We have daily and weekly interactions with local town and parish councils - alongside mechanisms for engaging with clerks, chairs, mayors and councillors at our networks, training, forums, enquiries through our member portal, by email, telephone or as part of our additional service offer - payroll or internal audit. Communication channels are important for SALC because they provides a framework to cascade information relevant to the sector or stakeholders who want to reach out to town and parish councils.
If you are interested in using our networks to broadcast, share or raise awareness of new services, campaigns and initiatives etc., please get in touch.
Newsletters
Weekly e-bulletins (Mondays - technical support, updates and news for clerks, Tuesdays training events and Wednesdays vacancies. We also have a quarterly e-magazine The Local Councillor - available to anyone interested in the sector to sign up to.
Clerk and larger town networks
The role of a town or parish clerk can be very challenging extending over a wide range of tasks and specialist knowledge. Our clerk network offers a space to offload concerns or frustrations with the day job alongside support and guidance. It also allows the opportunity to raise areas of common concern so that ways to address local issues can be explored.
Area forums
Area forums provide an opportunity for councillors and clerks to network, share information about local projects and initiatives, raise areas of common interest, meet others in the same role and sometimes to work together to lobby for change. They also form part of the SALC's governance framework acting as a mechanism to elect representatives from areas of Suffolk onto the SALC Board and thereby influence, direct and advise on the work we do.
Podcasts
SALC uses podcasts to talk to service providers and other organisations in the public sector who want to raise awareness of their offer or work to help inform local councils.
Topic based forums
Sometimes we focus on key topics such as climate, planning, speeding or anti-social behaviour and often these are in partnership with other stakeholders which provide more value as a result of a co-production exercise with specialist organisations / other parts of the public sector.
Sector updates/timed events
Where there are significant changes - such as the opportunity to adopt a new Code of Conduct or if elections are due - SALC work with other stakeholders so that they can offer focussed briefing sessions as part of their membership offer.
Blogs and news items
We use blogs / news items to share feature articles and these appear on the front page of the SALC website. We often link these to our newsletters and on social media to allow for a wider audience.
Social media
We have a Twitter and Facebook account and endeavour to like, share the news and stories town and parish councils publish alongside local and national sector specific posts.