Chapter 3 - The Benefits of the Quality Parish Council Scheme
3.1 The Quality Parish Council Scheme offers a number of benefits, primarily to the community that the parish council represents, but also to the parish council itself and principal local authorities in the area.
Quality status and the Community
3.2 In Chapter 2 we set out the Government’s vision of a Quality Parish Council. By meeting this vision and gaining Quality status, the parish council will be able to bring considerable benefits to the community it represents.
3.3 Parish councils already have a wide range of powers. A Quality Parish Council, in proportion to their size and skills, will be able to do more on behalf of their principal local authorities, thereby making services more responsive to local needs.
3.4 Quality Parish Councils will play an enhanced role in the community:
- as an integral part of all consultation and co-ordination arrangements set up by principal local authorities and other service providers on how services are delivered in its area;
- in the discussion, management and delivery of services which parish councils may carry out and deliver, on behalf of the principal local authority, or by using their own existing powers; and
- in the provision of access points to information on services of principal local authorities and other service providers.
3.5 This enhanced role will be achieved through the negotiation of charters with principal local authorities. Principal local authorities are encouraged to enter into such agreements with all parish councils and to consider negotiating additional roles and responsibilities for Quality Parish Councils. Indeed, the benefits envisaged for the community will not materialise without the support of the relevant principal local authorities for the area and a willingness to work with the parish council to provide the best deal for the local community.
Quality status and the parish council
3.6 The main beneficiary of Quality status will be the local community. However, we hope that parish councils themselves will benefit from the enhanced role that Quality status provide.
3.7 Since 1997, the Government has introduced a number of changes which have been designed to make all tiers of local authority more responsive and more accountable to local people and to ensure that the local community sees their council as relevant to their needs and aspirations and a force for good.
3.8 By meeting the requirements of this scheme and receiving Quality status, a parish council is sending out a message that it is a truly competent and worthy representative of its community.
3.9 It should mean additional roles and responsibilities for parish councils with proof to the local community that the parish council can make a difference. It will provide an assurance that principal local authorities will consult and involve the parish council in all matters that affect the local community. And with the increased responsibilities should come the money from principal local authorities to fund the parish council for new roles delegated to it.
3.10 Parish councils are, quite rightly, increasingly consulted by Government and its agencies on matters that relate to the activities of public bodies. The Government recognises that parish councils are subject to an increasing amount of paperwork, and that Quality status may increase that amount. However, one of the benefits of being wired up through ICT (which Quality Parish Councils increasingly will be) is that it will allow easy access to the Information for Local Government web site at www.info4local.gov.uk.
3.11 This site provides the first one-stop shop for local authorities to access information they need on the web sites of central government departments, agencies and public bodies.
Quality status and Principal Local Authorities
3.12 While the Quality Parish Council Scheme is intended to bring material benefits to the community at large, the scheme also benefits principal local authorities.
3.13 Some principal local authorities have already recognised the benefits of working with parish councils and are proactive in working together to deliver local services, but others have concerns about entering into such partnerships. The Government recognises that a principal local authority will want to know that the parish council is able to deliver before entering into agreements for partnership working.
3.14 This is the benefit of the scheme for principal local authorities. It provides an independent assessment of the parish council and those with Quality status can be seen to be representative, competent, well managed, and able to take on an enhanced role. Further reassurance is provided through the requirement that each Quality Parish Council will undergo this assessment every 4 years.
3.15 Principal local authorities can therefore be confident that the Quality Parish Councils within their areas are worthy partners, which in turn should instil faith in these councils’ capacity to undertake an enhanced role for the benefit of their communities.
Page last modified:
19 May, 2005
Page published: 7 November 2001