Who should pay the SLCC membership fee? The Council or the Clerk?

Question

Just wondering as I do not know how the Council benefits from membership. Nurses and others pay their own fees for membership of their professional bodies.

Answer 1

A lot of employers pay membership fees for their staffs membership of professional bodies. Hopefully it is a sign of a professional clerk who has a desire to learn. Maybe that extra knowledge they gain will be a great benefit to the council at some point.

It might even give them a forum where they can ask questions of other professionals rather than having to come and rely on the likes of me.

I guess it depends on what you are looking for. If you just want someone to take the minutes and get quotes and are not too bothered if you accidentally breach any laws then maybe there is no point in paying the membership. If you want the clerk to go further and be able to advise council on potential legal issues before they arise then it might end up being worth every penny.

Answer 2

As to whether the council benefits form supporting fees for membership is for the council to decide ( along with employment committee input). If they decide yes it is value for money to have a better trained clerk  then they votre to pay. I would of course tend to insert into contracts of employment insurance that the PC does benefit for this support with a payback scheme to the PC should the clerk "move on" ( newly qualified) within an agreed period of time after qualification, to ensure the PC does see a benefit of investment of tax payers money.

Answer 3

If the council resolves to pay the subscription fee, the council should benefit from access to the resources at the SLCC site.

If you have Cllrs that wish to learn more and be better informed, they should ask to have access to NALC and county ALC login and password AND the SLCC login and password.

It is divisive and often contentious when Cllrs seek access to these resources with clerks and ALC /SLCC supporting the notion that only clerks should have access.

This is patently absurd if (and I'll accept it is a big if) there are Cllrs that want to read up independently.  This is often overtly prevented by a clerk since "knowledge is power" - my first tussle in this game was from a clerk with 20 years service to the PC telling me he'd tell me whatever I needed to know...

That didn't end well for him, 6 months after I joined that PC he threatened an Ind Trib, I countered with the proposition of a fraud investigation and he did a moonlight flit after arranging for the forensic wipe of the PC IT system.
Councils should adopt the approach - no access (to SLCC / ALC) resources - no subscription fee from public money.  That would put a rocket up NA:C and SLCC who seem to have forgotten who puts the bread on their table

Answer 4

Membership of the SLCC is on an individual basis, i.e. it is the clerk not the council who is the member.  In my opinion, councils definitely benefit from having a clerk who is qualified or at the very least has access to the resources available through that organisation.  Whether a council should pay or contribute to the clerk's fees is a matter for individual councils to decide as part of their employment package, although I know that several do contribute.
Membership of NALC is on a council basis, through the local/county office.  Not all councils are members and it is evident that the quality of the local/county office can vary considerably.  NALC has recently changed their website and how access is made to one on an individual basis so each user (user being defined as a councillor) setting up their own account online. I've not tried it so can't comment on how it is done or how user friendly it is.

Comments

Two years ago I resigned from our PC as the Locum Clerk refused to give me password access to the NALC website so as to read up on the various publications including LTNs.  At the time I approached the Chairman who has subsequently told me that the clerk threatened to resign if she was forced to hand over the details .  She also said that she would ensure that her agency would blacklist our PC as they wouldn't deal with "problem Councils".   At the time I contacted my former boss who was Chair of the local County association area committee.  He agreed to bring it up at the next area Committee.  He didn't.  After that The County Association refused to answer my E mails. I then got E mails addressees of various Committees in NALC but here NALC reception intercepted my E mails and advised that they would not let them go  forward to the intended recipient as they didn't deal with individual Councillors.   I then traced some of them down to their PC addresses but none of the NALC committee members would reply .  I then wrote to the Government Dept and my MP and each of them said its a matter between the PC and the County Association.  Imagine my surprise when I noted with the launch of the new web site that Councillors could apply direct.  I wonder whether my 2 year campaign made any difference.  I will never know.    This is of course nothing to do with the original question except to say  the whole issue begs the question what is anybody doing to improve the accessibility of Councillors to advice.  They have no organisation to join or source of expert opinion to go to.    The result is that more and more good people are leaving as they see clerks being escalated to god like importance.   My point is that the money paid for contributions is not relevant but the fact that Councillors are effectively seen a second class citizens just making up the numbers is .   Only 30% of Cllrs are now elected and 50% of elections never happen .   Public apathy is rife. The whole model cries out for reform. PS The SLCC advises that 97% of Parish Council's pay for their clerk's fees and I note they specifically advertise the relevant power in their blurb.

---

There are clerks that din't want Cllrs to have independent access to authoritative resources.
Equally, there are Cllrs that have neither the interest not the desire to educate themselves.


Any one that presents, encourages or maintains a barrier to Cllr access to information is a big part of the problem.


I too had a similar battle to access NALC and county ALC login and password but was successful against the best attempts of the clerk and the ALC even though to do so required a breach of IT security in that the login / password had to be shared since NALC lacks the functionality to issue any more than 1 login to any given council.

It is a big step forward that the webpage accessibility has been improved.