How many councils feel that ALC training for their clerk has had a negative impact on working relationships?

Question

Hello everyone. On a post on this board I saw a comment that clerks returned from ALC training with an oddly adversarial attitude towards councillors, almost as if they believed that councillors could not be trusted to fulfil their role 'properly'.  My council recently appointed a new clerk who has no prior experience in the role and only her ALC training to go by. There is a considerable amount of micromanaging going on, outside of the contracted role of clerk; information requested by councillors is sometimes not supplied for weeks; throwaway comments about distrust are now starting to pile up.

How many councils are experiencing this issue?

How many councils have approached their local ALC about the training content?

How many councils have made complaints to their local ALC/Head of Democratic Services on the next council level up (e.g. borough or district council) and got a response?

Initially, the new councillors believed that the issues we inherited were due to the previous clerk. Having removed that problem, we seem to be in pretty much the same situation now.  Is it just us?

Thanks

Answer 1

Sadly, this does seem to be the case. For two of my councils, the relationship with my predecessors broke down when they received training from our local association. I haven't attended any training, so I can't put my finger on the exact cause, but it does appear to revolve around the issue of who's in charge. To be fair, we do have some pretty poor councillors, but there are ways of providing guidance without rocking the boat.

Comments

To be fair, looking at many of the posts on this forum, one could be forgiven for concluding that, also, we do have some pretty poor Town Clerks.

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This is my concern. We formed an apolitical group to stand against our councillors (who were all party candidates) and were surprised to win all seats.  Our local ALC only seems to support the clerk, not the council.  If there are multiple town and parish councils working with clerks who refuse to follow requests and directions, then the fault probably isn't local?

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Our clerk was trained fresh for the current role. If this attitude had been apparent during the interview, they wouldn't have been appointed

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If you have an inexperienced Town Clerk, who will obviously be very likely to cling to whatever training has been provided, you run the risk of a disproportionate reliance, of the clerk, on what the training instils. Also, due to the inexperience you are presented with the option of micro-management or standing back and hoping for the best. As I have commented above there does seem to be a plethora of instances where clerks do their own thing. I don't think you are in any way unique. If you are united in your view as a council then you could take it up through the HR committee. Dave's comment about who is in charge seems key here.

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That makes sense. Thank you. I look forward to hearing the views from other councils too.

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Interestingly I've heard plenty of comments locally that our county office seems to be entirely unsupportive of clerks!
In reality I suspect it's impossible to pin responsibility on one single factor.  Clerks, both new and those a little longer in the tooth, are increasingly being bombarded with new legislation, recommended practices and an audit regime that in the first instances seems to make them feel solely responsible for anything and everything (this year's JPAG guide is 74 pages long).  Councillors on the other hand, want to get the job done quickly, make an identifiable difference, and are usually from a commercial background which operates very differently from that of the local government sector making rules like finding a relevant power (for not GPOC councils), clear days notice, multiple quotes for simple things and decisions only made in meetings seem like something of a nonsense designed specifically to obstruct rather than enable.  Add the personality factor into this too, especially if or when there is only one often stressed staff member, and it can be a surprise that it sometimes works at all.
Our last clerk was a specialist in rubbing everyone up the wrong way and there was a collective sigh of relief when they left.  The current one is lovely and efficient but I've noticed a tendency for the current councillors to step back as a result and simply let him get on with it, which isn't good either.
Finally, and for the record, principal authorities are in no way responsible for what goes on at county offices or indeed elsewhere.  They might have a view about the training their own organisation provides (which is often not much at all) but other than to manage the monitoring officer functions of investigating code of conduct complaints against parish councillors, have no authority or remit over town and parish councils.

Answer 2

The plight of a clerk isn't an easy one & as training tends to focus on legislative & policy requirements, a clerk can soon feel overwhelmed with responsibility & rules. It's a lonely profession, often stuck between a rock & a hard place, with councillors who sometimes don't really understand the roles of local government & the public who think it's fair game to bombard the clerk with time absorbing complaints & repetitive requests.
I was a councillor prior to becoming a clerk & didn't really understand the role until the handover commenced. I haven't found my county association to be anti-councillor, but I suppose the learning process festers a worry about compliance & responsibility.
Your situation sounds a little like a neighbouring parish. Big village - they had a local treasure who clerked for them for over 20 yrs. I think she was a very competent secretary & book-keeper, but looking at the council website, she hadn't kept abreast of all the requirements expected in a modern local council, including all the H & S and data related policy requirements. The councillors missed her sorely when she left. Things lapsed due to lack of clerk and the PC found itself in hot water.
An experienced CiLCA clerk stepped in to dig them out the hole they'd found themselves in. By the looks of it, she did a very good job, getting the finances in order & putting in place policies. Yet there seemed to be a resentment aimed at her from some councillors. One councillor shouted & swore at her during a meeting & there's a paper trail on the PC website documenting the aftermath. She resigned shortly after.

That PC has another clerk who appears to be enduring similar treatment. She is on loan from another neighbouring PC, brought in to help them through the AGAR.
The reason I know a bit about this saga is because the shouty councillor asked if I'd be interested in the role & I was interviewed a few weeks ago. The good bit is I really liked the 2 councillors who interviewed me (both strangers to me), the bad news is they still believe the clerk's role is something of a cushy number, something that can be done in 6 hours a week (as I said it's a big council). I gently pointed out that from what I'd seen, the clerk had done a really good job of getting them up to date & was being criticised for doing her job.
In short, they hankered after the good old days, when 'things' didn't matter too much, they just bumbled along without worrying about risk assessments, insurance and so on - the original clerk just did the basics & kept out their hair. They'd flown under the radar and got away with it, until they didn't & then the proverbial hit the fan. Learning that bit is proving difficult for them.
Take your clerk out for a coffee & get to know her a bit. At least you'll have tried to improve things, even if it doesn't work out in the end.
Good luck!