LGA announces 2024/25 Sector Support programme
Oxford’s workforce issues a ‘significant risk’
Dorset Council sets up recruitment firm
Campaigners publish council ‘rich list’
The critical role of HR in local government
Gordon McFarlane, president of the Public Services People Managers Association, looks at the role of HR in the face of austerity.
School staff strike amid pay dispute
01/11/2023 Schools in parts of Scotland were closed on Wednesday as non-teaching staff went on strike in an ongoing dispute over local government pay. |
Liverpool CC praised for complaints handling improvements
27/07/2023 Liverpool City Council has been praised for the improvements it has made in the way it handles complaints. |
Investigation reveals complaints backlog in Kent
06/07/2023 Kent County Council has a backlog of 170 unanswered children’s services and education complaints, an investigation has revealed. |
York council set to adopt action plan after damning report
10/02/2023 The City of York Council is set to adopt an action plan after a report said there was ‘something seriously wrong’ with it. |
Brighton chief exec joins Barking development company
09/02/2023 Brighton and Hove chief exec Geoff Raw is quitting to become managing director of Be First, a new homes and jobs development company for Barking and Dagenham. |
Councillors’ parking tickets binned by officers in Liverpool
08/02/2023 Council officers in Liverpool binned dozens of parking tickets given to councillors without going through any formal process, according to a local newspaper. |
County chiefs call for powers to solve rural workforce crisis
06/02/2023 Council leaders have called for powers to tackle labour squeeze as a new analysis reveals that hundreds of thousands of people have left the rural workforce. |
Council officer praised after crossbow-wielding man arrested
02/02/2023 A Barking and Dagenham Council community ranger has been praised after their actions led to the arrest of a man armed with a crossbow. |
Councillor apologises for assaulting blogger
02/02/2023 A Sandwell councillor who assaulted a blogger by knocking the phone out of his hands has apologised for the incident. |
Auditor calls for national changes after public interest report
01/02/2023 External auditor Grant Thornton has called for national changes after cataloguing a ‘toxic’ culture and ‘dysfunctional environment’ at Cheshire East Council. |
Barnet Council ‘insources’ services after decade-long campaign
01/02/2023 More than 300 staff in Barnet are to be transferred back to council employment after a decade-long union campaign. |
Khan announces £14m to restore trust in Met
27/01/2023 The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has set out proposals for £14.2m of new funding to rebuild the trust and confidence of London’s communities in the Met Police. |
Councillors split on solution to workforce crisis
26/01/2023 The LGA’s executive advisory board considered a survey that found more than nine in 10 councils were experiencing staff recruitment difficulties. |
Nine in 10 councils experiencing staffing issues
20/01/2023 Council leaders have warned that the workforce crisis is threatening local services as a survey reveals nine in 10 councils are experiencing staffing issues. |
Council’s standards investigation not conducted ‘fairly’
19/01/2023 Local authorities need to ensure that their standards investigations into the actions of councillors are conducted ‘fairly and properly’, Ombudsman says. |
LocalGov editor Laura Sharman dies after short illness
16/01/2023 It is with great sadness that LocalGov announces that its editor, Laura Sharman, has died after a short illness. |
New youth work qualification to build skills
13/01/2023 The National Youth Agency has launched a new Level 4 qualification to help practitioners develop their skills in specialist areas. |
Rossendale names next chief executive
12/01/2023 Rossendale BC has announced Rob Huntington will become its next chief executive. |
Bradford Council chief executive to step down
12/01/2023 Bradford City Council Kersten England has announced she will retire in June. |
Wakefield Council to cut jobs to close £24m budget gap
10/01/2023 Wakefield Council has warned that the council will have to cut jobs to close its £24.7m budget gap and accused Government of ‘kicking the can down the road’. |
Councils flooded with ‘bogus’ refugee sponsorship offers
10/01/2023 Local authorities in London are struggling to cope with the amount of bogus Ukraine refugee sponsorship offers they receive, a migrants’ charity has warned. |
Staffordshire chief to step down
03/01/2023 The chief executive of Staffordshire CC is to step down after almost eight years in the role. |
Nottingham council considers cutting 110 jobs
14/12/2022 Nottingham City Council has warned that it may be forced to cut 110 jobs in order to balance its budget. |
Derby council warns of impending job cuts
14/12/2022 Derby City Council has warned that it may have to cut 162 jobs in order to plug a £34m funding gap. |
Council staff face abuse over traffic filters
08/12/2022 Councils in Oxfordshire have been forced to clarify how Oxford’s new traffic filters will work after misinformation led to abuse of staff and councillors. |
School support staff forced to pay for pupils’ food
25/11/2022 School support staff are paying for pupils’ food, skipping meals and taking on multiple jobs to survive, a union poll has revealed. |
Interim chief given role permanently
23/11/2022 Swansea City & CC has appointed its interim chief executive on a permanent basis. |
Glasgow strikes equal pay deal
10/11/2022 Glasgow City Council has struck a deal with groups representing around 19,000 current and former employees making equal pay claims, ending a long-running dispute. |
Underfunding will force majority of schools to make redundancies, survey reveals
08/11/2022 The majority of schools have warned they will be forced to make redundancies next year due to the funding crisis. |
Council pay offer accepted by unions
02/11/2022 Local government trade unions have accepted a pay offer that equates to a 10.5% increase for the lowest-paid workers. |
Sexual assault conviction prompts investigation
01/11/2022 An independent investigation has been launched by East Devon District Council after a former councillor was convicted of sexually assaulting two teenage boys. |
Warning council staff could strike again within weeks
24/10/2022 Local government workers in Scotland could be back on strike within weeks, trade unions have warned. |
Solace Summit: recruitment crisis laid bare
13/10/2022 The scale of the recruitment crisis facing councils has been laid bare at the Solace Summit. |
One in five care workers living in poverty, report shows
11/10/2022 Residential care workers are more likely to be living in poverty and deprivation than other UK workers, new analysis has revealed today. |
Unison members back pay offer
28/09/2022 Members of trade union Unison have voted by 63.5% to 36.5% to accept the national employers’ final pay offer for local government services employees. |
Ofsted blasts Cheshire East’s safeguarding services
27/09/2022 Child safeguarding services in Cheshire East have ‘serious and fundamental weaknesses’ which leave children at risk of exploitation, according to Ofsted. |
Councillor ‘permanently expelled’ for racist retweets
16/09/2022 A councillor from Stockport Council has been permanently expelled from the Conservative Party for sharing offensive tweets. |
Newham bin workers to restart strike
15/09/2022 Bin workers in Newham are set to go on strike for two weeks starting on Tuesday, Unite the Union has announced. |
Four arrested in connection to council worker’s murder
15/09/2022 Four men have been arrested as part of the investigation into the murder of council worker Ashley Dale in Liverpool last month. |
Council calls for removal of child sex abuse councillor
13/09/2022 Derry City and Strabane councils contacted the NI Electoral Office yesterday to discuss the disqualification of a councillor convicted of child sex abuse. |
'Fierce resistance' to threatened strike clampdown
06/09/2022 Any attempt by new Prime Minister Liz Truss to outlaw strikes will be met with ‘fierce resistance,’ trade union Unite has warned. |
Council to trial four-day week
05/09/2022 A council in South Cambridgeshire is planning to begin a three-month trial of a four-day week in order to attract new staff. |
Scottish council workers consider 7.5% pay offer
05/09/2022 Strikes that would have affected schools and waste services across a number of council areas in Scotland have been suspended as workers consider pay offer. |
Glasgow council extends paid leave to cover miscarriages
02/09/2022 Glasgow City Council employees who suffer a miscarriage will now get paid leave, the local authority has announced. |
Council bin workers secure 10% pay rise
02/09/2022 Around 100 waste workers employed by Bath and North East Somerset council are set to receive a 10% pay rise. |
Low-paid council workers forced to skip meals
25/08/2022 Public sector staff on low wages, including local authority employees, are being forced to miss meals by the cost of living crisis, union reveals. |
Scottish council workers reject 5% pay offer
24/08/2022 Waste service workers will today go on strike across 14 local authority areas in Scotland after Unite the union rejected a 5% pay offer. |
Police charge trio of former council chiefs
23/08/2022 Three former council chief executives have been charged as part of an investigation into financial irregularities. |
Scottish council workers get improved pay offer
15/08/2022 Council leaders in Scotland have made an improved pay offer in a bid to avoid strike action. |
Waste workers announce strike action across 15 Scottish councils
11/08/2022 Waste workers in 15 councils across Scotland will walk-out for a week this month in protest over the 'pitiful' 2% pay offer. |
Shell is helping power the journey towards a circular paving industry with Shell Bitumen LT R, a new product for roads that uses plastics destined for landfill as part of the additives to make the bitumen.
Effective Energy Group is now offering its support to the 40 Local Authorities who have received a share of the £430m to deliver their projects on the ground by surveying properties and installing measures.
Dougie Belmore explains how one of the main interfaces between you and Bacs is about to change.
