NORA Guidelines

What is NORA?

NORA is NALC's Online Resource Assistant.
NORA uses NALC resources to help answer questions and direct you to relevant NALC guidance.
NORA does not search the wider internet. It can only answer using the NALC resources, so it may not be able to answer every question.
Where relevant, NORA will link you to the NALC resources used to provide the response.

How to use NORA effectively

Ask clear, specific questions and provide relevant context to help NORA find the most useful information.
NORA can help you find information on legal, financial and other specialist topics. NORA's responses are for information purposes only and are NOT professional advice.
Always check the NALC resources NORA links to and verify important information before acting on it. Seek appropriate professional advice where necessary, particularly where the information may inform council decisions or actions.
If you need further advice or support, including help applying the guidance to your council's circumstances, contact your county association.
NORA uses AI and can make mistakes, misunderstand your question or provide incomplete information.
Do not use NORA to draft documents or correspondence, or for personal, non-council or non-member related queries.

Using NORA responsibly

Using NORA thoughtfully helps it provide more relevant responses and supports fair and responsible use of the service.
Keep conversations focused. Keep related follow-up questions together, but start a new conversation when you change topic or move on to a different task.
Provide only the information NORA needs. Give enough context for NORA to understand your question, without adding unnecessary background or large amounts of text.
Keep longer conversations manageable. If a conversation has become lengthy but you still need help on the same subject, consider starting a new conversation with a short summary of the relevant points.
Avoid unnecessary or repeated requests. Check whether NORA has already answered your question or linked you to the information you need before asking it to repeat or rework the same information.

Navigating NORA

Home screen — Return to NORA's main screen to start a new conversation or access recent conversations.
New conversation — Start a new conversation with NORA. Use this when you want to ask about a different topic.
Chat history — View and search your previous conversations.
Bookmarks — Save useful conversations so you can easily return to them later.
View sources — View and open the NALC resources NORA has used to support its response.
Copy thread to clipboard — Copy a conversation to paste into another document or application.
Download the thread as a text file — Save a conversation to your device as a text file.

Privacy and acceptable use

Do not enter personal data, confidential council information, commercially sensitive information or details of individual cases.
NALC can review your full NORA conversation and identify the user who submitted it. Conversations may be reviewed to monitor and improve NORA, investigate technical issues and identify inappropriate use.
Use of NORA is subject to NALC's Terms of Use, including appropriate and fair use of the service.

Share your feedback

Your feedback will help us understand your experience and improve NORA.

You can use the thumbs-up or thumbs-down buttons to tell us if NORA's response was helpful.

For more detailed feedback, ask NORA to "give feedback". A feedback form will appear where you can choose a category and tell us more.

We welcome all feedback, whether NORA was helpful or could be improved. Your feedback helps us improve the service, but we do not normally respond to individual submissions.

Report a technical issue

If you experience a technical issue with our website or when accessing NORA, try logging out of your account and logging back in or complete our form to report the problem.

Before you continue

By using NORA, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge our Privacy Notice.