We are delighted to welcome members to the new Knowledge Hub groups for regulatory services; supporting frontline officers and managers in their day to day work and providing a route to shape national policy.
Not only will the groups provide a useful discussion facility for officers to support each other, but they will each host the most important LGA and LG Regulation guidance and provide the opportunity for users to upload their own examples of best practice.
The LGA will also use the facility to send details of new and emerging policies to the members of each KHub, including requesting views from officers to ensure our work reflects the needs of frontline services. The flexibility offered by the Khub means that this and our focus groups will fully replace the LG Regulation website and e-mail circulars as our way of communicating with councils.
http://www.local.gov.uk/knowledgehub
We have used this opportunity to bring together a diverse number of information streams, and to introduce new topics in to the mix. We are particularly pleased to introduce the new ‘Managing Regulatory Services’ group to provide information essential to running regulatory services, and for considering where they may go in the future. Innovation and experimentation will be central to the group, exploring ideas such as shared regulatory services and joint-enforcement techniques.
The Knowledge Hub offers a multitude of groups and special interest forums for you to become involved with. The LGA will be facilitating the following groups –
• Alcohol, Events and Entertainment Licensing – a chance to discuss all aspects of event licensing, including the new changes introduced by the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act
• Food Hygiene Forum – the forum aims to help promote a consistent approach to the application of hygiene regulations and provision of guidance
• Food Standards and Labelling – members can discuss all aspects of food labelling and packaging, including the new food information regulations
• Gambling and Betting Shops – to discuss some of the complexity around betting shops, including their tendency to cluster, and to feed into the latest Gambling Commission consultations
• Health and Safety - a discussion forum for councils on all aspects of Health and Safety, including the Lofestedt Report, Health and Safety Executive, and Enforcement.
• Improving Air Quality – covers everything from climate change, to national policy, to vehicle technologies
• Industrial Pollution Control Community - to help shape the future direction of pollution control policy and technical guidance
• Local Government Animal Health & Welfare - for local authority officers and managers responsible for animal health and welfare services.
• Local Government Trading Standards - a discussion group for all aspects of trading standards, fair trading, consumer protection and product safety.
• Managing Regulatory Services – looking at ways to innovate in regulatory services, establish shared services, and keep up to date with new bits of legislation
• Noise and Statutory Nuisance – allows officers to discuss noise regulations and how they can be enforced
• Taxis and PHVs – a specialist group looking at technical issues around licensing motorised transport for public use
The LGA will also act as host for time-limited projects that are of interest to officers. These will come and go, but currently include –
• Clean Air Act Review – the key communication tool for and between Defra and councils as the review develops
• Community Events – the place to discuss what your council is doing to support community events, especially over the Jubilee and Olympic period
• Tackling Metal Theft – a hot topic at the moment, and the likely subject of new legislation in the near future. This is where you can shape the policy and share existing practice.
How you can use the Knowledge Hub
• Weekly or daily newsletters – choose the best way for you to receive updates about activity on the KHub
• A library – access existing LG Regulation guidance, access new LGA information, share reports, research, presentations, videos and images.
• Discussion forums – contribute to LGA policy, share ideas, case studies or ask for opinions.
• Event promotion – find out about forthcoming events and promote your own events, training sessions and workshops.
• Social media links – link your Knowledge Hub profile to other social network accounts you might have, for example Twitter, LinkedIn etc.
• Customisable homepage – adapt your homepage to see the things you’re most interested in.
The Knowledge Hub’s clever search functionality will not only allow you to find things more easily, but also enable the information to find you, based on your profile and activity.
How to get started
If you already have a login and password for www.local.gov.uk or communities of practice, this will also work for Knowledge Hub. Don’t worry if you don’t have an LGA login you can easily create a profile on Knowledge Hub by clicking the Get Started Today button.
Just go to https://knowledgehub.local.gov.uk/ and you can quickly set up your own user profile and start joining groups.
Once you’ve logged in, you can either search for Community Events in the A-Z listing of Groups or use this link: https://knowledgehub.local.gov.uk/group/communityevents. You can join as many groups as you like, so feel free to select others that are relevant to you.
For queries or feedback email: knowledgehub@local.gov.uk
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