Guidance and guidelines in pre-election period

As of yesterday, we have now officially entered pre-election period (previously referred to as purdah), where restrictions will be applicable until close of polls on May 2. 

As you may already be aware, staff must be particularly careful about using Council resources to 'publish any material which, in whole, or in part, appears to be designed to affect public support for a political party.'

Pre-election rules restrict activity wider than just publicity. Use of council facilities and resources; the member’s code of conduct, developing new policies and holding of events (including some meetings) featuring elected officials should all be carefully considered during a period of heightened sensitivity.

If you have new starters on your team or staff who would like a refresh on the guidance during this time, please share the resources below. If you have any questions or queries regarding pre-election rules, please contact your manager, or contact Jenny Cryer, Assistant Director, Office of the Chief Executive via jenny.cryer@bradford.gov.uk. 

Summary of guidance

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Fire safety training - changes to arrangements after COVID-19 

Due to hybrid working following Covid-19, every employee of Bradford Council who works from the Council offices is expected to undertake the fire warden training.

This training is not expected to make you a designated fire warden, but to equip you with the right information with regards to actions to take in an event of fire when designated fire warden is not present.

Please could managers ensure staff are aware that new training has been added to their profiles on Smartlog, and will need completing. Thanks!

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Modern Workforce

IT update and news for staff this week

Read on for troubleshooting guidance and help for the new teams, the spam email management system and how to access BradNet from Google chrome. Please share within your teams!

If staff are having issues accessing Bradnet or any Windows services via their Google Chrome browser, please download via the button below for the Chrome extension.

Installing this allows you to logon to Bradnet, but all the same rules apply when password or location changes. 

Chrome Extension 

How to add the Chrome extension onto your browser

Follow the link above and click the Add to Chrome button to add the extension, then close Chrome when the extension has been added.

Use this extension to sign in to supported websites with accounts on Windows 10 and later versions.

Should you have any issues with this fix please log a call via the IT Support Portal.

New Spam management system

As previously advised IT services are introducing a new spam email management tool. This will be slowly rolled out over the coming weeks up to mid April. Please share this guidance with your teams. 

Your twice daily email from Mimesweeper, will now be replaced by a single daily Email Alert subject headed Spam Management Notification (Defender).

What do I need to do?

Step 1: Look out for Email Alerts headed Spam Management Notification (Defender)

Step 2: Review the message

Step 3: If the email isn't spam and you would like to receive it please click release

Important: If following this update you notice a Spam email in your inbox, you can manage this by either unsubscribing or reporting this as Spam via Outlook.

More info

New teams!

Many of you have moved to the new look version of Microsoft Teams already, but please be aware that the “classic” version is being removed by Microsoft from 1 April. You can change yourself at anytime by clicking the below button that you will find in your Teams.

Council IT have no control over when Microsoft will implement this change for everyone but guidance on the features can be found on the IT Toolkit linked below.
Cornerstone SBX: Microsoft Teams Homepage (sabacloud.com)