ADSO Regional Updates
In YOUR Region – East Midlands
The East Midlands Regional Democratic Services Forum met for the first time on Tuesday 23 February 2010 at Blaby District Council. All authorities from the East Midlands were invited to attend.
Representatives discussed the arrangements and operation of a regional ADSO body. The meeting was well attended and all the representatives had a positive input and later discussed a number of best practice issues including approaches to e-petitions and officer support at council meetings.
Lincolnshire offered to host the next meeting in June. More details will be available on the ADSO website closer to the time.
In YOUR Region – the North East
The Regional Democratic Services Group, in association with the North East Regional Employers Organisation, recently organised an event for those working in democratic services, including officers at all levels working in members support, civic support, community governance, overview and scrutiny and meetings support.
The objectives of this event were to:
¬ launch and promote the Association in the North East region;
¬ promote the Association’s qualification;
¬ provide professional development workshops for officers working in democratic services; and
¬ consider the establishment of a North East branch of the Association.
This event was held on Friday 26 February 2010 in the Council Chamber, County Hall, Durham.
The seminar included:
¬ a presentation on the background, development, and anticipated benefits of membership of the Association from John Austin, Chairman of ADSO;
¬ a presentation from Bill Crawford, Executive Director (Commercial) of the Association of Electoral Administrators on how the AEA North East branch operates;
¬ a presentation on the new Democratic Services qualification and information on how to become involved;
¬ information and discussion on the establishment of North East branch of the Association; and
¬ presentations and trade stands by Public-I and Astech
Delegates were given the opportunity to participate in one of a series of professional development workshops covering topics of interest to those working in democratic services.
In YOUR Region – the North West
Following a number of successful regional events held in 2009, a meeting of the North West Democratic Services Steering Group will take place on Friday 12 March 2010. The meeting is being hosted by Warrington MBC and will commence at 10.00am.
The focus of discussions will be the development of an NW ADSO branch, arrangements for a mini AGM and conference to be held in late 2010 and development of the qualifications within the region.
Interested parties are asked to contact Mark Towers for more details via mark.towers@blackpool.gov.uk
In YOUR Region – the South East
As you may be aware, work is underway to set up Regional branches of the Association. Rather than duplicate or compete with current regional networks, ADSO are working in partnership with South East Employers to hold a joint network meeting. The first of these was held on 3 March at Old Sessions House, Clerkenwell Green, London. This was followed by a first (informal) branch meeting to discuss what members would like from a Regional branch and how you would like it to operate.
In YOUR Region – the South West
To complement regional briefings about ADSO and the new qualifications, South West Councils also conducted a survey across the SW region, the aim of which was to establish:
¬ Level of awareness in region of ADSO
¬ Likely level of membership in SW region
¬ Support for a branch in the region
¬ Format for a branch in the region
¬ What an AGM might look like
¬ Level of interest in the qualifications
The survey was promoted through Heads of Democratic Services for cascading to all DS staff (with a specific request to include areas such as the civic and scrutiny roles which are sometimes placed outside of DS).
We estimate there are around 300 DS staff in the region and we received 55 responses. Of those who responded:
¬ 89.1% had heard about ADSO
¬ 30.5% of those who had heard about ADSO had joined the association
¬ 53.1% of those who hadn’t yet joined were planning to
¬ 100% of those who had joined or were thinking of joining, supported the idea of a branch organised through South West Councils
¬ 48% of those who had joined or were thinking of joining, favoured bolting a branch onto an existing network
¬ 30% of those who had joined or were thinking of joining, favoured an annual conference as a branch meeting
¬ 52% of those who had joined or were thinking of joining, favoured the AGM as part of an annual conference
¬ 70.6% of respondees had heard about the new qualifications
¬ 42.9% of those who had heard about them were considering undertaking one of them
¬ 86.7% of those who were thinking of undertaking a qualification favoured the Certificate level
What does this tell us?
¬ Overall, there is a good awareness of the Assocation in the region although more work needs to be done to encourage membership.
¬ The idea of a branch in the region has been well received but needs further exploration in what benefits a branch may bring that existing networks don’t already offer.
¬ Awareness of the qualifications appears to be at a reasonable level but some further awareness raising needs to be done.
¬ The Level 3 Certificate in Democratic Services Practice appears to be the most likely qualification to be undertaken for those who are considering it.
SW Councils Scrutiny Officers network met on 5 February and received a full briefing on ADSO, post launch activity, web progress and the idea of a branch for the SW region.
There was discussion around the benefits of joining ADSO, in particular the website.
However, the general feedback was that the CfPS web site provided scrutiny officers with a wide range of freely available information which was not similarly available on the ADSO web site.
The two launched qualifications were discussed in some detail and the Diploma was referred to. Some members of the network felt that the qualifications weren’t transferable or recognised by other employers and that they did not represent a professional qualification for those in Scrutiny roles.
SW Councils are planning a conference for the region during July 2010. Against the background of likely challenges in delivering the local government agenda of the incoming national government, the conference theme concerns the increasing need to work collaboratively whether it is across teams, across authorities and areas or with other agencies to achieve more efficient ways of working towards shared objectives. This conference will look at that agenda in the context of Democratic Services and examine ways in which we are already working together, explore how we may need to work in the future and identify what skills are needed to deliver national and local objectives. A range of workshops will consider specific areas of the democratic services environment where delegates have an opportunity to shape the future.