Support is available from the LGA and its political groups to encourage more diversity among candidates in local elections.
Ensuring that councils are truly representative of our communities is a key challenge for local government.
Reflecting the local population is vital in helping councils run efficiently and for communities to thrive. It brings in the knowledge and lived experience of the needs and aspirations of everyone in the local community. It makes community engagement so much more real and useful.
Diverse representation has the power to inform better policies and outcomes, enable greater innovation and preventative approaches, and to create new avenues of communication and trust across communities and the public sector.
Ultimately, of course, it’s the electorate that decides who becomes a councillor, but we all have a role to play in building a pipeline of talented candidates from which to choose.
There is also much work to do in addressing the barriers that can prevent new people from getting involved and ensuring the culture of local government enables them to take the next step, thrive in the role, and progress through to leadership positions.
As part of the LGA’s government-funded sector support programme, the Be a Councillor campaign provides councils with bespoke support and a toolkit.
Most local authorities undertake activities on local democracy and increasing civic engagement, and promoting the role of the councillor can form an important part of this work. Some of the best examples of this have been in Local Democracy Week events with schools and pupils of all ages. The earlier the better, in my view.
Run by the LGA’s leadership team, Be a Councillor works with councils to help raise curiosity around the role of the elected member through assisting with local communications, stakeholder and outreach mapping, and delivering inspiring events.
The support is built from good practice at councils and can be fully customised for local needs. The team is always keen to help develop new ideas.
The LGA’s political group offices run programmes that reflect each group’s values and traditions. We, as individual councillors, local political groups and national parties, can help build a legacy for the achievements we have made in our local areas by proactively looking outside of our established networks to talent spot and support new people who would make great councillors.
To raise public awareness, the LGA has produced information and materials for the public to access on the Be a Councillor website.
The campaign also works with external organisations to further understand the barriers to participating in local government and to reach new networks.
While COVID-19 has deeply affected people’s lives and continues to do so, there is still an appetite for Be a Councillor information and events from people keen to get involved in their local community.
Running virtual events provides additional opportunities to break down some of the barriers people find when considering standing for election and can therefore help reach larger numbers of people and under-represented groups.
I encourage everyone in local government to play their part in talent-spotting, taking action on the barriers, and supporting new people to get involved.
Only by encouraging the brightest stars to stand for election can we ensure that councils are able to do the best for our communities.