Staffordshire Chambers’ of Commerce helps to shape the future of policy making through our 11 policy forums. These forums cover the topics of:
- Charity
- Digital
- Energy, Environment and Sustainability
- HR, Employment and Skills
- HS2
- Manufacturers’
- Money Matters
- Planning & Infrastructure
- Rural Business
- Social Value & Procurement
- Transport
Each forum is made up of representatives from our members and meet up several times during the year. Key topics for discussion are identified, guest speakers are brought in and our forums pick up the role of highlighting matters that concern our members, at both a national and regional level. Each forum has its own chair, who will steer both the meetings and objectives of that particular forum.
As we plan for 2023, forum chairs met to share ideas and thinking about how we best represent the views of our members. have discussed a number of key issues that are shared across many of the forums such as inflationary pressures, energy costs, skills shortages and staffing issues. In the year ahead, we’ve agreed to develop closer working across all of our policy forums and highlight the more common themes which impact on multiple business sectors. We will closely track any actions we take to escalate the concerns raised by our members and this could be done through consulting with our local authority partners, stakeholders and nationally, through the British Chambers’ of Commerce (BCC).
We welcome new faces in all of our policy forums but what’s in it for you and your business? It’s a chance for your views to be heard and the opportunity to work collaboratively with your fellow Chambers’ members in influencing our policy role on specific topics. You also get the chance to grow your networking contacts in similar sectors. It could also be a perfect development opportunity for one of your team, helping to empower confidence.
Some of our forum members have gone on to join British Chambers’ of Commerce (BCC) policy groupings, getting their voices heard at a national level.
Being a part of our policy forums is not a huge commitment with no more than four meetings a year and meetings typically start at 9am and last no more than an hour or so. New Year is a good chance to look at new learning and new opportunities and perhaps this could the perfect opportunity for you to get involved?
The last three calendar years have been incredibly challenging for our business community and this is likely to remain the case for 2023. Being the voice of business is what we do but why not get involved and play your part. For further details on our policy forums, please contact Declan Riddell: declan.riddell@staffordshirechambers.co.uk
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