Spring series for the frontline

Spring series for the frontline

With a new year upon us, APSE is hosting a range of 'Spring Series' roundtables - free for APSE members - exploring a variety of topics across local authority frontline services, including the planned reorganisation of local councils in England.

Book your place below: 

Drug and alcohol policies

Wednesday 19 February, 1.30pm - 3pm, MS Teams

Local authority drug and alcohol policies continue to be considered and developed across the UK to ensure safety on the roads for all. This roundtable will be discussing topics including employment considerations, potential barriers to implementation for testing, how policies impact the insurance risk, and policies in practice. 

Speakers include: 

• Claire Wallace, Executive Member, Society of Personnel and Development Scotland
• Ruth Kydd, Insurance Manager, City of Edinburgh Council
• Bob Ritchie, Transport Manager, Tayside Contracts

Book your place here

Policies for managing cemeteries

Wednesday 26 February 2025, 10.30 – 11.30, MS Teams

Book your place here 

Effective policies play a role in the successful management of cemeteries, ensuring the safety of users, and contribute to the space being an asset for the community.

This roundtable will explore:

• The different policies that council have in place.
• The challenges associated with implementing policies.
• How councils undertake adopting and reviewing policies.

To aid the discussions and to gain a snapshot of what policies councils have in place, APSE is conducting a brief survey. The survey should take around 5 minutes to complete and the deadline for completion is the 20 February 2025.

Click here to complete the survey 

All responses will be anonymised, and the findings will be shared at the Roundtable.

Allergens and allergen management 

Tuesday 4 March 2025, 14.00pm - 15.00pm, MS Teams

The number of children presenting with allergies has rapidly increase over the last few years and the management of allergens has become increasing complex for local authority caters who provide school meal. The roundtable discussion will feature a presentation from Sadia Khan, Policy Adviser for Food Hypersensitivity at the Food Standard Agency who will be providing:

• An overview of current law.
• A focus on best practice.
• The current and future work of the Food Standards Agency in relation to hypersensitivity.

The roundtable also presents the opportunity for delegates to discuss the challenges that they are facing and hear from other local authorities about the approaches they are adopting to manage allergens.

Book your place here

Defining and measuring productivity in frontline services

Friday 21 March 2025, 11.00am - 12.30pm, MS Teams

Led by Debbie Johns, Head of APSE Performance Networks, Jen Woolford, Director of Public Policy Analysis, Office for National Statistics (ONS), and Richard Heys, Deputy Director and Deputy Chief Economist, ONS. 

Topics include: 

• What measures are used nationally to assess productivity levels? 
• How can these measures translate to a public policy context? 
• What are the challenges with productivity measures? 
• Despite budget reductions and an increase in demand for services, how is local government performing in productivity across key frontline services?

Book your place here