Quality Parish Scheme
The Quality Parish and Town Council scheme was launched in June 2003, following the publication of the Government's Rural White Paper, 2000. The scheme is designed to provide benchmark minimum standards for parish and town councils, and enable them to better represent the communities they serve. The scheme also aims to enhance relationships between local councils, principal authorities and community and voluntary sector organisations.
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 Presentation to Hornsea Town Council |
 Presentation to Beverley Town Council |
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Presentation to Immingham Town Council |
In order to achieve Quality Status, parish and town councils must demonstrate that they have reached the standard required by passing several tests including:
- Electoral mandate
- Qualifications of the clerk
- Council meetings
- Communications
- Annual report
- Accounts
- Code of Conduct
- The tests exceed the statutory duties of parish and town councils and represent the standards that an efficient, well run parish council should achieve. The Quality Scheme is currently under review, and we await the Government's proposals on its future development.
New tests have been added to the criteria but there are also a number of amendments to some of the existing tests:
- Electoral Mandate – In future councils applying for QPS will be required to show that at least two-thirds of councillors were elected.
- Qualifications of the clerk - The Certificate of Higher Education in Local Policy or Local Council Administration awarded by the University of Gloucestershire will continue to be accepted.
- Council meetings - Councils will be required to publish draft minutes of meetings within two months of it taking place and make them available for inspection by any elector in the parish. This is in place of publishing agreed minutes.
- Communication and Community Engagement – It will in future be mandatory for Quality Councils to have a website which provides a list of council members and officers and details of how they can be contacted and which also provides access to your annual report. Councils will also be required to have an email address that is publicly available. Councils now have the option of either producing their own newsletter or contributing to a community newsletter. Two new discretionary options have also been added, that a Community Engagement strategy has been formulated and that councils provide a regular weblog on their website about council activity or encourage the community to talk to them through an online forum or through surveys on the website.
- Annual Report
- Accountability: This test has been updated to reflect changes to auditing arrangements.
- Code of Conduct - Councils will be required to have formally adopted Section 12 (2) of the Code of Conduct which concerns the prejudicial interests of councillors and public participation.
- Promoting local democracy and citizenship - Promoting Local Democracy and Citizenship test – Councils will be required to demonstrate that they work proactively to support local democracy and citizenship. A specific guidance note is available showing the kinds of activities you may wish to consider. However, the note is intended to be illustrative only and we would encourage councils to be innovative.
- Terms and conditions - Councils with a paid clerk will be required to provide evidence that they have adopted (as a minimum) the national framework on pay and conditions agreed by SLCC and NALC and provide evidence in the form of a statement that they have issued all paid members of staff with a contract of employment.
- Training - Councils will be required to provide a training ‘Statement of Intent’ which shows that the council has identified key areas of training need for both staff and members. A specific guidance note is available to help you with this test.
First accrediations on the current QPS criteria will only be permissible until 30 September 2008. That means that councils will be allowed to submit their applications up to this date. This is aimed at councils currently working towards accreditation who have donew so on the existing criteria.
Re-accreditation: Councils due to re-accredit by 30 September will have until 31 December 2008 to submit their application. Those councils having to re-accredit after 30 September will have the normal ‘grace’ period of three months to reapply. All councils applying for re-accreditation will be required to submit a full portfolio of evidence for all of the Quality tests in just the same way as they did at initial accreditation. It is important to note that if re-accreditation is not sought during the defined periods then Quality status will be lost.
To request a Quality Status application form contact the ERNLLCA office.
For more information: The July 2008 issue of the ERNLLCA newsletter outlines the changes in more detail (click here to view).
The Quality Councils in the ERNLLCA area are:
- Beverley Town Council (re-accredited)
- Flamborough Parish Council
- Hornsea Town Council (re-accredited)
- Holme on Spalding Moor Parish Council
- Immingham Town Council (re-accredited)
- South Cave Parish Council
- Airmyn Parish Council
- Newbald Parish Council
- Withernsea Town Council
- Pocklington Town Council
Member councils interested in achieving Quality Status can download the guidance from the NALC website:
COST OF APPLICATION
| Expenditure of parish/town council |
Application fee inc. VAT |
Under £50,000
£50,000-£100,000
Over £100,000 |
£60.00
£120.00
£240.00 |
Following a meeting of the National Stakeholders a number of changes to the Quality Status Scheme have been agreed.
Portfolio – Storage and procedures
CALCs will no longer be required to send all portfolios to the NALC offices. It has been agreed that CALCs hold the portfolios for a period of four months after accreditation before returning them to the council. The National Stakeholders will request a random sample of portfolios each quarter to review at NALC’s London offices. This is likely to only equate to one in 20 portfolios and so the number required to be forwarded to NALC each year will be minimal. Only a very limited number of CALCs will be required to forward portfolios each time. We hope that this will help to minimise the costs to CALCs of forwarding portfolios and alleviate storage problems at the NALC offices. The four month period was decided upon to allow a quarterly review of portfolios and to limit any storage issues at CALC offices.
CALC’s will still be required to forward the usual paperwork and a copy of the councils’ Training Statement of Intent.
In addition, NALC will shortly be making original portfolios available to those councils that want them. There will be a deadline of the end of February for this and councils will be required to cover postage costs.
Qualified clerk test
It has been pointed out that a number of councils due for reaccreditation have lost their CilLCA qualified clerk in the run up to a portfolio being submitted. In order to try and keep the Scheme as accessible as possible without dropping standards it has been decided that the clerk should be allowed a 12 month period to attain the CiLCA qualification while allowing the council to reaccredit (However the 12 month period starts from the date of their appointment to the council, not from the reaccreditation date). Basically, a council can reaccredit on all of the tests except for that of ‘Qualified Clerk’. However, as part of the portfolio they will be required to provide a copy of the confirmation of registration for CiLCA sent to the candidate proving that they are undertaking to attain the qualification. They will then be required to provide a copy of the CiLCA certificate within one year of their appointment. If this is not forthcoming the council will lose Quality Status.
Remember, this only applies to reaccreditations, not to initial accreditations.