Council Employee Development
Income and expenditure accounts (for larger councils)
This session is for officers who want to understand how to prepare their council’s Annual Governance & Accountability Return on an income and expenditure basis (mandatory for councils regularly spending over £200,000) and comply with the requirements of the audit process.
New Clerks' Finance (get second course free after you attend)
This introductory session is for inexperienced clerks, deputy/assistant clerks and finance officers in their first few months and is designed to give them an overview of a council's year, along with a basic understanding of the RFO's role.
Introduction to VAT
This session is for clerks, finance staff and councillors. It explains how VAT rules affects local councils, focussing on those that are not VAT registered, but reclaim VAT using Form VAT126. Essential for any council contemplating major building projects
An introduction to neighbourhood planning and design codes
NEW FOR 2025
Does your council want to get started on a Neighbourhood Plan, or review an existing Plan?
This session will provide an understanding of what is involved in the development of a Neighbourhood Plan, and associated documents such as Design Codes, and also help with reviewing exisiting Plans.
Freedom of Information for local councils: obligations, procedures and exemptions
This course looks at what requirements and obligations local councils have when it comes to Freedom of Information.
Internal Controls
This session gives councillors and officers an understanding of the need for internal controls and how they work, with practical examples and case studies.
Crisis Communications for Local Councils
This session takes participants through the detail of preparing for any crisis. We pass on expert tips and guidance on being prepared, and cover the effective steps your council could take should the worst happen.
Data Protection and GDPR for councils part 3: data subject rights and information security
In this session we consider how to deal with data subject rights requests, including Subject Access Requests (SARs) and the importance of Information Security for local councils and what this means in practice..
Communicating with your community Part 2: Engaging with your community
Discover the tools, strategies and techniques needed to better promote your own messages but also to better respond to the voices within your local community.
Recent feedback from delegates attending this training:
As a relatively new parish councillor the course was really usefully our parish does not have a communication strategy therefore great information for our next steps. Also it encompasses all roles in councils.
Recruiting and retaining councillors
Learn effective ways to raise awareness and interest in the work of the council, in order to better promote and demystify the role of a councillor.
