Scope of what is lacking with parish councils - Your input is needed

Question

Hi,

I’m putting together a review of what seems to be wrong with councils. It’s seems a negative approach but leaning on commercial experience, the only way you can improve things is to be self critical.

Please review the diagram and let me know of an additional areas to add.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CnEuFx-U6sF8agvL7ZiD_ETGmTjISDqf/view?usp=drivesdk

this will form part of a deeper project, so let me know if you are interested in keeping in touch.

Answer 1

I understand where you're coming from, but every Council is different and success is transient, as people come and go. Although we operate under a universal legal framework, fundamental concepts such as aspiration differentiate between us all. In business, you strive for sales and profit as a universal target/benchmark, but local councils lack that commonality. There may be nothing wrong with striving to be small and quiet if your community is content with that.

Comments

Thanks for the reply Dave. I think you have missed read the objective. This approach is not about “doing more“ it relates to working on the areas where councils need to improve or have to improve to stay relevant and in some places legal.
“To stay relevant” means ensuring they connect with the public, encourage democracy and involvement from those willing and able. Councils must reflect and keep pace with society otherwise we will have problems in the future.
Is there anything you can think of that can be added?
Also it would be interesting to know your opinion on any comments in red that you feel perhaps does not need focus.

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If you were sitting down with a blank sheet of paper to invent a framework for local councils for the first time, what you created would bear absolutely no resemblance to what we currently have.

Local councils self-regulate. I'm not completely against the concept of self-regulation in life, but it fails more than it succeeds. We allow untrained councillors to employ unqualified clerks to administer our affairs. Between them, they select an unqualified internal auditor to scrutinise our work, often a former untrained clerk or the untrained clerk of a neighbouring local council. But then Big Brother steps in, in the form of the principal council's Monitoring Officer - somebody who has a proper day job and no interest whatsoever in becoming embroiled in the petty squabbles of local councils, with virtually no statutory remit to force them to oversee us. What could possibly go wrong? But fear not. The electorate will not tolerate this. Failing councils will face the wrath of their parishioners and be consigned to the wheelie-bin of history (collected fortnightly, if you're lucky!) The revolting peasants will take over their councils and uncontested elections will be a thing of the past.

There are some fantastic councils out there, working hard to follow the rules and transform the lives of their local communities, but there are also far too many Dibley Parish Councils. I'm a rules and regulations man, as you'll see from many of my posts on the forum, but so often we see questions from people along the lines of "My council has broken the rules. What can I do about it?" The honest answer? Sweet FA! Without a radical rethink, I don't see the situation improving in my lifetime. The Local Government Act is nearly as old as I am. It's had a few tweaks here and there, but surely it's due for a re-write soon?

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Oh Dave, that was very well articulated ! You are right on many fronts and change in governance and enforcement would help in addition to actual real transparency rather than token gesture stuff often seen. I think we need to make the environment more attractive so we stand a chance of having more of a choice at the ballot box. Weed out those that don’t care to follow the rules (or the spirit of them) and get rid of those that want to “own” their parish rather that seek to truly serve the public’s best interest.
All these things seem insurmountable but for those that care, we must aim for this “utopia”  !!
By the way, how many times have you heard all this frustration from councillors during your time as a clerk?

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It would be great to weed out those that don't care to follow the rules, but in reality, only the voting public has the power to do that and they don't care. This is an area of law with virtually no sanctions. Imagine being caught doing 75mph in a 30mph zone and facing the ultimate sanction of being told not to drive so fast in future. Or pointing a gun at a security guard delivering cash to a bank and running off with his box of money, then living the rest of your life in fear of somebody tapping you on the shoulder and asking you not to commit any further armed robberies.

Too many good frustrated councillors choose to resign, rather than strive to make changes. We don't get the people we want or need, because we can't make the role attractive enough to entice them. We get the talkers, not the thinkers. We're so bogged down in the potential locations for a new dog poo bin that we don't discuss the bigger issues.

Compulsory training/qualification is the ultimate solution, but we're so far from this utopian position now that we'd need a ten-year transition period. Many Clerks would retire rather than go back to school, so we'd need to be sure that we could plug the gaps. Requiring that level of qualification for a job which, in small rural parish councils may only pay around £4k per year, could be unrealistic.

My biggest fear is that parish councils will be forced to take on more and more services handed down from the district councils, without the capacity to cope.

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Perhaps Covid-19 might be a force for good in accelerating some changes that we've all hoped for over the years:
- more transparency
- video meetings - Zoom is a breath of fresh air in my opinion;  I know this won't be a view shared by everyone;  video meetings make it easier for members of the public to participate or even just view their local council for the first time
- new legislation as we move to unitary authorities (wouldn't it be frightening to give some parish/town councils more responsibilities when they can't get the basics right?)

I agree with all your points, Dave.

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It's interesting to see your views on Zoom. Mine are the opposite. Zoom has undone years of trying to encourage people to engage with their local councils. In my four councils, over a six month period, I'd expect to see somewhere near a hundred public attendances. On Zoom, I've had three! We're holding face-to-face meetings again where we have suitable buildings and I had eleven residents at two meetings last week.

In my communities, people don't trust technology and that applies to councillors too. Several have been absent since March. On the other hand, Zoom is a godsend for Planning Committees in small communities, where we rarely deal with more than one application at a time and they are seldom controversial, so meetings last an average of five minutes.

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I agree that Zoom meets are polarising. Many councillors I know at district and parish seem content with Zoom due to the efficiency. There are trade offs though. When in transition periods, disruption is to be expected and new work is needed to achieve what’s expected.
God knows how you get to see 100 public attendees at council meetings over 6 months - I’ve probably seen 20 at both district and parish in 12 months (pre Covid)
There seems to be such a broad range of experiences across the country.

Transparency is the winner as pithead points out. Some meetings are recorded and put on YouTube and there is no hiding for “bad actors”. Time is needed to try and onboard the public but this comes back to the original post and the file uploaded - 1 element was that the meetings are boring and sometimes self indulgent for councillors.
I’m looking at techniques to help tackle the issues highlighted in the document - still looking for pointers

Answer 2

I think it is a good idea but it seems to me that you come from an organisation with well developed Business targets & processes and are trying to apply that to a Parish Council.  Your diagram has some vague themes and it looks something like a brainstorming chart.  Some content in it is open to interpretation.  For example, what do you mean by "Integrated" & Manifest"?  What does "Lack of simplified summary "mean in relation to Council Officers? That sort of jargon may be clear to you but is open to lots of loose interpretation.

Comments

Yeah good point Graeme. Manifest is a typo and should be “Manifesto”
A better word than “integrated” would be “relationship” showing the 3 entities having a relationship.
Our Parish Council is one of the largest precepting in the country and it is not appropriate in some respects as we are failing to manage many aspects with effective volunteers. It’s been mis-managed for over 15 years. There are some areas in the diagram probably not applicable to other councils. We employ over 20 staff, that said many of the areas highlighted do mean something to most councils.

“Lack of simplified summaries” from council officers is based on my observation that Most of the public and a quite a few members just don’t get involved because they don’t understand. I believe there is a solution to create simplified summaries that can be effective and engage more public and members. I feel the council is not proactive in being super transparent and results in little to no public getting involved which in turn makes life easier (same for some members too).

Motions, agendas and minutes are really poor too. I think at times, illegal. The main thrust is to get transparency and understanding to the constituents as that will drive better practices in the long run but “turkeys don’t vote for Xmas” and this is the problem I find.

Answer 3

The Committee on Standards in Public Life is currently seeking the views of the public, "as part of its review into the institutions, processes and structures in place to support high standards of conduct".  The consultation closes at 5pm on 29th January 2021.  Anyone with an interest in public standards may make a submission.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/standards-matter-2-public-consultation-and-public-sector-survey