Town and parish councils have spent the last few months getting to grips with Assertion 10. Many councils have been working hard to understand what the requirement means in practice. We have supported councils across the country and have noticed the same questions have come up repeatedly. From data protection duties to email management and record keeping, councils want clarity so they can feel confident they are meeting the standard. To make things clearer, our Head of Council Information...

What’s New in Canva and How Councils Can Use It If you have never used it before, Canva is an online tool that helps your council create designs and documents easily, even if you have no design experience. You can use it to make posters, flyers, newsletters, social media posts, presentations or videos - and much more. Everything works by dragging and dropping templates, text and images into place. Canva has recently had one of its biggest upgrades yet, making it even more useful for councils...

Every town and parish council is unique ; they face their own challenges and strengths. As public bodies, councils play a vital role in promoting transparency and protecting personal data. Two key pieces of legislation that help deliver this are the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and the UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR). The FOIA allows anyone in the world to request information, and the UK GDPR includes a mechanism called the Subject Access Request (SAR), which will...