SLCC and One Voice Wales 2022 Agenda

Digitally levelling Up your Council – A Clerks guide to broadcasting their council meetings
David Hall and Steve Walker,  CloudyIT

As part of CloudyITs Digital Levelling up strategy for Local Gov, David Hall and Steve Walker will be demonstrating how the right technology and partner can help Councils host and facilitate effective hybrid council meetings. With Welsh councils retaining the power to hold hybrid meetings post COVID, they are in a unique position to engage with their community and councillors, so getting the right tech is key! Also joining them will be Welsh councils who are successfully broadcasting their meetings, talking about their experiences and the benefits it has brought to their council.

Local Government Taking Action: Net Zero by 2030
Jenny Lloyd, Programme Manager, Transition & Recovery Support Programme, Welsh Local Government Association.

The session will include an overview of the WLGA Transition & Recovery Support Programme and highlight the action that Welsh councils are taking to tackle climate change and meet the ambition of being Net Zero Carbon by 2030.

Jenny co-ordinates the WLGA’s Transition & Recovery Support Programme, delivering support to councils to decarbonise and become net zero carbon by 2030. She has previous experience of working within the renewables, higher education and public sectors in roles that focused on regeneration, community engagement and climate change communications.

Section 6 Biodiversity Duty, Local Places for Nature
Geoff Robinson

The presentation will focus on the public authority biodiversity duty introduced under section 6 of the Environmental (Wales) Act 2016 which applies to all town and community councils. It will include an explanation of biodiversity, the challenges it faces and what town and community councils can do to help. Also, with the second round of reports due by the end of this year, there will be a section on the reporting requirement with an overview of the available guidance.

Finance and Governance Toolkit for Community and Town Councils
Kevin Griffiths

Jointly developed by One Voice Wales, SLCC, and the Welsh Government, supported by commentary from Audit Wales, the Finance & Governance Toolkit for Community and Town Councils has been designed to support all councils to meet their statutory responsibilities, have strong financial management and governance, and to deliver the best outcomes for their communities.

The toolkit supports councils to:

• Review the financial management, governance, and accountability arrangements in place
• Consider how effective these arrangements are and how they might be improved

Planning your Communities / Towns – Place Plans
James Davies

This session will explore how the planning system works in Wales, including how planning policy is applied at a national and local level and the most recent and forthcoming changes to planning. The session will also consider the role of Town and Community Councils in the process.

Whilst Training & Development is not a panacea, it can indeed help drive performance. During this interactive session, we will look at what kind of performance you would like to drive… and then how to build the best training solutions to deliver that.

We will also highlight some of the classic pitfalls… and how to avoid them! So, if you are looking to drive your own performance or that of your team, come along and learn some models and tools that will help you do just that.