The National Training Strategy (NTS) was born of the Governmentâs Rural White Paper in 2000. The Strategy itself was agreed and published in November 2001.
Much has been achieved over the last eight years. Including:
- delivery of core qualification for clerks (The Certificate in Local Council Administration http://www.nalc.gov.uk/Training/CiLCA.aspx) and its award to approaching 1,000 candidates;
- new training materials and courses for parish councillors;
- a bursary scheme http://www.nalc.gov.uk/Training/Bursary/Bursary.aspx to support training in smaller parish councils (which has benefitted about over 1200 clerks;
- provision of train the trainers training;
- an agreed approach to Continuous Professional Development http://slcc-cpd.dyndns.info/cpdinfo.asp for clerks and others;
- a delivery mechanism through County Training Partnerships which brings co-ordination and joint planning between training providers in most areas http://www.nalc.gov.uk/Training/Contacts/CTP_Contacts.aspx
The NTS partners have now agreed to review the Strategy. They have established a group to conduct the review and will agree and produce a final NTS by the end of May 2010.
Membership of the NTS Review Group is as follows:
- Crispin Moor, Executive Director, Commission for Rural Communities (Chair)
- Neil Evans, National Skills Manager, NALC (Secretary & NTS hub editor)
- Kerry Williams, Communities Group, CLG
- Cllr Michael Chater, Chairman, NALC
- Justin Griggs, Head of Policy and Development, NALC
- Sam Shippen, Chairman, SLCC & clerk to Seaford Town Council, Sussex
- Nick Randle, Chief Executive, SLCC
- Caroline Godfrey, Community Liaison Manager, Milton Keynes Council and representing the LGA
- Elisabeth Skinner, Principal Lecturer, University of Gloucestershire
- Eamon Lalley, Improvements and Developments Agency, IDeA
The objectives for this review are to produce a new strategy that will, amongst other matters, consider and develop:
- A continuing shared vision for training and development for parish and town councils of all sizes that all the NTS partners can agree to and can contribute to delivering;
- Achievable and measurable objectives;
- Greater connection and integration of training within the parish sector and with local government more widely and other appropriate sectors;
- Financial mechanisms underpinning the delivery of training and development within the sector;
- Stronger delivery and co-ordination structures, at national and local level, achieving greater consistency and quality of training across the country;
The NTS stakeholders want the review process to be open and inclusive, so that anyone who wishes to can suggest ideas and approaches. The survey is now available for completion to collect views from everyone involved or interested in the parish and town council sector.
Whilst we will be promoting the hub as the main way of completion, if required the survey can be made available in hard copy form. Should you require this please email nalc@nalc.gov.uk or call 020 7637 1865 and one will be sent to you. You can either fax your response to 020 7436 7451 or post to:
NTS survey
NALC
109 Great Russell Street
London
WC1B 3LD
The survey will be open for completion until the 31st of January 2010.
In addition the survey will be supported by a series of focus groups taking place in December and January to gather the views of County Associations, Society of Local Council branches and senior national stakeholders. These are designed to offer a qualitative level of feedback and will be tightly facilitated by an experienced sector professional.
Views on the review are welcome on this site immediately. Examples of additional ways that interested parties will be able to contribute include:
- Contacting any member of the NTS Review Group;
- Posting views on the this hub
