Is there any more fulfilling role than being a leader within your community and council, working with the people we represent, advocating for them and creating impactful change?
Even more satisfying is knowing that you inspired others to become a councillor.
We all have a key role to play in reaching outside of the established routes into elected office, to raise awareness of the role, and support potential candidates.
People will naturally gravitate towards others if they feel like they can relate to them, and it is important for councils to be representative of our communities, ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard, including hard-to-reach audiences, and bridging the gap to different community groups.
With diversity in leadership, comes diversity in knowledge, skills, and experience; insights and innovation; and creating a range of solutions to community problems.
It is also important, as councillors, to collectively highlight issues affecting under-represented groups and not rely on those affected to take the lead.
Using our knowledge and experience, we can nurture the next generation of councillors, provide insights into the role and build confidence in those who, for different reasons, might not have come forward.
LGA-commissioned research by The Young Foundation showed that low interest by people in becoming a councillor is partly down to a lack of understanding of the role – for example, what councillors’ daily tasks involve, and their part in decision-making.
Raising awareness while interacting with the community either face to face or on social media can help motivate potential candidates.
The power of being asked more than once is well-documented – simply encouraging people to stand for election can be a valuable first step in helping people overcome real or perceived barriers.
An easy way to support this is by reposting tweets from the LGA’s Be a Councillor campaign and signposting those interested to the campaign website. It describes a councillor’s role in detail, shares case studies, and provides useful contacts for next steps.
The LGA is working to increase interest in – and the diversity of –people coming forward to become councillors to help ensure a continual pipeline of talented people ready to get involved and make a difference in our communities.
Our Be a Councillor campaign provides a range of informative resources for members of the public and offers bespoke support and resources to help councils run their own local Be a Councillor campaigns.
The LGA’s political group offices also run a wide range of activities through their political networks.
Support and information
Your council
For resources and bespoke support for councils to corporately run local Be a Councillor activities, please contact [email protected]
Your communities
Members of the public can access information on the councillor role, FAQs, councillor case studies, and other useful resources, contacts and next steps at www.local.gov.uk/be-councillor
LGA Political Group Offices
Each political group office runs its own programme of activities, so please get in touch with your political group for more information:
- Labour Office: [email protected]
- Conservative Office: [email protected]
- Liberal Democrat Office: [email protected]
- Independent Office: [email protected]
For a full breakdown on councillor diversity in England, please see the LGA’s ‘National census of local authority councillors 2022’, at www.local.gov.uk/publications/national-census-local-authority-councillors-2022