Support and Funding for Parish & Town Councils:

Funding: 1000 eligible councils will receive a discount of £100 +VAT to offset the initial costs of setting up a new .gov.uk domain in this financial year.  It is extremely unlikely that this funding will be available in future years.   Funding is offered on a first-come-first-served, once per council basis; to date more than 280 councils have taken advantage of this

Step-by-step support: You’ll have access to useful, easy-to-use guides – including templates, checklists and good practice advice – to help you at each stage. Virtual workshops and drop-in sessions are also available for clerks, councillors and council staff alike

Technical hand-holding:  From managing the registration of your domain, to actively supporting device, service and email set-up there’s an Approved Registrar ready to help with the most technical aspects of the move to a .gov.uk domain

Flexibility: If you’re happy with your current website or email provider there’s no reason for you to change – your Approved Registrar can work with them to make the connection to your new .gov.uk domain

The Parish Council Domains Helper Service is offering a wide range of support to all councils moving over to a .gov.uk domain in the financial year 2024-25.  If you’re interested in finding out more please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

NALC has published an updated edition of The Good Councillor’s Guide for member councils, an electronic copy of which can be downloaded from the NALC website.

BT Group announced last week their intention to delay the date for the switching off of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).  The original date around which plans have been made was early December 2025.  BT Group announced today the rescheduled date of 31 January 2027.  This additional 13 months allows more time for Communications Providers (CPs) to safely migrate their vulnerable customers from the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).

What does this mean for local councils?
You should by now have an inventory of all your lines and associated Service Provider(s). If you’re not already talking to your Service Provider, please make plans to do so ASAP.

Please continue to audit any safety devices on your estate, whether that’s a lift alarm, monitoring service or telecare device. Reach out to your device suppliers and get help and advice on the compatibility of these devices on a digital network.

The urgency for switching customers onto digital services grows by the day because the 40-year-old analogue landline technology is becoming increasingly fragile and harder to maintain service. We encourage you to continue with your current plans to switch to digital as soon as possible.

What about the vulnerable?
We’ve been working closely with CPs to develop a new ‘Prove Telecare’ service which would help to ensure that telecare devices still work after an engineering visit to upgrade an end customer to a digital service. This service will be trialled later this year.

BT Business plan to launch a new service (available until 2030) called ‘Pre-digital Phone Line’. BT Business are inviting CPs to register their interest to become resellers of this service to their customers. This service will give end customers an analogue type of voice service, with power on the line via their master socket. This is a temporary solution rather than a long-term alternative to digital.

Pkease check the BT Group updated FAQs here if you have any questions.

Essential reading for Clerks/RFOs when considering any findings and recommendations for their own council., particularly for Finance Committees, 

2022-2023 was the first year of the second five-year appointing period during which SAAA was responsible for appointing auditors to Smaller Authorities. In 2021, SAAA appointed four audit firms, BDO, Mazars, Moore and PKF Littlejohn, for the five financial years beginning on 1 April 2022. This report gives details of their work with Smaller Authorities for the financial year 2022-2023.

The full report can be accessed here: SAAA 2022 to 2023 Report

The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) has published the Joint Panel on Accountability and Governance (JPAG) 2024 edition of the Practitioners' Guide.

The 2024 edition of the guide applies to Annual Governance and Accountability Returns (AGAR) regarding financial years commencing on or after 1 April 2024.

The most notable changes to the Practitioners' Guide this year are:

• Stronger encouragement for local (parish and town) councils to use gov.uk domains for websites and emails. The Parish Council Domains Helper Team recently blogged about the benefits of this approach.
• Recommendation that local councils publish their full internal audit report on their website alongside the AGAR. NALC's Smaller Councils Committee discussed the recommendation and agreed that this would support smaller councils in their work to be ever more open and accountable to their communities. It could also improve the quality of internal audit services to local councils.

JPAG is responsible for issuing proper practices about the governance and accounts of smaller authorities. Its membership comprises sector representatives from NALC, the Society of Local Council Clerks and the Association of Drainage Authorities. Together with stakeholder partners representing the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, the National Audit Office, and a representative of the external audit firms appointed to smaller authorities.

JPAG Practitioners Guide 2024

JPAG Guide to 2024 Changes

You can book the Essential Councillor and Planning in Plain English Trainers to come to your council at your own venue and at a time convenient to your council.

We will run the session for your all your own councillors or you can work with other councils (participant limit is 15 when working with other councils).

There is a set fee for the training of £275 for up to 15 Councillors, plus trainer expenses.

Please contact the Chief Officer at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for further details and to make bookings.

What is effective community engagement and what can be learnt from for local practice?

NALC policy consultation briefing to all member councils

Infrastructure Levy consultation NALC Briefing

Closing date 9th June 2023

The Ornamental Wilderness in the English Garden with Dr James Bartos  22nd April

Garden visits:

Wednesday, 28 June 2023 - 10:30 am - 4:30 pm - Garden visit to High Glanau Manor and Wyndcliffe Court

Monday, 24 July 2023 at 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm - Garden Visit to Caisson House, Combe Hay, Bath, BA2 7EF

DETAILS

Please help with this research

“Diverse voices?  Are local councils in England and Wales attracting councillors with non-visible disabilities?”  This research aims to investigate whether the trend of under representation of disabled people in public and political life is reflected in the local council sector (town, parish and community councils in England and Wales)

LINK

Thank you.

A WORD FROM NALC AND SLCC CHIEF
EXECUTIVES
We are delighted that the number of councils signing up to
the civility pledge is over 1,000, a tremendous start, and we
encourage all councils to consider signing up to it.

Newsletter C&R newsletter 2023

Introducing a new guide to help local councils protect precious green spaces and paths, Kate Ashbrook, general secretary of the Open Spaces Society⁽¹⁾, Britain’s oldest conservation body, says:

‘Often town, parish and community councils (local councils) are unaware of all the extensive powers they have to deal with problems on open spaces and paths.

‘These powers are scattered in different and sometimes obscure pieces of legislation.  This is why we have brought them together in one document, What local councils can do for public access to town and countryside.

The ALCA Elections Information Pack is now in the Members Area of this website under "Toolkits" - log in to access and enjoy!

Hopefully you have already heard of Slow Ways. We are co-creating the first point to point walking network in Great Britain and we need your help! Slow Ways has 8000 routes over 2500 towns and cities so there will be one near you. There are already thousands of citizens who have walked thousands of Slow Way routes but it isn't completed yet - can your team get involved?

The Treasury has released the finer details for the snappily named replacement to the Energy Bill Relief Scheme which finishes on 31st March, the details for which we have summarised below: