Did you know that if you are counting commercial days or sleeps for the more sentimental among you, to Christmas you are now in double figures! How depressing is that? This means it is time to start locating the parish Christmas decorations and start constructing your plans, cajoling your volunteers and updating the risk assessment. Alternatively track down and organisation to do it for you, but I suggest you move fast as their diaries will already be congested. Till then, a review of the week and what’s coming up.
HIGHLIGHTS
- BMKALC AGM
- NALC Updates and Resources
- Recruitment
- Training
BMKALC AGM
Twenty-eight councils attended our AGM along with the Lord Lieutenant for Buckinghamshire and Paul Hodson at the Campbell Park Community Hub. We enjoyed a welcome from Lady Howe before attending to the business advertised on our Agenda. Paul Nichols and Cllr Sandy Saunders were returned as Vice Presidents for a further year, and Lady Howe was returned as our President. The Budget and new Constitution were agreed and the Annual Report for year ending March 2026 noted. The subscriptions were resolved to be 25p per elector per year for 2027 – 2028 on the basic of 16.2p for BMKALC and 8.8p for NALC. Hopefully having these numbers now, will assist you in your budgets for next year.
The Annual Report provided a copy of our financial returns and also a summary of our training and events programmes as well as the customary reports. I have a limited number of hard copies available if you would like one, and it is also available on our website to download.
NALC Updates and Resources
The 2026/7 Star Council Awards, is live and in its last few weeks for nominations. Councils and Councillors Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes have featured previously and we need to keep up that profile. Please consider nominations for Council of the Year, Councillor of the Year, Young Councillor of the Year, Climate Response of the Year, County Association of the Year and Clerk of the Year. It is important to put the nominations in, without them fabulous people, projects and organisations go unrecognised. Some people have found the nomination process a little intimidating as there are a few questions to consider. Let me emphasis that the word count is only a guide. Whilst they don’t need a extended narrative, if you can get your point across in less than 150 words, do!
NALC have updated their advice note on data protection following statutory changes to data protection complaints handling and their advice note on members’ conduct and the registration and disclosure of their interests in England, further to a legislative change to the Localism Act 2011 introducing a requirement for councillors’ residential addresses not to be published in the public register of interests.
The Martyn’s Law Steering Group have published new guidance and practical resources to help parish and town councils prepare for the Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025, ahead of its expected commencement in spring 2027. You can read the full guide on the NALC website.
The NALC Improvement and Development Board also met last week to consider a report on its key priorities and how to combine it with insights from the 21st Century Parish and Town Councillor and Clerk report. There were also updates from the Civility and Respect Working Group and the Data Taskforce, including initial findings from the national survey on services delivered by the sector. If you have not yet completed the survey, we encourage you to take a few minutes to do so, as every response helps build a clearer picture of the sector’s impact.
Project Keystone has reached an important milestone, with representatives across the parish and town council sector helping to shape a vision for the future support the sector will need over the next decade. Through a series of workshops, participants identified priorities including stronger collaboration, better access to training and expertise, clearer roles and responsibilities, and greater use of technology to support councils. You can read more about the project on our website.
Employment and Recruitment
Don’t forget your opportunity to advertise your vacancies for free on the BMKALC website. A special note to those councils who like to advertise the clerks vacancy with a requirement for the candidate to achieve CiLCA within 12 months of commencing their roles. This is not possible and we will ask you to consider moving this requirement.
Clerks cannot be enrolled on the course with any CiLCA qualified trainer unless they have had 12 months experience in the role of clerk or in some instances deputy clerk. The training provided by the trainer takes a number of months, in our instance 6 months, and the clerk then will need approximately 200 hours to produce their portfolio. Add in the time for the assessors to do their work and you quickly realise that you are asking a lot for the clerk to achieve this in two years.
It is worth reminding all of us that CiLCA is a serious qualification assessed and awarded by an independent body, not just a chance for clerks to get together for a cup of tea with their trainer. Checks are in place to verify the information that candidates provide and if it is found that they have exaggerated their preparedness for this course, they may be removed from the training until they are ready.
If your council is considering recruitment, career progression opportunities or benchmarking local government roles, don’t forget to check both the BMKALC Vacancies Page the NALC Job Vacancies Portal and the SLCC, which regularly feature opportunities from across Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes and the wider local council sector.
Buckinghamshire Council
Dates for the Clerks Forums for 2027 are as follows:
- Monday 18 January 2027 (Teams) – Teams
- Tuesday 19 January 2027 (Teams) – Teams
- Monday 19 April 2027 (In-person) – Diamond Room
- Tuesday 20 April 2027 (In-person) – Chesham TC
- Monday 12 July 2027 (In-person) – Diamond Room
- Tuesday 13 July 2027 (In-person) – Chesham TC
- Monday 11 October 2027 (In-person) – Diamond Room
- Tuesday 12 October 2027 (In-person) – Chesham TC
Milton Keynes City Council
The Parishes forum met last night in MKCC an excellent meeting and well attended. I was particularly keen to hear from Thames Valley Police about the Community Safety Accreditation Scheme which I’m currently investigating as an opportunity for local councils. The community safety accreditation scheme (CSAS) | Thames Valley Police and Accredited organisations and their powers | Thames Valley Police.
Training and Development Opportunities
Coming up in our diary…
Managing Projects for Town & Parish Councils – September 23rd at 11am Online – BMKALC
Chairing Skills – 24th of September at 6.30pm -In-person – BMKALC
Keep an eye on BMKALC training courses as Lorraine is always busy tracking down new opportunities and don’t forget to explore the excellent programmes available through our trusted partners:
• Breakthrough Communications – specialist communications, engagement, and media training.
• The Parkinson Partnership – sector-specific HR, employment and management training.
• CloudyIT – practical Microsoft 365, cyber security, AI, using their product suites.
Don’t forget to let them know you are members of BMKALC.
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend and we look forward to speaking with you next week!
Kind regards,
Mel, Lorraine and Jess