Four weeks' notice
The clerk of twelve years hands in their notice. They are organised, in their own way. Contracts are in a folder on their laptop, the insurance renewal date is in their head, the passwords for the bank and website are on a note in a drawer, and the relationships with the county highways officer and the grass cutting contractor are personal. The council email is the clerk's own account, or a generic one that only they use.
The chair asks for a handover document. The clerk writes twenty pages over their last fortnight. The new clerk starts a month later, reads it, and still finds out about the annual allotment renewal when a plot holder asks why no invoice arrived. The website hosting lapses because the renewal went to the old clerk's personal email.
Why councils end up this way
Small councils have one officer. Over years, that officer builds up a way of working that makes sense to them, often with little support and on their own equipment. The council never set up shared systems because it never needed to while the clerk was there. The risk only becomes visible at the handover.
| What the council relies on | Where it often lives | Handover risk |
|---|---|---|
| Contracts and renewal dates | Clerk's laptop and memory | Renewals missed |
| Contacts at other bodies | Clerk's personal phone and email | Relationships lost |
| Recurring annual tasks | Clerk's memory | Deadlines missed |
| Account logins | A note in a drawer | Locked out of services |
| Correspondence history | Clerk's email account | Context lost |
What a poor handover costs
Missed renewals can mean lapsed insurance or services, which is the scary one. Missed deadlines for returns, precept requests or annual meetings cause stress and extra work. The new clerk spends months rediscovering how things work, and the council pays for that time. Councillors, often the chair, fill in the gaps unpaid. And some knowledge never comes back.
What your council must keep and for how long is for your council and its advisers. We deal with making sure what it keeps can be found.
A council records hub
We set this up, ideally well before a clerk leaves, on a platform the council owns, such as Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace.
- A council-owned email account for the clerk role, not a person, with history preserved when clerks change.
- A shared document store with an agreed folder structure for contracts, policies, minutes, finance, assets and correspondence.
- A contracts and renewals register: supplier, what it covers, start and end dates, notice periods and renewal reminders sent to the role, not the person.
- A contacts register for the people the council deals with at other bodies, contractors and local groups.
- An annual calendar of recurring council tasks, such as budget setting, precept, annual meeting, insurance, allotment renewals and audit, each with a short how-to note.
- A secure password manager for council accounts, with access for the clerk and a named councillor.
- A checklist the outgoing clerk works through to move their files and notes into the hub.
- Nothing depends on one person's device or email.
- The chair or a named councillor can find anything in an emergency.
- The next clerk starts with the year's calendar already in front of them.
The new clerk's first month, with the hub
The new clerk logs into the role account and sees the full email history. The calendar shows the allotment renewals due next month, with notes on how they are done. The renewals register shows the website hosting and the insurance, both with reminders. Contacts include the highways officer's direct line. The handover conversation with the outgoing clerk is about judgement and relationships, because the facts are already in the hub.
Is your council one resignation away from trouble?
- Council email is in the clerk's personal account.
- Contracts and renewals are on the clerk's laptop.
- Nobody else knows the annual cycle of tasks.
- Passwords are on paper or in one person's memory.
- The chair would struggle if the clerk were suddenly unavailable.