Training courses are available to book via the portal (login required)

The April Training Bulletin has previously been issued and courses are available to book via the portal. If there is any specific training which you feel would be valuable, and we don’t currently offer it, please let us know and we will investigate.

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If we are advertising your vacancy in the eNews and on our website, please let us know when the vacancy has been filled, so that we can remove it. 

If your vacancy has not yet been filled and you are continuing to advertise, please let us know of any revised closing date. If you no longer specify a closing date, please let us know so that we can update the vacancy adverts.

If you need your vacancy advertising and do not have a pre-prepared advert to send us, please complete our Vacancy Template, which can be found in the Members Portal under Document Templates.

The NALC Recruitment Manual (developed as part of the Civility & Respect project) is now available via the portal. Go into Knowledgebase and click on the ‘Employment’ card and enter ‘recruitment’ in the search box.  

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LALC Summer Conference 19th July – Save the date!

The LALC Summer Conference will be held on Wednesday 19th July at the Bentley Hotel, South Hykeham. Confirmed speakers (so far) will include Amy Lennox (Grant Funding), BHIB Insurance, Clive Wilson from United Nations Association Greater Lincolnshire. There will be a variety of trade stands. Further details will be released soon. This year will be a celebration of LALC’s 50th AGM and we will also be running our Shining Stars Awards again (see below).

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NALC Star Council awards are back for 2023!

NALC has opened nominations for its Star Council Awards 2023 to celebrate the achievements of the local (parish and town) council sector.

The Star Council Awards are the only awards programme in England specifically designed to acknowledge the impact and contribution of local councils in their communities. The awards are open to all local councils, councillors, clerks, and county associations across England.

This year, there are five award categories for which entrants can apply: 

• Council of the Year – Sponsored by Blachere Illumination

• Councillor of the Year – Sponsored by Breakthrough Communications

• Young Councillor of the Year – Sponsored by DCK Accounting Solutions

• County Association of the Year – Sponsored by CCLA

• Clerk of the Year – Sponsored by Cloudy IT

The award categories have been carefully selected to recognise excellence in different areas of local council operations and highlight the varied contributions made by councils.

Further details:

https://www.nalc.gov.uk/starcouncilawards?mc_cid=0a857b931f&mc_eid=55cf3210cb 

starcouncilawards@nalc.gov.uk

The nomination period ends on 28 July 2023, and the winners will be announced at a ceremony in the House of Lords on 29 November 2023, where they will be presented with their awards.

BHIB Councils Insurance, Blachere Illumination, Breakthrough Communications, CCLA, Cloudy IT and DCK Accounting Solutions sponsor the awards.

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LALC Annual Shining Star Awards 2023

Do you know any councillors that have done extraordinary work in Council or in their community? Does your Council have young councillors (aged 18-30) that have stood out, doing outstanding work in the community? Or maybe your Clerk has gone the extra mile to support the Council, Councillors or the community. 

We will be asking for nomination forms to be returned by early June.  Who do you want to nominate? 

Categories for Nominations:

1. Council of the Year 

2. Councillor of the year

3. Young Councillor (aged 18-30)

4. Clerk of the Year

Nomination forms will be available and issued directly by email to all Councils in the next few days.

The winners will be announced at the LALC Summer Conference on 19th July.

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LALC AGM

LALC’s 50th AGM will take place on Thursday 29th June at 7:00pm, via Zoom. The meeting Zoom link and agenda packs will be sent out prior to the meeting.

The meeting will consider nominations for membership of the new Management Committee. 

Every four years, following the ordinary elections, our member councils are invited to nominate councillors/clerks to act as representatives on the Association’s Management Committee. The Association’s Annual General Meeting appoints the Committee to administer the Association’s affair on its behalf throughout the year, and together with the Chief Executive and officers, the Committee oversees the budget, delivery of services to member councils, and Association representation as appropriate with other bodies. The Committee comprises a President, Vice-Presidents and Treasurer (appointed each year by the AGM ex-officio), together with six councillors and two clerks*, elected by the AGM. The 

Chair and Vice Chair will be elected at the first meeting following the AGM.

Committee members will serve for a four-year period until the year of the next ordinary elections in 2027. Any casual vacancies, when they arise, are filled mid-term by co-option. 

The Committee meets four times a year – usually in January, April, July, and October. Extra-ordinary Meetings and sub-committees will be appointed as and when the need arises. Meetings are generally held at the LALC office in Dunholme, usually on a Thursday evening – the Committee sets the dates and times. Travelling expenses are reclaimable. There will be the opportunity to join remotely, should you not be able to travel.

*There is a maximum of one representative per council.

Nomination forms have already been sent out to all member councils and should be returned to enquiries@lalc.co.uk no later than 15th June 2023. 

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Parish.UK Network

Back in January, LALC advised councils to treat this website with caution. This is not a gov.uk initiative, as it seems to purport to be.

This organisation recently featured on a BBC Radio 4 broadcast (‘You and Yours’, broadcast on 3 May – available now on BBC Sounds):

‘We investigate a new website called PARISH.UK which asks small businesses for money but isn’t what it seems to be. Our reporter, Shari Vahl, speaks to businesses, parish councils and National Trading Standards about the behaviour of PARISH.UK and its similarity to Government websites.’

Official UK government websites will always have ‘.gov.uk’ addresses:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/frauds-tricks-and-scams/fraud-tricks-and-scams

LALC’s advice to steer clear of this website stands.

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Mental Health Awareness week – 15 to 21 May

This year’s theme is ‘anxiety’.

Anxiety is a normal emotion in us all, but sometimes it can get out of control and become a mental health problem.

Lots of things can lead to feelings of anxiety, including exam pressures, relationships, starting a new job (or losing one) or other big life events. We can also get anxious when it comes to things to do with money and not being able to meet our basic needs, like heating our home or buying food.

Anxiety is one of the most common mental health problems we can face. In a recent mental health survey we carried out around stress, anxiety and hopelessness over personal finances, a quarter of adults said they felt so anxious that it stopped them from doing the things they want to do some or all of the time. Six in ten adults feel this way, at least some of the time. On a positive note, anxiety can be made easier to manage.

Focusing on anxiety for this year's Mental Health Awareness Week will increase people's awareness and understanding of anxiety by providing information on the things that can help prevent it from becoming a problem. At the same time, we will keep up the pressure to demand change - making sure that improving mental health is a key priority for the government and society as a whole.

For further support:

https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/public-engagement/mental-health-awareness-week

https://www.mind.org.uk/get-involved/mental-health-awareness-week/

https://www.rethink.org/get-involved/awareness-days-and-events/mental-health-awareness-week/

Also check out the relevant eLearning training available via Nimble, including Stress Management Essentials and Mental Health Awareness. (See the LALC Training Bulletin for more information and details of how to book).

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LCC Highways – urgent plea to vehicle owners: leave some space!