Training and development menu

INVEST in officers and councillors and watch your council grow and your community benefit

A local council has a range of duties, roles and responsibilities offering lots of opportunities to make a difference to local communities across Suffolk.  Investing in developing the skills and expanding the capabilities of your local council team will help improve performance, gain a better understanding of how things should be done, reduce staff/councillor turnover, improve engagement and enable the delivery of projects and ideas.   It is also a great way to attract new people to get involved.  SALC recommends all local councils has a training and development policy, like this one, (download template) and a dedicated budget.

The SALC training programme and pathways offer a mixture of options designed to meet the needs of local councils regardless of size.

Councillor development pathway

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Officer development pathway

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Councillor training
View details here

  • Councillor basics (two sessions)

  • Finance for councillors

  • Data Protection for parish and town councillors

  • Chairing council and public meetings effectively

  • Social media skills for town and parish councillors

  • E-learning courses for local councils

Clerk/officer training
view details here

Financial management

View details here

  • Procurement

  • Internal controls

  • VAT for VAT registered councils

  • VAT for unregistered councils (VAT 126)

  • The role of internal audit

  • Year-end & transparency - councils under £25,0000

  • Year-end & audit - councils over £25,0000

  • Income & expenditure accounting (for larger councils)

Code of Conduct and Standards

  • link to follow 




  • Covering the legal framework, general principles, interests, dispensations, general obligations and breaches


Digital skills

link to follow
Offering your council the opportunity to grow its
digital knowledge and enable the team to consider ways in which they can improve efficiencies through the use of the Office 365 suite of applications.  

Community engagement

  • View details here




  • Communicating with your community part 1 - creating a communication strategy 

  • Communicating with your community part 2 - engaging with your community

  • How councils can recruit a more diverse pool of local councillors

  • How councils can engage effectively with young people in their communities 

  • Get the most from local and regional media

  • Crisis communications for local councils

Planning 
View details here 

  • Session 1 - Planning Law - covering Policy (national and local), guidance (national and local), planning processes and procedures, the application process, committee decision-making



  • Session 2 - Roles and responsibilities for town and parish councils - including neighbourhood planning, permitted development and use classes, CiL (Community Infrastructure Levy) and Section 106 Agreements



  • Session 3 - Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023 and Biodiversity Net Gain.  



  • Session 4 - Conservation, listed buildings, trees, roads and enforcement





Marketing and media

  • View details here

  • Social media part 1 - getting started with social media for local councils

  • Social media part 2 - advanced social media strategies and tactics for local councils

  • Canva part 1 - getting started

  • Canva part 2 - advanced

  • Social media skills for parish and town councillors

Information management

  • View details here

  • Data Protection for councils part 1 - foundations and theory

  • Data Protection for councils part 2 - accountability and lawfulness

  • Data Protection for councils part 3 - dealing with subject access requests and information security

  • Data protection training for parish and town councillors

  • Freedom of Information for local councils - obligations, procedures and exemptions

Communication and interpersonal

  • View details here

  • Dealing with difficult people and conversations in our local councils 


  • Chairing council and public meetings effectively

  • Emotional Intelligence and resilience in practice for clerks, officers and councillors - NEW COURSE




Allotments

  • View details here

  • Tenancy agreements, policies and the types of management


  • Planning, finding land, site facilities and health and safety 


E-learning 
View full menu here  

Routine play inspection course
View details here  


Digital skills



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