Employment tribunal costs introduced

The Government has confirmed that from 29th July 2013, claimants will have to pay a fee if they want to take their employer to employment tribunal. Currently, it costs nothing for a claimant to make a claim. A two stage fee will be charged. If the fee is not paid, or the claimant does not apply for ‘remission’, the claim will not be considered.

Claimants will be required to pay an initial fee (the ‘issue fee’) at the issue of a claim, and a further fee (a hearing fee) 4 – 6 weeks before the tribunal hearing.

The amount of the fee will depend on the type of claim being made. To bring a Type A claim, the claimant must pay a £160 issue fee, and then a ‘hearing fee’ of £230. Type A claims include unlawful deductions, failure to pay redundancy pay; failure to provide statement of terms and conditions; failure of employer to allow worker to take or be paid for annual leave etc.

To bring a Type B claim, the issue fee is £250 and the hearing fee is £950. Type B claims include unfair dismissal, discrimination, failure to comply with rest break rules, failure to allow certain types of time off etc.
 
The Employment Tribunal is under a new duty to encourage the parties to use alternative dispute resolution e.g. the services of ACAS or judicial or other mediation services and to specifically consider this matter at preliminary hearings.

The tribunal will have the power to order that fees paid by the successful party be reimbursed by the unsuccessful party, though this will not be an automatic occurrence.

A remission system will be in place for those who cannot afford to pay the fees, and upon evidence of this, either the whole or part of the fee will be waived.

Penninsula Business Sevices Ltd 

Capital grants available for community asset ownership

The Social Investment Business (SIB) Group has announced that capital grants between £100,000 and £500,000 are available to organisations ready to take the next step in acquiring a local asset. Organisations with innovative and ambitious plans for community asset ownership will be able to apply for these grants till 30 August 2013.

The capital grants programme has a series of streams including an equity-matching stream which seeks to match-fund monies raised by communities through share offers. Other themes include a fund to support communities with competitive bidding for land and building under the Right to Bid, and green refurbishment of assets.

The funding forms part of the wider Community Rights initiative which supports communities taking ownership of key assets and services through a number new powers introduced through the Localism Act. Alongside the capital grants programme, the Community Rights programme offers other funding opportunities for communities, including pre-feasibility grants of up to £10,000 and feasibility grants of up to £100,000.

More information and how to apply for the capital grants programme can be found here

Results of consultation on Quality Council status

A report summarising responses to the consultation on the review of  Quality Council Status has been issued by NALC. Recommendations based on the report are currently being finalised and will be made available for feedback when they are ready.

A total number of 1,059 responses to the consultation were received; the majority of respondents were clerks and councillors. A number were received from accreditation panel members, CALC officers, Executive Committee members also principal authority officers and councillors. There were also online comments, written submissions and structured interviews.

The key themes which came out of the consultation, in particular from the qualitative responses were:

• The need for there to be tangible benefits from attaining quality status for both the council and community. This was particularly highlighted by a number of comments from respondents from councils who currently hold quality status who were not planning to reaccredit because of a lack of perceived benefits when compared to the effort needed to attain quality status.
• The need for the scheme to concentrate more on outcomes rather than just on process.
• The need for the scheme to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach, and celebrate diversity of achievement.
• The need for the scheme to be credible outside of the sector, and in particular to be seen as credible by principal authorities and communities.
• The need for the scheme to only measure things that are within a council's control - efforts to get people to stand for election should be recognised instead of just the electoral mandate. 

 
The report and appendices can be read on the NALC website

Unlocking the General Power of Competence - confidence to innovate

On Tuesday 23rd July there was a free conference at LGA, Smith Square, London on the Power of General Competence. LGA had commissioned research into the uses and effectiveness of the Power since it was introduced in the Localism Act 2011 and enacted in 2012.

While it is mainly principal authorities that are using the Power there are a number of town and parish councils which are enthusiastically using the new primary Power to deliver services to their communities. The research report illustrates the diverse use the Power has been put to:

• Oxford City - helping to tackle poor attainment in primary schools
• Crewkerne Town Council - taken over the running of youth clubs previously provided by Somerset County Council
• Sprowston Town Council - acquired a youth and community service building from Norfolk County Council which it is refurbishing to provide a multi-use community centre
• Stoke City - developing a range of green energy initiatives

The report gives some top tips for making good use of GPC and identifies constraints and drawbacks that have been encountered so far. 

Only eligible town and parish councils can use the Power: eligible councils need to have two thirds of councillors to have stood for election, a qualified clerk (Cilca or higher qualification) and resolved to grant themselves the Power. The Chairman and clerk of Swallowfield Parish Council attended the conference to find out more about how to use the Power; the council has an interesting development scheme which it would like to pursue using GPC.

This new Power has the enthusiastic backing of this Government, Sec of State, Eric Pickles attended and spoke bluntly about the need for councils to be transparent and innovative.

The presentations are on the LGA website 
and the speech by Rt Hon Eric Pickles, Secretary of State is available here

Planning training for town and parish councillors

BALC ran training for town and parish councillors on 17th July 2013. The presentation is available on the BALC website

Five booklets were also available:

Three were produced by CPRE/NALC as part of the previous funding phase of Supporting Communities with Planning:

• How to shape where you live: a guide to neighbourhood planning
• How to respond to planning applications
• Planning explained

Locality produced a well laid out process map for Neighbourhood Planning in their A4 booklet: Neighbourhood Planning, a road map

The Royal Town Planning Institute produce a Handy Guide to Planning

Printed copies of these are available from BALC, postage and packing £1 per copy

Working with your Council being revised and updated.

The Society of Local Council Clerks issued this letter:

The current version of Working With Your Council is now extremely out of date and is being completely rewritten and updated as a new electronic version.  The e- version will be launched at the SLCC National Conference in October and will  be generally available in the new year.  

In light of this, a decision has been made to withdraw the distance learning course, and we are no longer issuing the training packs except through the 2-day courses which will continue to run until the end of 2013.  From 2014 only the e-version will be available.  Anyone currently undertaking the course will continue to submit their sections for marking and certificates will continue to be issued until the end of July 2014.

First World War - Heritage Lottery Fund Grants for Communities

First World War: then and now

Grants of £3,000 - £10,000 are available for communities to mark the centenary next year of the start of the First World War.

The Heritage Lottery Fund also provide grants of more than £10,000 for First World War Projects. The Fund is looking for projects  that will help people learn about their heritage, develop skills and change attitudes or behaviours. Applications can be made on a rolling basis there are no set dates to aim for. 

More information is available on the Heritage Lottery Fund website