Vacancies

For details of current vacancies please see the vacancies page.

Association of Play Industries (API) API has produced a document to help local councils re-opening play areas.  Click here

NALC - Open Letter to Councillors

Building back communities

REVISED PRACTITIONER'S GUIDE AND AGAR FLOWCHARTS

The 2020 Practitioner's Guide and useful AGAR flowcharts and step by step guides can be found in the Members section, under Model Documents. 

USEFUL HELP FROM PARISH ON-LINE

Click here for more info. 

PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU KEEP UP-TO-DATE WITH HOW THE CORONAVIRUS EMERGENCY IS IMPACTING ON OUR SECTOR AT www.nalc.gov.uk

2019/2020 Audit

The Government will extend the audit period for lasy year's audit.  Summary info here

NALC legal advice on holding meetings remotely

 NALC's Legal Team has issued advice on how councils can hold meetings without the council physically gathering.  

Furloughing and the Job Retention Scheme

ERNLLCA has produced a briefing paper for member councils on this topic.  It can be found on the Advisory Notes page within the Members section of the website. 

AUDIT UPDATE

All councils should have received this letter from PKF Littlejohn.  If not, please contact them asap. 

BHIB Councils Insurance

• On 26 March, the government produced information on how to help people safely
• Public Health England has also produced a range of material to support the Stay Home, Save Lives' campaign which is free to download and use
• NHS England has launched a national volunteer initiative which you can share with your residents
• The British Red Cross also has a number of volunteer schemes to help communities in emergency situations

The fast-tracked Coronavirus Bill was considered by the House of Commons on 23 March and House of Lords on 24/25 March. It has now received Royal Assent and is an Act of Parliament.

Provisions of particular relevance to local councils are on the postponement of local elections and local authority meetings.  NALC is pressing the Ministry for Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) to work with them on any subsequent regulations. 

 We don’t have the time-frame for those at present but will keep you updated.

ERNLLCA SERVICES

The ERNLLCA office has been closed due to the current situation..  We are setting in place some temporary systems and we will be able to pick up and respond to emails.  Our voicemail will be checked daily but email enquiries would be preferred.  We hope to set up a temporary phone number to take us through the coming weeks.  More to follow in the coming days.

COUNCIL MEETINGS 

We understand the frustrations many of you are voicing about the lack of definitive advice about holding meetings and NALC is pressing for clarity for our tier, please check www.nalc.gov.uk   It does seem that the Bill going through Parliament, to bring about changes, does include parish and town councils - so, that's good news!.  

As soon as we know about any changes to the legal position, we will tell you. 

WORKING FROM HOME

Our colleagues at Parkinson Associates have produced a fact sheet for those who may have to work from home during the present crisis.  It can be accessed here

CORONA VIRUS

If the Government declares an emergency and control measures are put in place limiting public gatherings, the problem will arise of how councils can meet to make decisions.  We await advice from NALC on this but many councils already have committees, and their powers could be reviewed and extended to include more in the way of agreeing expenditure.  This is a decision which the council has to make, a committee cannot extend its own powers.  Additionally councils are reminded that the Local Government Act 1972, section 101, allows a council to devolve most decision-making to the Clerk. Councils may wish to consider putting such a resolution in place for the duration of any emergency, should one be declared”. 

Clearly there are some decisions which can only be made by council e.g. agreeing the year-end accounts; agreeing the AGAR; applying for borrowing.  We await guidance from Government on how such matters can be handled. 

Councils will hold their annual council meetings in May, if these meetings cannot go ahead please remember that the current Chairman of the Council remains in that position until a new Chairman is elected. 

In the absence of a directive from Government, those councils with offices that are accessible by the public should consider if public access should remain in place. 

As regards ERNLLCA, all planned training events have been cancelled.  This will be kept under review but it seems unlikely that any training will be delivered for some time to come.  Our office is located in a public building and we have not been given any information about closure however we may have to stagger when staff are in the office to minimise contact between the team.  Obviously we will not be able to attend any meetings for the foreseeable future nor will we be able to receive visitors.  It is unlikely that the district committee meetings will go ahead. 

NALC has set up a Coronavirus page on its website www.nalc.gov.uk/coronavirus 

Borrowing by parish and town councils

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has issued updated information and guidance on borrowing by councils.  Please refer to the Members page to access this information.

Councils which are not members of ERNLLCA should contact the Association at enquiries@ernllca.info if they wish to borrow.