Agenda item

The Chair invited Helen Jenkins (HJ), Head of Leadership, to introduce the report.

HJ briefly ran through the role and remit of the LGA’s Leadership Team and then expanded upon developments with the ‘Be a Councillor’ strand since the previous update to the Board. In particular, the team had recently won funding from DLUHC to deliver a package of support for disabled councillors and candidates to try and increase representation across local government. The package had been co-produced with disabled people and this had enabled a much wider reach, with many of those involved in the campaign becoming advocates for the LGA’s work. Early feedback following the launch had been very positive. Research into the barriers preventing young people from standing for election was nearing completion and would be reported back to a future Board meeting.

Members’ comments and questions:

·         Members welcomed the programme and felt that it was vital to help get as wide and diverse a pool of potential council candidates as possible. It was suggested that the perceived barriers to standing for election be collated and used as a focus for lobbying government to improve accessibility. In the interim, were there any off-the-shelf policies that could be used to help, such as that created for maternity support by the Labour Group Office? Issues related to the geography, population demographics and electoral system of specific areas was raised, for example, problems of attending meetings in large rural councils; and electing by thirds every year. Could specific learning points be extracted by the LGA from these situations?

·         The problem of attracting young people into standing for election was discussed and, in particular, the difficulties of combining being a councillor with working. Retention rates were often very low with many leaving after one term. It was considered important to use the appropriate social media channels in order to engage young people. There was an opportunity for the LGA to make more creative use of the platforms available to engage with potential candidates and it was suggested that training in the use of these platforms might be helpful.

·         Further information was requested on the balance of the programme in terms of the national strand and the part run through the political group offices, such as the split in terms of funding and also outcomes. The timing of work on the political side was considered crucial in relation to the different political party selection processes. HJ agreed to produce a briefing for the Lead Members on these issues to share within their groups.

·         The importance of running hybrid or virtual meetings was stressed in relation to attracting candidates with disabilities, not least because of the lack of accessibility in many older council buildings. What more could the LGA do to lobby Government to allow councils to run fully virtual meetings if they so wished? It was pointed out that the Welsh Government had recently legislated to enable councils to hold virtual meetings and the LGA could learn lessons from how this came about, and work with the Welsh LGA on highlighting its positive impact.

·         In relation to the KPI to engage with 500 non-councillors by the end of December 2022, were events and activities coordinated by individual members councils picked up in the statistics? Was the conversion rate of engagements into actual candidates standing known, and was this an ongoing programme of support for councils? HJ said that it was not easy to track the outcomes of engagements and this was the first year that the KPI had been measured so it was a work in progress. More would certainly be done to learn from councils’ own programmes. She confirmed that it was a rolling programme that had been running for over 10 years.

·         Was any joint working taking place with the National Association of Local Councils in order to attract existing town/parish councillors to step up to district or county level? HJ confirmed that the LGA had an excellent working relationship with them and this was one of the areas of collaboration.

·         It was considered important to take hidden disabilities into consideration as part of the work on attracting disabled candidates.

Decision:

Improvement & Innovation Board noted the update and requested that their comments and observations be taken into account in developing the programme moving forward.

Action:

HJ to brief Lead Members on the balance between the LGA’s national programme and those run by the political group offices.