?
• What is the Model Contract and how does it tie in with the Green Book?
• Can the Model Contract apply to all council jobs or just the Clerk?
• Can the Model Contract apply to different sorts of contracts within the council?
• How does the Green Book affect our council’s terms and conditions?
• How much detail is necessary in a contract?
• What happens if reality is different from what is says in a contract?
• What if a contract is unsigned?
• What if we can’t find a written contract on file?
• What if something in the contract is affected by changes in statute?
• How can a contract be varied?

The full article is on the BALC website

Transparency Code for councils with exp. or income >£200,000

The Government has published a Local Government Transparency Code. This October 2014 version replaces the previous Code published in May 2014

Importantly, the mandatory data publication requirements have been extended and now apply to councils with a gross annual income or expenditure (whichever is higher) exceeding £200,000. Previously the mandatory requirements only applied above the threshold of £6.5 million which effectively meant local councils exceeding the £200,000 threshold were subject only to recommendations under the Code.

The Government has published a Frequently Asked Questions which provides additional help with interpreting the Code.

For local councils with an annual turnover below £25,000, it is also anticipated that a Transparency Code ‘which will act as a substitute for routine external audit’ will be implemented later this year and will be ‘mandatory’. This wording suggests that affected smaller councils will not be able to opt to stay within the external audit regime and out of the Code, as previously envisaged. But this is not clear yet.

Local councils above the £200,000 threshold should read the October 2014 Code and the associated FAQs to prepare themselves for the Code coming into force on 7th November 2014 and for the first deadline for data provision of no later than 31 December 2014.

Councils below the £25,000 threshold need to monitor announcements for the introduction of a Transparency Code for them later this year.

All councils should consider the increasing demand from central government for transparency of financial data and information about decisions and should review the way they manage their records and information. The default assumption should be in favour of providing data and information wherever possible.

Future Local - NALC Larger Councils Conference 3rd December

Future Local 

NALC Larger Councils Conference

at Galleon Suites, Royal National Hotel, London, WC1H ODG

Minister for Government Policy Oliver Letwin MP; Liberal Parliamentary Party Chairman Annette Brooke MP and Labour’s Policy Review Chief Jon Cruddas MP (invited) will give keynote speeches on devolution, localism and local government at NALC's conference for larger councils on Wednesday 3rd December 2014 in London.

'Future Local' is a one-day conference exploring the current and future role of larger local (town and parish) councils in putting communities in control of local facilities, delivering local services and providing influence over decision making, providing the perfect opportunity to learn, share and network.

Plenary and workshop sessions include:

• The road to 2015: what are the Labour, Lib Dem and Conservative policies on town and parish councils?
• How to shape the future of your area through strategic and neighbourhood plans
• Using the Our Place! approach to bring partners together to improve public services
• Town councils driving regeneration and local economic development
• Beyond bricks and mortar: how to build community cohesion
• Inaugural meeting of the super councils network

More information here

Neighbourhood Plan funding

There’s a new grant funding pool from DCLG now available to encourage communities to take up neighbourhood planning.

From today, local groups can apply for grants of up to £2,000 to run a neighbourhood planning workshop in their community. The workshop must be run by knowledgeable and enthusiastic advocate of neighbourhood planning, with the aim of giving a community the information they need to begin the neighbourhood planning process.

Areas that have a low take up of neighbourhood planning are the focus for these grants.

See more here

Local Democracy Week - Newbury Town Council

 Photograph: Pupils from Falkland School enjoy trying on the Councillors' and Mace Bearers' robes

 

During October, Newbury Town Councillors were busy welcoming local Primary Schools to the Town Hall for this year’s Local Democracy Week. 

Councillors gave a short presentation about local democracy and the work of Newbury Town Council in the community.  The visits were an opportunity for the children to meet the Mayor, Cllr Jo Day in her full regalia, and they also got a chance to dress up too!   Pupils were encouraged to ask their own questions of the Councillors and as usual, they asked some searching questions.  

Local Democracy Week has morphed into a fortnight and the second week involves Councillors visiting local Secondary Schools for a 'Question Time' type panel with an audience of Sixth Form students. This is the sixth year that the Town Council has been involved in Local Democracy Week .

Updated Financial Regulations

New Model Financial Regulations following the repeal of S150 (5) of the Local Government Act 1972 were issued in May 2014.

Following numerous comments and questions thereon, the opportunity has been taken to review and tidy up certain drafting errors. An updated version of the Model Financial Regulations is now in the Members’ Area of the NALC web-site. BALC member councils have the username and password to access the NALC Members Area.

The over-riding requirement resulting from the abolition of S150 (5) is that each and every local council seeking to depart from the two signature rule must “implement and maintain robust controls on expenditure as an integrated part of their overall financial control system”.

The Model Financial Regulations are designed to provide a suggested template for such systems and controls. They are not intended to be a prescriptive requirement, merely a framework and it is for each council to adapt them to their individual size, organisational structure and practice procedures. As such, constructive debate on the eventual detailed content of the council’s new financial regulations to be adopted is essential and to be encouraged.

DCLG consultation on travellers

Change to travellers definition "has potential for legal challenge": planning officers   

Local Government Lawyer writes 

"The Government’s proposed change to the planning definition of travellers will “place an unnecessary burden on local authorities and has potential for legal challenge”, planning officers have warned.

The Department for Communities and Local Government has launched a consultation in which it proposed amending the definition to remove the words “or permanently” to limit it to those who have a nomadic habit of life.

“This would mean any application for a permanent site by someone who has stopped physically travelling would be considered in the same way as an application from the settled population - rather than be considered under policies relating to travellers,” the paper explained.
 
DCLG insisted in the consultation that it was open to further measures to support those travellers who fall under the proposed new definition to facilitate their nomadic habit of life. “For example, through the use of conditions which ensure that transit sites are available at certain times of the year for travellers to occupy on a temporary basis. This of course would be a matter for the local authority but may go towards making provision for those travellers who do travel.”

The Housing (Assessment of Accommodation Needs) (Meaning of Gypsies and Travellers) (England) Regulations 2006 would also be amended to bring the definition of ‘gypsies and travellers’ into line with the proposed definition of ‘travellers’ for planning purposes.

The consultation paper said that consideration would be given to amending primary legislation to ensure that those who have given up travelling permanently have their needs assessed.

However, warning about the potential impact of the measures, Catriona Riddell, the Planning Officers Society’s Strategic Planning Specialist, also said: “The proposed changes to the definition of 'travellers' which distinguishes between travellers that travel and those that have ceased to travel, will be very difficult to apply in practice."

The consultation is here and closes on 23rd November 2014

Openness Regulations 2014 briefing

BALC joined with Oxfordshire ALC to do a joint briefing on the Openness Regulations 2014 today. At Didcot Civic Hall over 70 clerks and councillors from the two counties learnt from Liz Howlett, solicitor, how the Regulations which will allow filming, recording, blogging and tweeting of council meetings will work in practice. The Regulations came into force on 6th August 2014 and affect all town and parish councils.