March newsletter
With the elections just around the corner it is a very busy and unpredictable time for everyone. The DCN Team are working hard to ensure that we are ready to engage, at the earliest opportunity with whoever forms the next Government.
The DCN Team are going through some changes over the next month as the new DCN Director will start in post in early April. Steve Atkinson will be joining us on a part time basis for a period of 6 months. Steve is the Chief Executive at Hinckley and Bosworth at the moment and will split his time between the DCN and Hinckley. The DCN Manager, Catherine Evans, will be leaving the team to return to her substantive post at Rushcliffe Borough Council on 10 April.
It is an exciting time for the team as we gear up for the busy months ahead. As ever if you have any comments or questions about anything included in our newsletter please get in touch: dcn@local.gov.uk
New Ways of Working
A workshop was held on Monday 30 March which was hosted jointly by the DCN and INLOGOV. This was to provide our members with an update on the work that has been done so far by INLOGOV on the piece of research looking at how district councils have adopted new ways of working with their partners to strengthen their local leadership for their communities, deliver savings and better outcomes.
INLOGOV outlined some of their key findings from the case studies and interviews that they have carried out. This includes some emerging themes:
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Leadership
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Selflessness
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Trust
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Momentum
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Risk
We hope to launch the findings from the research in mid May and we look forward to sharing those with you.
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Financial Independence
To help us lobby more effectively we need evidence and data from our members to help strengthen our ask to government. A key focus of our financial independence project group is centrally set fees and charges. The DCN have lobbied for a long time for locally set fees and charges to ensure that they are cost neutral to the tax payer.
We have produced a questionnaire that seeks to get data about the current cross-subsidisation to help strenghten our ask to government. This covers 3 areas; planning, licensing and freedom of information.
The survey can be found here.
The deadline for responses is Friday 17 April.
We would like to alert you to the governments business rates review consultation which was published earlier this month. The DCN will be submitting a response but we would encourage our members to provide individual responses where possible. You can find more details here.
The closing date for responses is 12 June 2015. If you have any comments that would like to share with the DCN on this please get in touch.
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Economic Growth
The final report of the Independent Commission on Economic Growth and the Future of Public Services in Non-Metropolitan England 'Devolution to non-metropolitan England: seven steps to growth and prosperity' was published in early March.
The DCN welcomed the report and support its 7 recommendations. We paticularly welcome the commissions view of proactive bottom-up reform through groupings of councils. District councils have a strong track record of working with both neighbouring and regional partners across and beyond traditional boundaries to support growth.
Our economic growth survey is still open for responses until Friday 17 April. We know that districts make a significant contribution to growth and we want to hard evidence and data to back this up.
We would really appreciate as many of our members as possible completing our questionnaire to tell us about what you are doing and have done to support growth in your area.
You can access the survey here.
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Quality of Life
The DCN are commissioning a research project to collate existing evidence, assess return on investment estimates and draw conclusions around the potential long term benefits to public health and well being and public sector finances through investment of finances in district council services. The research will seek to make the economic case for funding to district councils for our services which improve health and well being and reduce whole system costs to health and social care. Look out for further details in the next few weeks.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has published a series of new guides to support closer working between its inspection team and councillors in scrutiny and executive functions of local government. The three guides can be accessed here.
You can access the latest LGA Care and Support Reform bulletin here.
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Planning
The DCN recently attended a meeting with colleagues from DCLG and PINs to discuss our ideas on streamlining the planning system. This was also attended by the Planning Officers Society (POS) and Planning Advisory Service (PAS) who also presented some ideas. It was agreed that the next steps would be to develop the ideas with a group of practitioners. This is a joint event being facilitated by PAS and is taking place on Thursday 16 April. We look forward to sharing the outcomes of that with you.
Changes to the sustainable urban drainage system: From 6 April district councils will be responsible for regulating, through the planning system, the detailed approval, adoption and maintenance of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDs). Whilst taking advice from Lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFA - Counties), who become statutory consultees. The government has completed its new burdens assessment and concluded that there is no new burdens on LPA. This is disappointing as the DCN along with colleagues from the LGA worked hard to try and get the new burden recognised.
The new planning guidance is now live and links through to the non statutory technical standards published by Defra.
Districts will need to ensure that the necessary liaison arrangements are in place between LPAs and LLFAs by 6 April 2015.
The DCN have provided reponses to recent government consultations on planning including:
Speeding up negotiations on S106
Building more home on brownfield land
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In This Issue
Promote your council at the LGA Conference - submit a case study for this year's DCN stand
The DCN will be exhibiting again at this year's LGA Conference in Harrogate, from 30 June to 2 July 2015.
As always we will be displaying a wide variety of case studies that highlight best practise in district and borough councils on our stand.
So if you would like your work/council to be promoted at the conference for free, why not submit a case study.
Click here to find out more.
DCN drinks reception
As in previous years the DCN will be hosting an evening drinks reception for our members at the LGA conference. This year it is taking place on:
Tuesday 30 June 2015 at the Sun Pavilion, Harrogate
To book your place please e mail celia.griver@local.gov.uk or book online.
Job opportunity at the DCN
We are pleased to offer an exciting opportunity to join the DCN Team on a 12 month secondment/contract as our Strategic Communications Officer.
You can find out more details here.
LGA conference
The Local Government Associations Annual Conference this year takes place on:
Tuesday 30 June to Thursday 2 July 2015 in Harrogate
The cost to attend is:
LGA member: £495 +VAT
Non member: £640 +VAT
To find out more and book your place visit the LGA website.
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