In some ports, wharfside warehouses still function well, providing a great-value service to the businesses that use them and ensuring the demand for imports and exports is met. Here in London Docklands, the warehouses weren’t working and had become unsustainable, and many were knocked down or converted – some to create the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel, where CTSI Council met. The trading standards profession, which is rooted in local authorities, is going the same way as those old warehouses. Continuing cuts result in small services becoming unsustainable and falling below the critical mass needed to provide the essential services to their communities. The conversion of some London warehouses into a hotel has preserved them and ensures a future for these historic buildings. Hopefully, discussions following the publication of CTSI’s vision will result in similar inspiration and bring about the changes needed to protect the service in the future. The vision As you might expect, the vision was much discussed at Council, as it has been at branch and other meetings. Many misleading and incorrect statements have been made about it, and it was very disappointing to hear from CTSI chief executive, Leon Livermore, that – despite both he and Melissa Dring, CTSI policy director, being available for a period of time each day at CTSI Conference – only one member took the opportunity to discuss the vision with them. Like it or not, the vision – which sets out a number of challenges to local and central government based around structures, accountability and overnance and funding – has succeeded in generating discussion about the future of the profession. Several strategic reviews are taking place, which is a huge positive for such a small profession. CTSI Council has played a key role in developing the vision with its working group, which will continue giving feedback to Council going forward. Austerity The report back from the chairman of the Board highlighted the impact of austerity on the institute, its membership income, the cost of governance and how a reduction in members will affect branch numbers. There were also concerns about the drop in student numbers, which are 20 per cent down this year; this presents a challenge, with the institute running the qualifications at a loss. Alert to a wise menu of options, the Board has plans to manage this impact, including a governance review, plus a rebalancing of where the institute’s income comes from – if the public sector ceases to be a primary source of income, exploring the commercial markets will become more important. Work has been undertaken to develop a medium-term commercial plan, focusing on four key priorities. They are: l Maximising existing opportunity l Services for local authorities l Services for businesses l Partnership development Breakout session This was a timely session looking at what a trading standards officer of the future should look like, what skills they will require and how we should ensure this. Common themes emerged in the feedback around required core skills, which could be shared with other regulators and then linked to specialist knowledge in one or more areas. The views expressed will be fed into reviews of the service and the education group lead officers will also be included in future discussions. Lead officer reports Emerging issues are collated from these very useful and informative reports and fed into policy work. Some time was spent looking at how all lead officers can be assisted to report as fully as possible. While the position they hold is voluntary, these elite amateurs now perform an essential role as cutbacks reduce capacity and experience in many areas. Lou Baxter presented on her work as lead officer for consumer advice and joint lead officer for consumer education. She showed how, even in an area that is often the first to be cut in many authorities, a very wide range of fantastic initiatives are still being delivered and shared among the profession. CTSP Council again discussed the importance of Trading Standards Practitioner status and, after some strong views on all sides, decided – by a narrow majority – that Council members should become Chartered Trading Standards Practitioners (CTSP). Annual general meeting The 2015 CTSI annual general meeting (AGM) received very few votes via proxy and only 32 members attended. Council discussed how we can encourage member attendance. Again, the idea of returning the AGM to Conference was raised, but there are practical issues to overcome in resourcing its delivery, and in the impact it would have on the wider programme. Among the questions asked were: ‘What is the value of an AGM when so few members attend? Perhaps there are modern ways to vote on necessary rule changes without a physical meeting?’ An options paper is to be developed for consideration at the next Council meeting. On a personal note... Attending CTSI Council is a bit like a working holiday – spending time with good friends, making new ones, chatting about common interests while getting some important work done. I would recommend that interested members take the opportunity to attend as an observer. It provides a fantastic insight into the massive range of often unseen work and how CTSI’s Council, Board and Executive interact in the best interests of the membership and the profession.