Agenda item

Ellie Greenwood, Senior Adviser, introduced the report and informed the Board that the LGA had commissioned a piece of research into ‘regulatory services officers of the future’. The research had identified a number of findings, most notably that services had suffered from the reduction in local government funding, leading to reductions in the number of staff compounded by a loss of significant experience and expertise. The LGA is keen that the role and future of these services is pushed higher up the agenda, and wanted to promote the need for a strategic look about how regulatory services can be organised and delivered in the future..

Members welcomed the report and made a number of comments including:

•           The LGA should be showing leadership to all local authorities by proposing a number of ideas that local authorities can discuss.

•           The proposed document needed to be altered to make it more appealing for  Councillors to engage with.

•           Regulatory services needed to be made more interesting and relevant to the changing face of local authorities.

•           Each area of the regulatory services family needed to be better informed about their role within the system.

•           There needed to be more examples made available in the document showing how regulatory services had worked together.

•           It was important to engage with Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and the Fire Sector, as these bodies played an important role.

Decision:

Members noted the report.