Pod-on-the-Parish

Lee Jakeman has walked into councils cold and found nobody who knows the laptop password, the bank login, or whether the council is even quorate. Fifteen years a town clerk and now a locum, he shares what the first week really looks like, how to give advice that protects you, and the legacy every clerk is writing right now.

The Proper Practices are being rewritten. Claire Reed of NALC sets out what's changing — a new governance assertion, a code of practice for internal audit, and an accounts form that splits your reserves in two. A short bonus extract from Episode 16, published while the consultation is open.

The AGAR is going digital. Lance Allan of SAAA walks through the new online submission portal ahead of its 26/27 launch, and Claire Reed of NALC sets out what's changing in the Proper Practices rewrite — including the variance rules that will stop you guessing what auditors want.

Martyn's Law sounds daunting — but for most parish and town councils the response is far smaller than the panic suggests. Alex Jay of Little Green Button cuts through the jargon on who's in scope, the tiers, and what a proportionate, low-cost plan actually looks like.

Employment law's biggest shake-up in a generation is here. HR specialist James Corrigan explains what the Employment Rights Act 2025 means for parish, town and community councils — from six-month unfair dismissal rights to the rise of AI-generated tribunal claims — and the practical steps to get ahead of it.

Eleanor Greene — returning from Episode 3 — on what happens after you submit the AGAR: how to navigate external audit queries, explain variances, handle Assertion 10, and come out with a clean sign-off rather than a stressful summer.

Dr Gale Pettifer — Clerk & Proper Officer at Brockenhurst Parish Council and a practicing commoner with ponies roaming the New Forest — on what it's really like to manage a council where the residents include free-roaming livestock and a thousand years of ancient land rights.

Hannah Driver — Head Accountant at Scribe and an eight-year veteran of town and parish council finance — strips the jargon out of local council accounting: the cashbook that underpins everything, receipts-and-payments vs income-and-expenditure, VAT and Form 126, the asset register, and getting your reserves right.

Something a bit different: a seven-strong panel on where AI takes parish and town councils over the next decade — automation, the changing clerk role, guardrails and hallucinations, data and GDPR, and keeping the human touch. Built on the ERNLLCA AI article series.

Jamie Charters — Client Relationship Manager at CCLA Investment Management and a 25-year lifer in the public-sector investment space — on what to do with the reserves. Why diversification beats a single bank account, how the Public Sector Deposit Fund handles security, liquidity and yield, and why 'safety first' doesn't have to mean 0.5%.

Tom Sykes — architect, founder of Common Works and former Head of Design at Transport for London — on getting positive outcomes from procurement. Thresholds, finding suppliers, writing the brief, scoring quality, and why you should never just take the cheapest bid.

Julie King on how to actually use the Big Yellow Book — Arnold-Baker on Local Council Administration, 14th edition. A practical workshop episode: have the book open in front of you and follow along through quorum, register of interests, churchyard grass cutting, and the six-month rule for councillor absence.

Beckie Whitehouse on managing stress, mastering your mindset, and getting through audit / year-end with energy to spare — from a parish clerk who's also a qualified life coach.

Mark Tomkins returns to show how to turn your council website from a legal tick-box into a genuine community engagement tool — signposting, social media, forms, and navigation that actually work.

Millie Manton explains why councils are getting it wrong with outdoor spaces for tweens and teens — and shares the research-backed design principles that actually get young people active.

Eleanor Greene shares practical advice on getting through your internal audit — covering remote vs face-to-face audits, Assertion 10, governance pitfalls, and the Daily Mail Test.

Nigel Hayes and Keira Lake share how Dorchester Town Council made apprenticeships work — and map out the full career pathway from entry-level qualifications through to CiLCA and a degree.

Mark Tomkins breaks down what Assertion 10 of the Annual Governance Statement really means for parish and town councils, covering the key updates in the 2025 Practitioners' Guide.