After noticing the lack of legal help for parish councils, a group of monitoring officers set about creating a toolkit to help. Kirsty Cole explains the project that won the legal category in last year's MJ Achievement Awards The Local Government Act 2000 places responsibility for promoting awareness of the code of conduct and encouraging high standards of ethical behaviour among parish councillors firmly in the hands of the monitoring officer and standards committee of the principal authority in whose area the parish councils are located. This can be an onerous and daunting responsibility. And the current challenges are likely to increase when local assessment of standards complaints is introduced in April next year. A small group of monitoring officers in Nottinghamshire, including me, Chris Brown at Broxtowe BC, and Paul Cox at Rushcliffe BC, conceived the idea of developing a toolkit for parish councils to help them with their governance arrangements. We were aware some did not have standing orders, financial regulations or schemes of delegation, and were struggling to comply with the requirements of new legislation, such as Freedom of Information and Data Protection. The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) is doing an excellent job in producing materials and promoting training, but we were aware there were many parish councils which were not members. Several town and parish clerks are their sole council employee. And they are often isolated and lack formal training, and turnover is high. If we could produce a basic reference document, including all the essential materials to ensure good governance, then we would reduce our own workload by securing a reduction in the number of complaints referred to us as monitoring officers. If designed appropriately, the toolkit could also serve as a useful reference source for officers responsible for town and parish councils. Rather than just sitting and talking about it, we began to work on turning the concept into reality. We mooted the idea of producing the toolkit at an East Midlands ACSeS branch meeting, where there was universal support, and we recruited volunteers, Phil McCourt – then at Harborough BC – Barbara Ding of East Northamptonshire DC, and Geoff Pook of Rutland CC. From the outset we decided the toolkit should be simple and user-friendly, easily understandable and available free. Our primary audience was town and parish clerks but we designed some of the material in such a way that it could be used as guidance notes/handouts for parish councillors. We included a ‘who does what guide' and focused on the sort of things a parish clerk needed to know and do. We included information on: l the role of the parish clerk, including a model job description l effective governance with guidance on communication, including agendas and minutes, frequently-asked questions, guidance on the conduct of the annual town or parish meeting and model delegation arrangements l model protocols on gifts and hospitality, member/officer relations, communications and bullying and harassment, as well as guidance notes on whistle-blowing and a model complaints procedure l ‘danger zones' – dealing with Freedom of Information, Data Protection, health and safety and defamation, and there is a chapter on the roles and responsibilities of town and parish councillors. To make sure the toolkit was available to as wide an audience as possible, we designed it so it could be produced in hard-copy format, CD or downloaded. And the toolkit has been enthusiastically received. Margaret Wagstaffe, town clerk at Aylesbury Town Council, says: ‘I just want to thank you and your colleagues for this superb tool. It is readable, well put together and comprehensive. It has proved very useful. ' We have received many similar comments, but that is not the end of the story. The toolkit has already been revised and version two has been published with additional chapters on elections and the formation of new parish and town councils, and the toolkit team is now working on version three, which will take on board the revisions to the code of conduct in 2007 and the implications for parishes of the introduction of local assessment of complaints in April. The toolkit was, and continues to be, a true team effort with a cross-authorities, cross-counties team of officers coming together to create something with national benefit to the local government world. n Kirsty Cole is strategic director (corporate services) and monitoring officer at Newark & Sherwood DC
