Consultation on National Training Strategy

The National Improvement and Development Board has launched a consultation to inform the first ever national improvement strategy for town and parish councils. We would love to hear from all levels of local government. Please spread the word!

The first step in this consultation is a short survey. This will help us get a feel for what is important to councils, county associations and other partners. Most of 2016 will be spent on a more in depth consultation, which will include face-to-face discussions – not just on-line surveys!

You can find out more about the consultation at http://www.nalc.gov.uk/our-work/improvement-and-development/national-improvement-strategy-consultation

The Introduction to Local Council Administration is the successful online induction course for clerks best undertaken before attempting the Certificate in Local Council Administration (CiLCA). ILCA is one of the training offers delivered under the National Training Strategy. 

ILCA was designed for council officers, but all the information is relevant to councillors as well and might be a good alternative for those who would like an online learning tool.

Berkshire has now started a mentoring scheme for clerks undertaking CiLCA which is the recognized qualification for clerks and is one of the criteria which enables councils to gain the General Power of Competence.

Audio recording of council meetings

BALC has been approached by a company called AudioMinute who provide webcasting equipment. Below is their email:

"We've been talking to Essex County Council and Essex Association of Local Councils about Audio webcasting for local councils. The level of interest from smaller organisations has really surprised us. Perhaps your members will be similarly impressed; please circulate this email for us. 

The background is that communities now have an expectation that public information will be accessible, and local decision making will be transparent. Also, now the public has the right to record meetings, councils of all sizes are increasingly concerned about the opportunities for their recorded words to be misrepresented.

Audiominutes helps; it combines a simple to use app and cloud based webservices making audio webcasting a reality at all levels of local government. Meetings are streamed live and made available from an archive (see attached example).

I've attached a video presentation which shows how Audiominutes works for larger authorities. In the case of smaller organisations, our 'Lite' version lets you create meetings and agendas via email without the need for expensive third party systems.

If you are interested, please contact us - thanks in advance."

http://www.audiominutes.com/