Powys County Council: Flexible and Remote Hybrid Working

Powys County Council covers one quarter of the entire land area of Wales, so travel for council meetings takes a long time, making it hard to attract a diverse range of new councillors with varying experiences. 

Just before the first national COVID-19 lockdown in March 2020, Councillor Roberts put forward a motion enabling the council to hold council meetings online. This policy was maintained in Powys after lockdown had ended, which improved the diversity of councillors, including more councillors who are Disabled, parents or carers.

Disabled People, and people with long-term health conditions, are significantly under-represented in politics, and at all stages of public life. Disabled people make up one in five of the population in the United Kingdom, however, the LGA’s National Census of local authority councillors in 2022 found that only 15.5 per cent of local councillors had a disability or long-term health condition. 

In Powys County Council travel from the northernmost point of the council area for council meetings takes two hours, with travel from the southernmost point taking an hour and a half. Council meetings have traditionally therefore been held in the daytime, so councillors or officers are not travelling home too late at night. Due to both the distance, and the fact that meetings are in the day, it has traditionally always been difficult for Powys County Council to attract a diverse range of new councillors, with varying life experiences, as these factors are significant barriers for many people.

During the final days before the first national lockdown in March 2020, Cllr Roberts spoke to a member of the council Governance team during the break in Full Council, and raised a motion to suspend a Standing Order, giving way to the ability to hold future council meetings online. The Full Council supported the motion, and once the UK was in full lockdown, Powys was able to hold council meetings online. 

The United Kingdom Government soon followed suit and brought in emergency legislation to allow remote meetings. This legislation was temporary, and the temporary provisions in the Coronavirus Act were lifted in 2022. The Welsh Government, however, decided to keep these remote and hybrid measures, and The Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 made it possible for councils across Wales to hold online meetings, and made provisions for council papers to be circulated electronically. 

Powys County Council agreed to maintain this new way of remote and hybrid working, and it has had a positive impact on the number of Disabled councillors that they were able to encourage to come forward for election, and who got elected, making the council more representative of residents and businesses in their community.

When councillors and political parties were recruiting new candidates for the 2022 all out local elections, potential candidates were aware of the fact that if elected, they would be able to work remotely. Cllr Roberts notes that this was a big factor in recruitment and allowed them to convince many more people to stand for election than usual. In his words, candidate selection “really opened up, and it had a huge impact.” 

In one political party as an example the number of candidates fielded for the 64 seat more than doubled in 2022, from 20 at the previous election. More Disabled candidates put themselves forward for election and two who were successfully elected said that they would not have stood if hybrid meetings weren’t an option. 

In addition to Disabled people, more people put themselves forward as candidates who had school age children, and some councillors who were due to retire, citing the long journeys to meetings as a factor, decided to stay on, because the remote meetings would make their duties as a councillor easier to manage. 

The fact that many training and development sessions for members could now be recorded and uploaded online also reduced demands on councillors, in particular those who worked 9-5, because they could catch up with development and training within their own time. Younger councillors also cited the hybrid working model as a factor in their decision to be able to fulfil their council duties. 

Being able to access remote meetings has helped councillors who experience anxiety, and having access to recorded meetings has supported those who need to go back and take time to digest information. With certain committees, such as the Scrutiny Committee, having access to a computer during the meeting allows councillors to access key information during the meeting, allowing them to scrutinise more effectively. There has also been a step change with the culture of speaking about mental health conditions. Having meetings online has made them much more accessible, and having the choice of attending either in person or remotely supports people in being able to manage fluctuating health conditions. 

Another impact that has supported accountability, and the strength of democracy, has been that local democracy reporters have been able to use the technology with remote meetings, to allow them to report council meetings as accurately as possible. 

All in all, remote meetings have improved the working culture for councillors at Powys County Council, allowing them to better connect to their residents and better attend to their council duties. Cllr Ewing has stated that without these adjustments, becoming a councillor would have not been an option for her at all.

The biggest barriers have been around technology. In particular, in the beginning many of the technology platforms had translation tools that did not always encompass the Welsh language. This meant that extra time was always needed for translation for those councillors who use Welsh. This was overcome by many council officers, councillors and other politicians from across Wales co-signing letters, raising tickets and lobbying the technology companies to introduce a translation feature, including a Welsh language feature. Getting the technology companies to recognise the importance of this was said to be a challenge, but working collaboratively with politicians across Wales made it possible.

The key enabler was the dramatic shift in work culture for both elected councillors and officers over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic. The fact that the Welsh Government then changed the legislation made it possible to cement this new way of hybrid working across Powys County Council. 

The decision to keep council meetings hybrid, available both online and in person was a political one. Initially voted on by council, each committee then made their own decisions as to how they would proceed as they came out of lockdown. Officers, including the governance teams, member development and legal teams, all supported in enabling this change.

This new approach is being sustained through the fact that since COVID-19, the work culture at Powys County Council has now changed seemingly irreversibly. Flexible, remote and hybrid working has become the norm for so many councillors and officers, that it would be difficult to imagine life as it was previously. 

It suits so many people, both elected and unelected, that unless there was an unexpected issue, most decision makers see it being retained for the future. The cohort of new councillors that were elected in 2022 were told that this would be the way that there were able to work, and so for them, the culture is embedded for the time that they are councillors. It would be difficult to reverse that. 

Another benefit is that less travel means that members’ expenses are reduced as are emissions from travelling, benefitting both the taxpayer and the planet.

Advice given from Cllr Ewing and Cllr Roberts is that residents may sometimes push back at the fact that councillors are not being traditional in attending all in person meetings, but if this happens, it is worth explaining that being online can often mean councillors can dedicate more time to their duties. Online meetings are also more accessible for residents. Given the fact that the County Council covers up to one quarter of the land area of Wales, online meetings mean that they are much more accessible for residents to attend. 

The organic culture change that arose in unique circumstances was the main driver in making this possible – the decision to continue with the changed model was, however, not inevitable. The advice given by Cllr Roberts and Cllr Ewing is for councillors and officers who want a similar change, to find allies and challenge those in authority to make this real change. 

Showcase where it works well, such as in Powys, and use that to influence. Highlight that a greater diversity of candidates helps make better decision making. Start with committees such as Scrutiny, and encourage those committees to be more remote. Then you can start thinking about moving on to meetings such as Full Council, particularly if travel is an issue. Live streaming of council meetings means that you are ‘taking democracy closer to the public’, and improving accessibility for the public to engage with what is happening in the Council.

• Cllr Pete Roberts: [email protected]
• Cllr Josie Ewing: [email protected]