EHJ June 2004, pages 190-191
As part of a series of occasional articles, EHJ is inviting the heads of partner organisations to outline initiatives aimed at supporting the profession. This month Lacors executive director Derek Allen tells us about his organisation's recent activities

Regulatory services are not exactly considered the "Kylie Minogue" of the local government world. They aren't particularly sexy or glamorous and unlike Kylie, services such as trading standards and environmental health suffer from a low profile. However, they have a direct affect on protecting public health and make a real difference to the quality of life of the communities we all serve.

The Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services or Lacors was set up in 1978 to provide advice and guidance for local authority regulatory and related services. Since then its remit to support trading standards has widened to help food enforcement teams, animal health and welfare services, civil registration services, public entertainment, alcohol licensing and health and safety enforcement at work.

Making sure that local government decision makers, from council leaders to senior managers, understand the importance of regulatory services is one of Lacors' key objectives. The way we achieve this is through our website, the chair's update, specialist e-mails, and more recently through a quarterly newsletter, info@lacors, which provides a round up of the organisation's work.

Last year, we widened our remit to include health and safety enforcement at work and have been working with the Health and Safety Executive to develop a new strategic programme, Local authorities and HSE working together.

The food vision initiative, developed with the Food Standards Agency and launched two years ago, aims to encourage local authorities to help promote the production of, and access to, safe, sustainable and nutritious food. In January, we launched a food vision website (www.foodvision.gov.uk), jointly developed with the FSA and the Local Government Association (LGA), which provides case studies and practical help for any local authority looking to develop local food initiatives with partner organisations. This has been extended to cover Northern Ireland with the Northern Ireland LGA and the CIEH developing a work programme.

The future of the home authority principle is also a key issue for us. We recently published the results of a survey looking at how local authorities view the scheme and found that two thirds of respondents considered it worthwhile. The research, however, highlighted a need to raise awareness about the home authority principle among councils. It was developed to help local authorities work with businesses which have outlets in more then one local authority or distribute goods or services across council boundaries. It aims to provide consistent trading standards and food enforcement services across the UK. Lacors' input has been to give guidance on the home authority principle, monitor its use and where possible resolve disputes and provide an extensive database of companies, brand names and local authority contact information.

We have been liaising with both trade organisations and central government to ensure local authorities a smooth transition to the Licensing Act 2003. Key activities have included drafting a licensing policy framework and producing sample texts for licensing authorities when writing to the trade. We are currently working with the Association of Council Secretaries and Solicitors on guidance for elected members sitting on licensing committees, and with the Security Industry Authority on a memorandum of understanding on data sharing and information relating to unlicensed door supervisors.

Our extended remit also covers civil registration services. Citizenship ceremonies, intended to simplify how people acquire citizenship and act as a welcome to our community, got plenty of mainstream press attention recently.

Lacors was involved in helping local authorities implement this new procedure. We aim to provide guidance and develop good practice as it rolls out nationwide. Lacors, together with the LGA, Employers Organisation, Improvement and Development Agency, the Trading Standards Institute (TSI) and the CIEH, are part of the "raising the profile partnership", which is tackling poor recruitment in regulatory services and raising awareness of its essential work. A leaflet, Getting a slice of the action, contains a 10-point action plan to tackle the crisis.

We have set up a members' focus panel, consisting of leading elected members from a number of local authorities to raise awareness of regulatory services and improve communications with councillors. At the end of last year, the panel considered the findings of the joint LGA/Lacors survey Who cares, wins, looking at the importance of regulatory services in local government. The findings reiterated the serious problem with recruiting and retaining suitably qualified staff. The panel agreed to develop ongoing initiatives and to explore opportunities to raise awareness among young people of the role and importance of regulatory services. It was proposed that a leaflet would be developed in the future to build upon Getting a slice of the action.

This year, Lacors will be taking additional responsibility for gambling reform and animal health and welfare relating to companion animals. We will provide information to both council officers and councillors and identify further areas where local authorities need support and help. The LGA and Welsh LGA have agreed to fund work on companion animals, as there is a clear link with their existing well-established involvement with the health and welfare of livestock.

This has come about in relation to the new animal health and welfare bill which will introduce common offences relating to animal cruelty and welfare across the breadth of animals. Lacors' first task will be to establish contact with local authorities and issue regular updates about developments in this field. We are keen to work in partnership with the CIEH and preliminary discussions have confirmed areas for joint lobbying on new bill and proposed secondary legislation.

We have been involved in supporting regional groups of authorities in preparing bids for Consumer Direct. This is a new national helpline and on-line consumer information and advice service allowing consumers to access practical advice through a single telephone number. The centres will be run by local authorities under contract to the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI). In June, Scotland will be the first consumer direct pathfinder region to go live and Lacors has been part of the selection panel in deciding the four pathfinder regions. We have been working with the DTI, organising seminars and disseminating information. The other pathfinder regions are Wales, southwest England and Yorkshire and the Humber. The call centres will be operative by late summer.

I would encourage all leaders, chief executives and chief officers to promote their council's regulatory services and ensure they are given the recognition they deserve. Please refer to Lacors for advice, guidance and good practice and feel free to request a copy of the regular newsletter and sign up to our free subscribers e-mail bulletin service. Let's hope regulatory services will one day become the "Kylie" of the local government world!

Derek Allen is executive director of Lacors

The Lacors website is password protected because it contains information which may be of a sensitive nature. If you would like to request a password, please e-mail Darren Atkinson on darren.atkinson@lacors.gov.uk or try the departments at your local authority involved in regulatory services as they will hold username and password details.

A copy of Who cares, wins: a survey of the importance of regulatory services in local government and Getting a slice of the action can be downloaded from www.lga.gov.uk