There will be local authorities with lots of new members, some of whom may have been elected for the first time and of course some of whom may have already held the position of councillor and have been re-elected or have been elected again following an absence from local government. In any scenario good training on the expectations of their role is vital.
We have devised training for local authorities to help ease the burden on busy monitoring officers and democratic services teams to train elected members on the Code of Conduct. Our team consists of former monitoring officers, returning officers and directors of law and governance who appreciate the nuances of working in a political arena and the challenges that can bring. As lawyers who are regularly instructed to carry out code of conduct investigations and advise local authorities on standard issues more generally, we are well placed to bring this training session to life with case studies and worked examples as well as working with you to make sure the training is tailored to the needs of each authority.
We are also happy to train staff. We have trained legal and democratic teams as well as senior management teams on the code, and communications teams on the pre-election notice period restrictions, by way of examples.
You may also have new or untrained independent persons you would like included.