Cost of Living

We all know how difficult the current economic situation is at the moment. We will be sharing relevant Cost of Living information and advice on the new LALC website. Further information can be found here:

https://lalc.jams.junari.com/cost-of-living-challenge     

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 List price: £164.99

Price through LALC - £131.99, which is a saving of 20%.

Please contact Lindsey to order a copy.

Providing Warm Space in Lincolnshire; supporting the local community

Over the past few months many community centres and churches have been planning to open their doors to members of the community who may find it hard to stay at home this winter, owing to the rising cost of living.

 As this initiative evolves, The High Sheriff of Lincolnshire Tim Strawson is holding an event for those involved in Warm Spaces, or for those who would like to help.

 The event is open to organisations, companies, charities and individuals interested in helping and will take place on Monday 7th November at 6pm at the YMCA Lincolnshire. The purpose is to collaborate and build on the good work that has already been undertaken and to try and develop a full plan to deliver this long term.

 Building on an established winter plan

Tim has applauded the efforts of community leaders, groups, church communities and local charities, for their swift action in establishing a network of Warm Spaces across the city, in response to the ongoing Cost-of-Living Crisis.  

 “I have been struck by the efforts across the city and the county to ensure no-one is cold and alone this winter” stated Tim. “This event aims to bring all of those selfless, hardworking community leaders and volunteers together to ensure the services across the county are consistent and safe.  We really need a big plan; we need to identify gaps in provision and a way to coordinate how we can work together to find the resource, people and funds to open new sites where they may be needed.  Our first task will be to try and map current provision in Lincoln, and to engage local businesses in this great work before quickly moving onto the rest of the county”.

Lincolnshire based charity His Church will also be attending the event, exploring how they can support the new Warm Spaces with supplies of food and drink. 

The invitation to attend this event is extended to anyone involved in the provision of a Warm Space in the County, those organisations who are considering establishing a Warm Space, and local businesses and people who would like to help with this initiative in any way that they can.

Event Details

 Event Details: Monday 7^th November, 6pm

Event Venue: YMCA Lincolnshire, The Showroom, Tritton road, Lincoln, LN6 7QY

Parking: free parking available on site

The Police & Crime Commissioner Annual Survey has been issued asking residents to give their views about the Police Service in Lincolnshire and what the priorities for the next financial year should be.  Click here to complete the online survey

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Budget setting tip

For budget-setting purposes, please factor in a 4% increase for LALC’s affiliation fee and a 4% increase for NALC’s affiliation fee., for 2023-24.

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Avian Influenza (bird flu) in Lincolnshire

Some parts of Lincolnshire (Sleaford and Woodhall Spa) are now in a Prevention Zone due to known cases of Avian Influenza being found.  See Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) interactive map .  More cases are expected so the public are encouraged to be observant.  

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1098354/birdflu-protect-birds-leaflet.pdf

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 Training

We still have availability at the following sessions. Book now to avoid disappointment! (Please book via the new CRM if possible).

***Training venues are booked once a number of bookings have been received. This allows LALC to book venues based on where the majority of delegates are travelling from. If there are less than 10 bookings on any course, the course will automatically be held at the LALC Office, 8 Market Rasen Road, Dunholme, Lincoln, LN2 3QR***

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Free Civility Webinars offered by LGA

The Civility and Respect project have been working in collaboration with the Local Government Association to support local councillors and council staff who are experiencing bullying, harassment and intimidation. The LGA have shared details of two virtual webinars which have been specifically developed to support councillors’ safety and online safety for councillors.  The webinars will be delivered virtually via zoom and are free to attend using the promo codes detailed below.  Anyone who is interested is welcome to take advantage of this offer of free training.

Councillor Personal Safety Webinars

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The importance of secure email systems and GOV.UK

 The JPAG Practitioners’ Guide 2022 sets out the recommended ‘Proper Practices’ that Responsible Financial Officers (RFO’s) should aim to comply with and sets out measures to improve internal controls and reduce risk in local councils. It also sets out what internal auditors should be auditing.  

 All local councils are subject to Freedom of Information and the Data Protection Acts and the JPAG Practitioners’ Guide recommends the following:

5.204. All authorities except Parish meetings must now have an official website. To comply with GDPR, councils should provide official email accounts for their councillors as well as for their Clerk and other officers.

5.205. When choosing a domain name for the council's website and emails, many local council websites are appropriately making use of the official GOV.UK domain (for example, ourparishcouncil.gov.uk), with email addresses being linked to that domain.

5.206. Using a GOV.UK domain for your council website and email accounts demonstrates the council's official local government status. Members of the public are increasingly cyber security aware, so a GOV.UK domain can also help to build trust, credibility and visibly demonstrates authenticity. Many people will now reasonably expect a local council to have a GOV.UK domain name.

5.207. For the purposes of user management, councils should ensure that the Proper Officer can add and remove member and staff email accounts. Commercial ‘dashboard’ email and web systems offer centralised searching of all data contained within the system for effective compliance with GDPR Subject Access Requests and Freedom of Information Requests.

 With all councillor seats coming up for election in 2023 new email systems could be introduced.  Current budget-setting allows all councils to consider building in some funds to reduce data risks. LALC have gathered some indicative fees from various suppliers to help local councils budget for introducing a .GOV.UK secure email system. 

Some advantages of using these secure email systems are as follows:

·       Keeps private and council emails separate

·       Stores data in a centralised secure server by a hosting provider

·       Whenever a Clerk, staff member or councillor joins, is suspended, goes off sick or resigns their email account and data can be managed by the council and not left to the individual to decide (closed down, suspended, deleted, forwarded, auto-reply).

·       Reduces the risk of the Information Commissioner’s Office, Police and other agencies having to trawl through personal, shared and other private business email accounts if they suspect a Data Protection Act breach has occurred.

In all cases you would need to buy a domain name agreed with the service provider compliant with government requirements and then you can purchase email accounts either on a ‘per user’ basis or as part of a package. Some providers provide a bare-bones package while others will offer other add-on services which councils would need to decide if they needed.

Notes

1. Indicative prices quoted are Ex VAT and are subject to change.

2. Additional labour and other costs may be incurred for transfer of data, storage, DNS and software licences (for example, Microsoft 365) depending on the precise requirements of the council and the service provided which will be bespoke to each council.

3. Training and Support is provided by each provider by phone and email.

Further information about the use of data and data concerns can be found at;

 https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/sme-web-hub/whats-new/blogs/top-three-issues-for-town-and-parish-councils/#

 https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/2615578/parish-councils-own-device-fact-sheet.pdf

 https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/2615588/parish-councils-resource-pack-201908.pdf
An example ICO FOI investigation. https://www.iversparishcouncil.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/55/2022/03/Appendix-13.1-ICO-to-Ivers-Parish-Council-10.03.22.pdf

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Cloud Administered Councils – Reality or Myth?

 For our 30th anniversary event we hosted a webinar on 18th October 2022 with the theme of “Cloud Administered Councils – Reality or Myth?”. You can use the links below to watch the recordings of the informative and topical presentations from our six guest speakers and the two case studies on going paperless.

 The webinar clearly demonstrated that cloud administered councils are a reality, and that paperless administration is both good for the environment and improves the resilience of the council’s administration.

·       Introduction to webinar and EDGE - hhtps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_vcgtbhovk

·       Climate & Biodiversity Crisis - How can your Council reach Carbon Zero by 2030? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v_tipiy0-xsgi

·       The Year We Went Paperless (Case Study) - https://youtube.com/watch?v=osputstzlii

·       Paperless Allotment Inspections (Case Study) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3kyaeqyefq

·       Digital Mapping - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d53vlh2eii

·       The Pandemic – Were you prepared for the Pandemic? -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?=ahd6rkvcj-0

·       Hybrid Working – How to Improve our Personal Resilience - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr5-vziqbjo

·       CRM Redefined – Introducing AdvantEDGE CRM for Council Relationship Management - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scnulapzwm0

·       Securing your data wherever it lives & how to survive being hacked! -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta1b3htrguo

 Further details on the anniversary event - https://edgeitsystems.com/edge-30th/

 EDGE IT Systems Limited

024 7666 7337

info@edgeITsystems.com

www.edgeITsystems.com

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NALC Legal Updates

Councillor qualification – running a B&B?

 We were asked about a scenario where a candidate wished to be co-opted to a council and was basing their qualifying condition under s.79 of the Local Government Act 1972 (the 1972 Act) on the fact they operated a B&B in the parish. They did not live in the area. S.79 (1) (c) of the 1972 Act is the principal or only place of work in the area in the relevant 12-month period qualifying condition. Essentially it is a fact specific point as to whether the condition can be met. In the case in question, we did not deem the person being present at the B&B for roughly 12 days a month to be sufficient.

 Councils and church property?

 We recently considered a question about a council’s powers to purchase a clock located in a church tower. The church no longer wished to maintain it and wanted to transfer ownership to the council.

 The limitation in sections 6 and 8 the Local Government Act 1894 is in respect of doing or funding work on property relating to the affairs of the church. Our longstanding view on the limitation is set out in Legal Briefing L01-18. Our advice in respect of the clock was that the limitation did not stop the clock being transferred to the council and it would no longer be a church asset.

 On a similar theme, we were asked if a council could provide financial assistance to the local church being used as a “warm hub” by contributing to the church’s anticipated higher heating bills. Our answer was yes. A grant towards the cost of electricity does not involve work on property so it is not caught by the 1894 Act. The council could use section 137 of the 1972 Act in the circumstances, or, for eligible councils, the general power of competence would be applicable.

 Power to make a grant to a company?

 The question has arisen of whether a council can make grant to a company under section 137 of the 1972 Act. The salient point is whether a council believes a grant meets the section 137 criteria. The fact the intended recipient is a profit-making company would not in itself prevent a gift being made. Councils of course have to act reasonably in their decision making and consider whether a grant of public funds for a particular purpose is an appropriate use.

 Annual council meeting dates – councils with elections

 We have been asked about calculating the dates for when councillors take office and when councils with elections can hold their annual meeting. The 2023 local election date in England is 4 May.

 We are now aware that HM King Charles III’s coronation will be held on Saturday 6 May. At the time of writing no bank holiday has been announced. Our calculation will take the same approach we took this year (see the February 2022 legal bulletin) and in previous years if no bank holiday is announced. We will update you if further announcements are made that impact our calculation for councillors taking office and the timeframe for the holding of the annual council meeting.

Recent Legal Team activity

Since August’s legal update we have refreshed and reissued LTN 40. We reissued LTN 9E to update statutory referencing and generally refresh the Note. We will soon be reissuing LTN 5E (parish council meetings) to confirm a point on public participation.

In out/in and abouts, Jane attended the CAPALC annual conference on 9 September and delivered a legal update. The conference took place the day after the death of HM Queen Elizabeth II and Jane also delivered an update on Operation Bridge and council notice periods during the mourning period. Jane attended the Wiltshire ALC AGM on 10 October and gave a legal update and an update on the Civility & Respect project. Jane also spoke about the Civility and Respect project as part of a panel at the Westminster Insight Conduct and Standards in the Public Sector Conference held on 22 September.

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NALC Legal Topic Notes

All current NALC Legal Topic Notes (LTNs) are accessible by the Clerk via the LALC CRM.

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NALC publishes new report on the 2022 local elections

NALC has published its report on the 2022 local (parish and town) council elections.

The purpose of this report was to gather insightful data to provide an overview of the 2022 local council elections. The data collected will help NALC's future campaigns and shape the resources available for local councils, local councillors and county associations (such as the Make A Change materials).

The report headlines were:

• The number of councillors elected through contested elections has significantly decreased from 38% in May 2021 to 22% in May 2022.

• 57% of local councils reported vacancies after the elections, a slight decrease of 2% from 2021. 

• The data suggests that many local councils still require further support from county associations and principal authorities.

• To serve the community (85.80%) and to change things in their community (31.36%) were the top responses for why people stood to become councillors. 

• The statistics show that 94.71% recommend becoming a councillor, compared to 5.29% who wouldn't.

• Regarding methods of awareness-raising for the elections: the council website (65.27%), Facebook (47.60%), and word of mouth (37.13%) were the top three responses used by councils. 

• The principal methods to promote the local elections used by councillors were word of mouth (31.95%) and creating a leaflet (17.75%). 

The data also suggest that councillors need to utilise NALC's Make A Change materials more extensively. 

https://www.nalc.gov.uk/library/our-work/elections-1/3778-local-council-elections-2022-report/file

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NALC Consultation

 PC7-22 DLUHC CONMITTEE FUNDING REVIEW

Summary

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) Committee has recently launched a short review into funding. NALC has been invited to submit written evidence. The remit of the review is to examine the funds available for levelling-up and how effectively resources are directed to those areas most in need.

The main consultation document can be downloaded at https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/17/levelling-up-housing-and-communities-committee/news/173698/funding-for-levellingup-inquiry-launched-by-levelling-up-committee/

The consultation closes on 18 November 2022 at the committee end so this is a snapshot review.

Context

The consultation seeks insight on:

 ·       the allocation of levelling-up resources and the aim, size and focus of the many different funds available.

 NALC will be responding to this consultation as many local councils have told NALC over the last couple of years that they have been unable to apply for central government funding on the same basis as principal authorities.

 NALC’s current policy positions

 NALC’s current funding position is very simple — that all local councils should be able to apply on the same basis as principal authorities for central government funding. We know that is currently not the case — something the NALC Funding Task and Finish Group, under the auspices of the NALC Policy Committee, is collating a business case on.

Consultation Questions

The main DLUHC committee questions that NALC will be responding to in this consultation are as below and NALC seeks the views of county associations and member councils in response to these questions to help inform its own submission:

·       How can the government ensure that all areas that need funding for Levelling up receive adequate support with the bidding process and subsequently receive adequate funding?

·       What are the challenges of competitive bidding and will this impact areas with limited resources and capabilities for bidding?

·       How does levelling up funding integrate with other funding streams such as the Towns Fund, the High St Fund, the Sustainable Transport Fund etc?

·       How can the government achieve its aim of streamlining funding for Levelling Up?

·       How can funding focus on both wider regions, as well as individual

·       How can government ensure that spending across all departmental budgets can be adjusted accordingly to ensure all of government is focused on achieving levelling up and that resources are directed to the areas most in need?

·       How are Levelling Up projects being measured in terms of value for money and for their contribution to Levelling Up?

·       Is the UKSPF a sufficient replacement of the European Structural Investment Funds?

·       What is your assessment of the Levelling Up Fund, and what improvements could be made, with reference to:

o   The bidding process

o   Feedback on unsuccessful and successful applications

o   Transparency

o   The impact of inflation

·       How should the success of Levelling Up funding be measured against the government’s desired outcomes for Levelling Up?

·       How will the proposed Investment Zones contribute towards the key objectives of Levelling Up? And is this different approach the right approach?

·        Will the government’s approach to funding for levelling up achieve its objective of levelling up the country?

Your evidence

Please email your responses to this consultation to chris.borg@naIc.gov.uk by

17.00 on Thursday 10 November 2022.