We are part of the Local Government Association and run fourteen projects funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, Defra and Natural England. You can see below our latest bulletin - you can sign up using the "keep in touch" item in the "about us" menu above.
PAS Bulletin - Latest news
As we head into spring and a new financial year, PAS has a new work programme with MHCLG and will be looking to expand. Watch this space as we will be releasing five vacancies very soon. For those of you who missed our conference, our website has now been updated with presentations and blogs from the team. We also have any recordings and presentations that we have been able to release from our NPPF event series. Please continue to contact us on [email protected] if you a local authority in need of help.
Anna Rose
Head of PAS
Over the last few weeks PAS has hosted a series of webinars on the updated National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), published on 16 December 2024. These engaging sessions featured presentations from Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) officials and provided opportunities to ask questions and share insights
We were delighted to see almost 5,000 officers and councillors register from all over the country to attend webinars following topics:
- an overview of the NPPF 2024
- an overview of the 2024 NPPF for councillors
- local plans and transitional arrangements
- housing numbers
- green belt and grey belt
- the golden rules.
We have now published several resources from these sessions, including the recordings of the overview sessions, presentations and some FAQs
We hope you find these materials helpful. If you have any questions, please get in touch with PAS.
If you were unable to join us in Birmingham last month, you can still enjoy the presentations and recordings by visiting our dedicated conference webpage
PAS 20th Anniversary Conference in Birmingham Feb 2025 was our milestone event for local authority officers leading planning services. Our conference presented an invaluable and exclusive opportunity to explore the latest government changes shaping planning services, including a revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). The conference was delivered in partnership with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and guests from local government and the private sector.
Thank you if you were one of the 122 councils who responded to our survey on planning committees. We are sharing the information with Government to help inform the reforms outlined in the Planning and Infrastructure Bill. It will also be used to help us publish a best practice toolkit to help you review the operation of your planning committees. The survey results are now available on our website. We have also written a blog on the results of the survey called What is really happening at planning committees?
We recently hosted a couple of workshop on how development management officers are monitoring the impact of design codes. It was a great opportunity to hear directly from design pathfinder local authorities who have been actively using codes about how they are monitoring the impact their code use has had.
These are part of a series of online workshops we have been hosting with MHCLG to share information about how development management officers can positively engage in the production, use and monitoring of design codes
Good news! We are rolling forward our PAS Leadership Coaching and Mentoring Framework into 2025/26.
Are you an experienced local government planning manager keen to support, mentor and coach new managers? If so, this is an opportunity for you. As part of this, we're also able to offer up to 12 places on an ILM Level 3 Certificate in Effective Coaching course.
If you're interested, please complete this form and we'll be in touch.
The Government via its digital agency GDS is holding what it calls a 'hackathon' in Leeds at the end of April. We're not sure how well we understand it all, but it seems sensible to promote the event to some 'real' planners to mix in with the excitable digital and AI people.
Attendance is by invitation, so if you are free you can put your name and area of expertise forward and see what happens.
Urban Design Learning (UDL) are again offering local planning authorities (LPAs) access to a programme of online training and support sessions from April 2025 to March 2026. The events continue to be focused on design quality – but will also delve deeper into how place design can help us reduce carbon use, how technological tools can help us design and deliver successful places, and new policy changes. The Programme gives LPAs unlimited attendance for officers and councillors to half day sessions covering a wide range of key aspects of place shaping, as well as access to a catalogue of short video recordings from past events, networking and advice. For more details on how to sign-up, or to confirm your subscription, please email UDL directly at [email protected]
Leadership and innovation go hand-in-hand. Martin Hutchings summarises a thought-provoking session co-delivered with Brett Leahy at the recent PAS Conference. We asked Brett: 'How do you manage and deliver change when most planning services are already struggling with capacity and resilience just to maintain the status quo?' See Brett’s response and case study/examples based on his experience
It's the latest in many planning-adjacent topics. The latest includes waste, nature, net zero, adaptation and recycling. You and your councillors might be interested and sign up. Sustainability bulletin: March 2025
You may not have realised but PAS exists because of a contract between our funder MHCLG and the Local Government Association. We're very pleased to share that our contract looks like it is being extended and even expanded to include some exciting new policy areas like strategic planning, local fees and 30 month local plans.
We're not yet ready to publish any adverts, but we'll be looking for four people with a mix of skills. Not just planning - we're going to need analysts, technical and related skills. Have a think - there is lots to recommend working in PAS and we'll promote the job ad shortly. If you want a chat first, so you can try PAS old-timers Pete and Steve, or you may prefer our latest recruits Zain and Rachel
Public Practice wants to hear how local government skills and capacity issues affect you and your team. Their Local Authority Recruitment and Skills Survey 2025 is live, and you are invited to share your experiences working in local government placemaking over the last year. Share your personal experience and help them identify the skills gaps and trends across local government in the medium to long term. The survey is open until the end of 4 March. Take the five minute survey.
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