Quality Parish and Town Council Scheme

"Local Councils are vital to re-invigorating local democracy. The Quality Parish and Town Council Scheme has played an important role in improving the quality of management and administration of parish and town councils."
Department for Communities and Local Government. 

The Quality Parish and Town Council Scheme was launched in 2003 following the Labour Government's Rural White Paper, 2000. The aim of the Scheme is to provide benchmark minimum standards for parish and town councils. The Scheme is supported by six National Stakeholders, the Commission for Rural Communities, the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Local Government Association, the National Association of Local Councils and the Society of Local Council Clerks.
The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs commissioned the University of Wales to review the Scheme in 2006 and as of June 2008 the Scheme changed to better reflect the increased professionalism of councils.

Click here  to open a copy of a guide to becoming a Quality Council in a new window.

In Berkshire we have a small number of councils that have attained Quality status - Sandhurst Town Council and Thatcham Town Council. Winkfield Parish Council is the latest council to attain Quality status in January 2011. BALC would like to encourage more councils to use the process as a reflective tool. The tests concern:

• electoral mandate
• qualifications of the clerk
• meetings
• communications
• annual reports
• accounts
• Code of Conduct
• promoting Local democracy
• emplopyment terms and conditions
• training

More information is available on the NALC web site:

http://www.nalc.gov.uk/Toolkits/Quality_Status.aspx