Training and workshops for Clerks, Officers and Councillors

Using Facebook to enhance your Council’s Communications: strategies, tools and techniques to get the most from your Council’s social media presence

Facebook provides town and parish Councils a unique opportunity to significantly enhance their communications – yet few Councils are fully reaping the benefits on offer. Discover how to build up effective two-way conversations with local communities, make use of time-saving tools and learn techniques to improve digital engagement, all within the constraints of existing Officer time and resources.

Beyond Facebook: how councils can make use of Instagram, Twitter and other social media platforms to get their message across

More and more Councils are looking to use a range of social media platforms in order to increase their digital reach into their community. Instagram and Twitter are two key platforms that offer a range of benefits for Councils. This practical session looks at how to get started and what strategies and techniques are working well for councils like yours.

Getting started with the press and media

In this session, we’ll take a look at what media opportunities are available to councils locally, why engaging with traditional media is more important than ever, how to get started, how to build effective media relationships and understand what makes for a good story and how to get your message across.

Bring your website to life!

The best council websites are effective tools for communication with your community. This session walks you through how to get more from your council’s website and how to make it work harder for your council. From complying with latest accessibility legislation guidelines to integrating with social media and online services, we walk you through examples of best practice from some of the best council websites from across the country.

How to engage with young people in your community

Young people can be a particularly challenging demographic for councils to reach and engage with. We explore how to understand the issues that matter to young people, how to effectively reach and engage with them online and offline, and how best to work with with to improve different aspects of your community.

Emotional resilience skills for council officers

Why do some people handle whatever life throws at them, while others tend to struggle? The answer is resilience. Resilience is the ability to recover from the inevitable problems that life throws at us. This session will focus on increasing your resilience and managing it as part of your wellbeing. Looking at self-care and self-awareness, we will lead you in the first steps to improving your resilience and developing a resilience journal.

Embracing equality, diversity and inclusion in your council

This session will focus on understanding protected characteristics, the difference between direct and indirect discrimination and the definitions of equality, diversity and inclusion. The aim being to raise awareness to barriers to progress for diverse communities and barriers to productivity for diverse staff.

Develop an effective communications strategy and policy for your Council

Everything should start with a strategy – and good communication is no different. To get the most from an increasing range of communications platforms and tools, it’s vital that your Council has a strategy that ties in with your Council’s existing aims and objectives. We walk you through best practice for creating an effective communications strategy and policy that perfectly fits with the needs and aspirations of your Council, whilst making best use of the platforms and opportunities available to you.

Build a two-way conversation with your community and finding out what people care about (even on a tight budget)

This session will help you consider practical and effective ways for your Council to systematically and proactively find out what really matters to people living within your parish, through a range of print and digital tools. Discover the tools, strategies and techniques needed to not just better promote your own messages but also to better hear and respond to the voices within your local community, and get buy-in on your vision for your community’s future.

How to find new Town and Parish Councillors

How can you effectively find and encourage people to stand or be co-opted as town or parish Councillors? In many areas it is increasingly hard to find people who are willing to put their names forward either at election time or to be co-opted. We show you effective ways Councils and Councillors can encourage more people to come forward and this interactive session explores practical ways to do just that.

Data Protection for Town and Parish Councils: for Clerks, Officers and Data Protection Officers

So much has already changed since the advent of GDPR back in May 2018. It is important that Councils ensure they have the most up-to-date understanding as to their obligations. Our nationally-recognised data protection expert has worked extensively with Councillors, non-profit organisations and the information Commissioner to develop best practice guidance, which Councils can use to ensure they are not just meeting their legal obligations but actually ensuring that data protection is a tool to help them better communicate and engage with residents, and not something that hinders such communication.