New councillors' frequently asked questions

A good tip is to accept once, and then you are able to assess whether this is a valuable forum/event to attend on a regular basis. Immerse yourself – but realise that there will come a point when you’ll know where you can best spend your time. If you are in a two-member ward, you may be able to divide the engagements up between yourselves.

When you first become a councillor, it can be completely overwhelming especially if you have other commitments such as employment or caring responsibilities. It is up to you how long you spend on councillor duties, and what type of councillor you see yourself being. Most people want to spend time in their communities as well as in the town hall. It is a difficult balancing act and tends to change as you progress in your councillor career. From our recent survey, we know that, on average people spend around 22 hours per week on their councillor role. But there is no fixed time – it is up to you to find a way to

There is no legal reason why you have to be tied to existing spending plans. However, with contracts in place, it can take time to change arrangements or contracts and so you may wish to work through these carefully to ensure that you are always securing value for money.

Significant incidents are rare; however, it is important for councillors to understand how they can fulfil their role safety and when to access further support. The LGA has tailored advice for councillors around handling abuse and intimidation and managing personal safety, which can supplement any advice you receive from your local council. This advice ranges from practical steps to reduce risks associated with engagement with residents and other in-person and online.

Civility in public life

Lots of information is available online. Your council’s website and intranet will contain lots of information about the council, the way it works, timetable of meetings, its services and the local area etc. Council papers may be provided electronically and/or in paper form. Officers have a duty to ensure that councillors have access to the information they need in order to make well-informed decisions. They may do this by producing factual reports, making presentations or arranging visits – for example, for planning committee.

Our free data benchmarking platform, LG Inform, is a valuable resource for information. It presents you with up-to-date published data about your local area and benchmarking information. Whether you’re interested in scrutiny, a particular service area, or simply need an overview, it can help you review and compare performance with other authorities.

Your council will provide support - some is mandatory and some optional – and this will vary from council to council. Your Democratic Services officer will be able to signpost you to relevant activities. There are also a series of workbooks on the LGA website.

Practical support will vary depending on your council but may include access to space in the council headquarters such as a members’ room, office equipment such as a mobile phone, computer and printer, access to media and general communications advice and research support. Some support is provided to all councillors, other support is provided via political groups. Your leader and cabinet members are more likely to have access to dedicated support, along with the chairs of scrutiny in some councils.

Identify what the problem is – you will need to establish the facts and find out how your constituent wants you to help. This will include identifying whether there is a long history to the problem and who has been approached in the past.

Avoid promising to sort out every problem – but do offer a sympathetic ear. While you can use your knowledge, contacts and advocacy skills to assist people, also help people to help themselves.

Refer the problem to the appropriate council department – having identified what the problem is, you should communicate with the council officers who handle members’ enquiries or relevant service officers, if that is how your council operates. You may want to put your concerns or questions in writing, although most members find that a quick face to face discussion, telephone call or e-mail is quicker and easier in sorting out casework problems.

Provide feedback – after you have made initial enquiries, let the constituent know what you are doing and keep them up to date with progress and eventual outcomes. They will not know what is going on unless you tell them.

Consider the wider issues – reflect on the issues raised by casework and let your co-members know. A number of similar concerns raised with members may suggest that an issue needs to be dealt with by a new or revised policy or a scrutiny review. Where you have had a success, it is also worth letting your fellow ward members know in case they face a similar situation.

Use social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and YouTube but make sure your content is accurate, informative, balanced and objective – if in any doubt then check your council’s social media policy. There are also some principles that are useful to keep in mind:

Be strategic – plan ahead: who do you want to engage with, why and how? What do you want to achieve?; Be human: be approachable in your language and tone, behave online as you would in person; Be engaging: respond to questions and join in when you can move the conversation on or help; Be professional: remember that you represent your council, so be aware of how your public voice comes across; Share and attribute: you can share what others have posted but it is polite to acknowledge and attribute where this has come from; Go to where your audience is: if the people you want to connect with are on a particular platform, forum or group, join it; Content is king: by creating sharable and engaging content you can contribute to the conversation and be heard; and Be authentic: don’t pretend to be something you are not.

Also remember - the internet is forever and what you post now could be found in years to come.

As a councillor, you will work at different geographies and in partnership with local communities and organisations such as clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) across the voluntary, community and private sectors. This can all be very complicated and it will take you time to understand how the systems work. Ask for guidance if you are unsure or need to clarify anything and confirm arrangements including how your council is represented on those bodies.

Your LGA regional team and principal adviser is your ‘front door’ to the LGA and your initial point of contact.

Councillors should discuss this initially with their council’s democratic services officers to establish what support is available, as each council will have their own arrangements for this. Not all LGA events come with a cost so it is worth looking at all of the events and support offers we have and accessing those which will be of interest to you.

Search FixMyStreet by council or postcode to review what issues have been raised in your local area. To understand how each council uses the information it receives it may be helpful to discuss with your council's public realm / street cleaning / environmental health team.

Casework from residents and your local MP will form the bulk of your casework. Casework can come from a variety of places and will often be picked up through letters, telephone calls, emails and social media (Facebook and Twitter), surgeries, advice sessions, doorstep calls, campaigning and other political activity. Some councillors find that there is relatively little casework while others have lots of it. Casework can take many forms, including:

• direct query – for example, a neighbour asking if you could find out what progress has been made in processing her application for a renovation grant
• indirect query – for example, a daughter ringing up on behalf of her frail, elderly parent, asking if her mother is entitled to claim council tax benefit
• complaint – for example, a local housing tenant emailing you to complain about the repeated vandalism to her council property
• service request – for example, a shopkeeper asking if you could arrange for an extra trade waste collection at his premises
• community issue – for example, a group of parents lobbying you to prompt the council to remove a burnt out vehicle from a nearby park.

Your council can offer support and advice on handling casework, so worth discussing with democratic services 
officers. Talking to other councillors about their experience in handling casework and any advice they may have will 
be valuable. Our Councillor workbook on handling casework includes further reflections and tips.

We regularly capture and publish good practice via our case studies database. Our monthly edition of First magazine, our magazine for councillors, also highlights good practice across the local government sector on a wide variety of topics and will be delivered to you directly.

Depending on where you live, local government consists of at least one or two tiers of authorities. Two tiers, with responsibilities of local services divided between them: county councils and district, borough or city councils; or one (unitary) tier providing all services: unitary councils, London boroughs and metropolitan boroughs. Across England, there are also around 10,000 parish and town councils to serve electorates, are independently elected and raise their own precept (a form of council tax).

Parish councils make all kinds of decisions on issues that affect the local community, with some of the most common topics being planning matters (they are statutory consultees), crime prevention and roads and highways. Parish councils have limited powers to make decisions but they do have the ability to negotiate with, and the power to influence those organisations which do make the final decisions (such as the district or county council, health authorities, police, and so on).

The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) represents town and parish councils in England and Wales. There are differences in the numbers of people a parish or town council represents, its spending power, and the services it delivers. Parish and town councils’ powers are generally equivalent to those of district councils – in practice, most are involved with local environmental, community and amenity issues. An initial conversation with your democratic services officers or a ‘member champion’ (if you have one at your council) may be helpful to understand the parish councils within your area. Our councillor workbook on working with town and parish councils provides useful further information.

You might already be aware of support and services which is available for residents in your area which you can pass on to residents. You can also speak to fellow councillors and officers in your council to find out what other support and assistance is available locally. The LGA has developed a Cost of Living Hub which brings together examples of where councils and local partners have delivered remarkable services and support and has been designed to share best practice and help councils to support their residents with the rise in the cost of living. Visit the Cost of Living Hub to see examples of the work of councils and resources. 

LGA events are advertised on our Events pages, which are continually updated.  Our events cover a huge number of issues of interest to councillors so please do keep an eye on what is coming up and join events which of interest to you in your role.