Lesson video

Hi there, I'm Mrs. Tomassi and I'm gonna be working through with you on your citizenship lesson today.

Hopefully you've got everything that you need and you're all set to go.

If that's the case, we can make a start.

So today's lesson is titled, How is Local Democracy Different to National Democracy? And this forms part of the unit which is Where Does Power Reside in the UK? Hopefully by the end of this lesson you are gonna be able to explain what local and national government is and the main differences between them.

The keywords that are gonna pop up today, and remember, you'll see them in bold throughout.

So if you're ever a bit stuck on what they are, you can always refer back to them here.

So we've got government.

Government is the group of people with the authority to govern a country.

In the UK, The government is chosen and led by the prime minister.

Economy, which is how a country's or area's goods and services are produced, consumed, and exchanged and how money is supplied and managed.

And then we've got policies, which is of courses of action or goals that individuals, groups, or governments plan to achieve or are in the process of implementing.

There are two learning cycles today and we're gonna go through the first one now which is, what does central government do? So to start, you've got a bit of a diagram there.

We've got the national government, you might hear it referred to sometimes as national or as central government.

Now that branch is off and we have two types here.

We've got regional and we've got local.

And this shows you how power is distributed in the UK.

'Cause the national and central government might start with the power, but they're not holding it all to themselves.

They do devolve some of it to other areas.

And this is what we'll see here.

So it begins with the central and national government and they're going to devolve.

And when we say devolve, what we're talking about is transferring some of that power or giving authority to others to make decisions.

So it isn't just UK Parliament that makes decisions.

There are others as well.

Do you know in the UK who some of them people might be? So we've got the Northern Ireland Assembly that might give you a clue to another two, which is then the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Parliament.

So give you an example there, Jacob's saying, "For example, Scotland do not pay for university tuition fees like the rest of the UK." And this is just one of the examples of the powers that can read devolved and differences that might be seen across areas.

So there we've got the UK Parliament, we've got regional, and then obviously you've got the devolved parliaments there and all of those, the UK Parliament and the devolved parliaments, have their own local governments.

Obviously the focus that we are focusing on in this learning cycle is gonna be UK Parliament as the central or national government.

So there we've got some of the other areas that have devolved.

So like the local government and they might manage services in local areas such as roads.

So first check for understanding there just to see you are still up and keeping up with it.

Which type of government is missing from the diagram? Take a sec, see if you can work it out.

Did you remember it as local government? And then we are gonna move on now to look at what central government does.

The UK Parliament is where the national central government sits and it is called central 'cause it's at the centre of coordinating and managing the UK as a whole.

So this is why you might hear the terms used interchangeably.

Now the government, also known as the executive, is formed by the party that gains the most seats in the House of Commons at a general election and it is led by the prime minister.

The role of the government and what they are doing is to look after the economy.

Can you think of anything else that they might do? So they're running the country by developing an implemented policy.

So that was one of our key terms we looked at the start and then they're being held accountable to the Parliament and the electorates, so those that are voting them in, for their actions.

We're gonna look at these different roles in a bit more detail.

So how do they look after the economy? How they do this, one way is by setting taxes.

The taxes that they set then provide money for and to improve the economy.

They can choose what to spend public money on.

So they might invest in a different area.

So it might be that healthcare needs more money or maybe education's doing well and that needs less.

Maybe there's more transport issues.

So they will look at different areas and decide, "Okay, what's going on and where do we need to send this money to?" They also decide on how local government should spend their funding.

So although they are giving some of the authority to the local government, they're still gonna say, "Hmm, yeah, but we are looking at focusing on healthcare so we would like you to spend some of this money on this kind of healthcare policy that we are looking at." They then also decide how to support and run the public services.

So these are the areas that include like the NHS, which is the National Health Service, the police and the armed forces, welfare benefits.

So they're gonna say "Okay, right, this is a current issue.

How are we gonna support that and overcome that and what are we gonna do?" Another check for understanding there.

So true or false, the government looks after the economy by setting taxes.

Take a sec, have a think.

That is true.

Yeah, so that is the government's role and then they can do that along with helping to run the public services and looking where they're investing the money.

So moving on now to the second way, which is about creating policies.

And as I said, this is one of our key words.

Now, so when we're talking about policies, we are talking about the goals and what it is that they want to aim to achieve.

How they do this? So they're gonna have a look and they're gonna go, "Okay, cool.

Right, what are the issues that are going on currently right now? What is popping up? What's being said? Where is the most issue?" Because obviously they deal with the whole country, they're dealing with lots of different departments.

So they're gonna look at each and go, "Okay, what's going on in this area?" Then there's gonna be have a bit of discussion, "Okay, we've got this problem, how are we gonna solve it? What are we gonna do?" And then after you've solved your problem, you're gonna put your plan into action of how you're gonna reach that goal of solving it.

Just to give you an example of what some policies might be, it's things like keeping the population healthy and ensuring that the population is safe and protected, those might come in specifically under the healthcare branch and what the government would be doing is going, "Mm, okay, cool, so how are we gonna do that? And let's work out, let's put our plan in action and that's gonna be our policy." So more examples here.

So when we are looking at policies, here, you've got real examples that have been used.

So in terms of healthcare, in 2024 there's been a policy created to invest more in primary and community services to prevent the need for hospital treatment.

So that idea of getting in there early before problems get to a point where people need to go to hospital, they're gonna put more investment into the primary community services.

For work and pensions, an example there, national wage, minimum wage, will rise to 10 pound an hour for 18 to 20 year olds.

This is one that's actually reviewed quite often.

So it might be a case that you know, if inflation or if costs have gone up, then the minimum wage tends to go up in line with that to ensure it's a fair system.

And then you've got technology.

So again, a 2025, an example there is that they're trying to create dedicated AI growth zones to speed up the planning for AI infrastructure.

So there's a lot of emphasis now on AI and how that's gonna be brought in and how the UK can then be involved in that as well.

So that just you a bit of an idea of what a policy is and how it works.

Now moving on to the third part of what central government do and this is the idea of being held accountable to Parliament.

How that happens? So we've got the central government, they sit in the House of Commons and they're scrutinised by the chamber and the opposition.

So remember the government sits one side and they've got the opposition who are challenging them at every opportunity on the other side.

So there's always a back and forth to check that the right decisions are being made.

Now these move over to the House of Lords and our House of Lords then go back and forth and they will scrutinise the new bill suggested by the government.

Any ideas? This is the third part of parliament and that's the monarch who will sign off on all the bills before they become laws and that's called Royal Assent.

So it's this idea that it's going back and forth along the lines, there is opportunity for you to question along the way.

They are also held accountable to the electorate.

So when we said earlier, do you remember what the electorate is? So those people that can vote.

Because the general election is held at least every five years.

So if you know what, people aren't happy with the government and what's going on, the likelihood is they're probably not gonna vote again.

They're gonna change their mind and they're gonna vote being somebody different.

So the government has to be on top of this and make sure they're doing what the electorate wants as well.

Another quick check for understanding here.

Which role of the government is missing from the list? You've got looking after the economy, and you've got being held accountable to Parliament and electorate.

Did you manage to get it? It's developing and implementing the policies.

So that was missing.

Next, we have got, in terms of what central government do, we have some positions.

So we spoke about these policies and how they work and the process that it goes through.

But you have people that are in charge of that.

Now these are called ministers and they are politicians who head government departments.

They'll make the decisions on the policy implementation and monitor the progress.

To give you some examples, they have various ministers for departments.

Now you might have heard me earlier talking about health and that is an example.

You've got a Secretary of Health in charge of the Department for Health.

Can you think of any other departments that there might be if we're looking at all the different kind of institutions and areas across the UK? So you've got the Secretary of Education, that was a little bit of a giveaway.

What department do we think they're from? It is the Department for Education and then you've got Secretary of Health and Social Care.

That's what we were talking about earlier and that again kind of a bit giveaway for this one.

Part of the department for Health.

But this one might stump you a little bit.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Might have heard of that.

Any ideas what they are or what department they're from? If I said to you the Chancellor of the Exchequer is the person that's in charge of the budget and the money, any ideas what this department is called? And then a little bit of a trick one there.

It doesn't follow the same pattern but this is the HM Treasury, which is His Majesty's Treasury.

So they're in charge of like the money and overseeing that side.

Then we've got Secretary of Transport.

Not so much for a trick one, this one.

Back to a bit more simple, Department for Transport.

This just gives you an idea.

There are many and you can have a look at them and you can see the different ones.

If there's an area you're interested in specifically there's probably a department for it and somebody in charge of it.

There are lots of different ministers.

Any ideas how many ministers? So we've just seen four roles there.

Any ideas how many? There are, which we'll just have a look at now, 109 ministers that can be paid for their work.

And this is in the current government guidelines but there are more ministers than that and all it means is just they can't be paid for their role.

So you can actually have more than 109 and there currently are more than 109 but they just wouldn't be paid for their role.

So the ministers themselves, they are ceremonially appointed by the monarch on advice of the Prime Minister.

So the Prime Minister has more of the say there, but it is the monarch will be there to us to actually appoint them.

And they're chosen from either the House of Commons or the House of Lords.

Like I was saying as well, they've got 120 currently in as of December, 2024 and they have various roles.

An example there, there's a Minister for Creative Industries, Arts and Tourism.

So that's another example.

There might even be, you know, we tend to think probably about education, healthcare, when we think about what the government's doing, but the government's got roles in all sorts and there is such a wide range.

Even there, you know, thinking about the creative industries, art and tourism, there are lots of different roles.

Can you remember, which is the role of the Chancellor of the Exchequer? Is it, A, to make decisions on hospital wait times, B, oversee education policies, or C, to make decisions on the government's finances? Yes it is C.

So it's remembering that the idea, I suppose, you know you've got the word cheque in there.

So trying to think about money when you think of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Now all these ministers help to form something called the Cabinet.

Now the Cabinet is the different ministers, it's led by the Prime Minister.

They meet weekly there.

So you've got the photo there of the cabinet office.

And what they are doing is they are the ones that are creating these policies.

So they're meeting weekly, they're having to talking about decisions, creating the policies and looking at the future of the UK and where it goes.

So you've got an image there of after the 2017 general election and that was the cabinet that was picked and then they are there to represent.

So again it just shows you the amount of people involved.

It's not just one or two ministers that are around the table discussing.

There are people that are specific for each department they're representing.

Now, in the Cabinet, there are more senior roles so there might be, not so much more important, but more have higher authority and those are: the Prime Minister who is leading the cabinet, you then have, I dunno if you'll know this one, but a Deputy Prime Minister and then we've got the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

So we saw that on earlier, remember who that is? And we've got Andeep there saying, "What does the Chancellor of the Exchequer do?" "They are the government's chief finance minister and responsible for growing the economy and announcing the budget." Now the budget again, not gone into too much detail in this lesson, but this is where it's announced what the breakdown of what the spending is going to be in the government and what areas are gonna get what.

So moving on.

Like in the House of Commons, do you remember one side you've got the government and who is on the other side? It's the opposition.

So same as we've got the Cabinet, which is our ministers.

You've got the Shadow Cabinet who are, again, the people on the opposite side.

Think of it like if you were shadowing somebody or you are in the shadow, the shadow is next to them.

So they are there doing the same role but on the opposite end.

So a bit like a mirror.

And it's the leader of the opposition who appoints the Shadow Cabinet.

So same things, if you've got somebody that's a Department for Education and they are the Secretary of Education, you would have somebody mirroring that from the opposition.

And can you think, then, why that's important? So if we go back to that idea of holding the government accountable, then it's that same idea that you've got somebody there that's going "Okay, but is that right or have you thought about this?" So then that allows for that back and forth by having this Shadow Cabinet.

And what their role is is to hold the government to account.

So that's what we've just explained and they might also lead on a specific policy area, scrutinise the government, so that's the idea of questioning them with the back and forth, and then they will challenge their counterpart.

So if they think of something, they will then question or find out more or why it's happening like that.

Now that's the information side to think about what does central government do.

It's now your chance to have a go at the task.

So you've got Task 1 there: "Complete the table showing which government minister and department would deal with which issue.

Some have been done for you." So you've just got to fill in the other ones.

If you can take some time now, pause, and then come back when you're ready and we can go through the answers together.

How did you get on? Hopefully you've answers have got something like this.

So if we're thinking the issue one there, pupils struggling with mental health in schools, then that would be obviously, the key part there being schools, the Secretary of Education part of the Department for Education.

Hospitals are not able to cope with the demand.

You had Department of Health and Social Care.

So hopefully you remembered we had the Secretary for Health and Social Care.

Rising unemployment, that was the one that was a bit more tricky but I suppose the key there was that you had the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Again this is now talking about funding and this is talking about money.

So that would go to HM Treasury and then public transport is to the Secretary of Transport, which is part of the Department for Transport.

Second part of the task, you've got a fictional government minister and they're tasked with addressing a pressing issue.

Choose one of the following topics and outline what approach you think the minister should take to tackle the problem.

So this is time for you to have a think now about how you're gonna do it.

You only need to pick one of the following topics and you could pick out of: pupils struggling with mental health in schools, hospitals unable to cope with demand, rising unemployment in 18 to 30 year olds, public transport across the country costing too much.

Take some time, see what ideas you can come up with and then we'll go through them.

It'll be great if you can come up with some really creative solutions to these issues.

So how was that? Now obviously you only had to do one issue, so I'll go through each of them and then hopefully there's one that's relevant.

Now remember as well we are talking about solving a problem.

There are so many different ways and solutions that can be come up with when we're thinking about problems. These are just some examples.

You could have come up with a completely different suggestion that will be just as credible.

But it's just to give you an idea and see that you are along the right lines.

So if you looked at the education issue, you could have said that it might have been dealt by the Secretary of Education and they could deal with this by proposing that every secondary school will have a dedicated mental health support officer to help pupils cope with stress and anxiety.

Additionally, the government could fund mental health workshops for pupils and teachers.

Did you come up with anything like that? Again, as I said, you might have come up with something completely different.

So we'll have a look at the next one as well.

We've got health and the Secretary of Health could support by ensuring new hospitals are built and staff increased to deal with the demand.

For the treasury example, the Chancellor of the Exchequer could support businesses to offer more apprenticeships and training for 18 to 30 year olds in order to help build the economy.

And then for the transport one we've got, the Secretary of Transport can introduce a cap on public transport fairs across the country so that transport is affordable for all.

Hopefully you found that task alright and it got you a little thinking about some of the issues that might crop up.

I mean you might have even thought of something and already thought of, "Oh, okay, wait, that's not gonna work." And that's a good idea because it just gets you thinking about the difficult job that the ministers have.

Because there's always gonna be people that it impacts and there's always gonna be ways that solutions might not work as well.

Just gets you that, start getting that critical thinking skills.

Now we're gonna move on to the second learning cycle.

So we've looked at what does central government do? We are now looking at how do local and central government differ? If we go back to this diagram that we saw earlier where we had the UK Parliament, regional, we've got the devolved parliament and then it's all leading into this local government.

So the local governments, these are system of government that operates at a local level providing services to its community.

This is probably the one that you're most familiar with because if you live in a certain area, maybe you've got, you might have heard it as like called a local council or a local authority.

It tends to be a word that is bandied around a lot more.

So you've probably not even had some kind of contact with them in some cases.

So we will have a look at what they do first and then we'll have a look at how they're a little bit different to central government.

They are a group of elected representatives who make decisions about how to run a local area like a town or city.

They manage services and make policies.

So we're back to that thing again like we saw, we've already seen this with central government, so we've got policies in local government as well and they are looking at things that affect everyday life for people living in that area.

The policies are then put in place across the local area rather than nationally.

It's a little bit different here already.

If your local town or city that you live in, the policy might happen just there.

It might not happen across the country or in different areas.

The main differences that we are going to look at in this learning cycle are, so you've got a little example of a local government and that's actually Hampshire there in case you recognise that, if you've got your geography head on and they have powers in a local area that would be their border there that's in white and they would just be responsible for that area.

Whereas central government holds power over the whole of the UK.

So there you've got that map there of the UK and they are obviously responsible for part of it.

We've got local government are responsible for making sure policies and services meet the needs of the communities that they are serving.

This is really important because actually what works in one local area might not in another.

It's great having central government but the country's really big and there are a lot of people just having one blanket rule for every single thing that happened in the country.

Is that gonna work? Probably not.

So actually by having local government you can allow areas to go, "Yeah, but actually, in our area, this would work a little bit better," and we can have little bits of changes.

However, any decision that is made, it does need to follow the UK law.

So it can't just be, "Oh, yeah, well, you know we fancy doing this," and that's not even a law in the UK.

It has to follow guidance and there has to be structure and there has to be rules with it as well.

They also don't have power to make laws that affect the national public.

So local government, you know, like we said, it would just happen in that area.

They can't go, "Okay, yeah, well we're doing this and it works for us so everyone's gonna do it." That's not something they can do.

We're saying here that they can have some authority to do stuff but what actually is it and what is it about? Some images there.

So in case you might be able to work 'em out, we've got their social care.

That one, hopefully you'll be able to get that one.

That's housing.

And then there you've got the outdoor spaces which is parks.

They can also make decisions over public transport, waste collection, and schools.

Now some of these decisions that they can make might be by-laws, which is kind of what we were looking at earlier where they can just change things on a local level.

It might be decisions, you know, in terms of public transport for example, how much it's gonna cost in the area.

That's why if you went to different areas and you travelled on the bus, actually there might be different ways of paying or there might be different costs and that's because it's run by local government rather than central government.

Time for a check for understanding.

So just to check that we're still on the same page.

So which of the following areas are the local government responsible for? A, public transport, B, parks, C, defence.

Good if you've got public transport.

It's also parks as well.

However, it isn't defence because that is held with central government.

So that's again back to something that local government couldn't have control over.

Alex says here, "I thought that the central government are responsible for some of those areas, like the Secretary of Transport is responsible for public transport." Andeep says, "The central government will set the agenda and then the local government choose how to apply it in their areas." So actually, yeah, Alex is right.

There is a crossover and we have got secretaries of these different areas which are the ministers.

So they're overseeing nationally and then the local governments will choose how to apply it in their areas and that's where there might be their little bits of differences to meet the local need or how it will work in each area.

The central government, just to go into a little bit more detail there, they make the national policies and decisions and then they provide the funding or grants.

So they will give the money on what's needed and is linked to those ideas and they'll give that to local government.

The local government then choose how they implement that.

I'm gonna give you an example just to make that a bit clearer.

So if we go back to this idea of transport, we've got, the quality of bus services in the UK need improving.

What happens there is, the secretary of transport, so that's central government, implements the policy on national bus service improvement.

Then what happens is the local government can create a plan to improve the bus service in their area.

Yeah, so the Secretary of Transport's come up, "Okay, cool, we've got this issue.

Everyone needs to make sure you are doing something about it." And then local government, "Okay, well, do you know what? That bus route won't work in our area, but this will, and we are gonna go and implement it and change it." So hopefully that shows you a bit clearer how there is a difference.

Just to check if you've got that difference between central and local government.

So have these policies been implanted by central or local government? You've got, A, there Jacob says, "My city council has added extra buses in the morning to help people who start work really early.

It's really helped my mom." And then you've got Lucas who said, "There's been a cap on buses across the country and now our town cannot charge more than three pound for a trip.

This has helped us save money." Hopefully you managed to work out that Jacob's is a policy implemented by local government, so that's the extra buses in the morning, whereas Lucas's is by central government.

'cause although he's talking about the impact on his town, it is the cap has happened nationally from central government.

Hopefully that shows you the difference between the two.

Moving on.

So how they differ is terms of decision-makers.

In local government, you've got councillors who are elected by local residents and they make decisions set by Parliament.

Whereas in central government, hopefully you remembered this one, we've got the government ministers who are either MPs or Lords in the House of Commerce or House of Lords and they run government departments and they are the ones that are setting the laws for the local government to follow.

Another check for understanding here.

Are these responsibilities of local or central government? A, decisions are made by, in local government, B, decisions are made by Cabinet ministers in, government.

It is councillors and it is central government there.

So that brings us onto the final task today.

You've got Izzy and Laura here and they've identified several issues that they would like support with.

So they've got setting up a new youth club in town, introducing a ban on single-use plastics and stopping their school playing field from being sold.

For each issue, decide whether they should contact local or central government decision-makers for support.

If you take some time now just to see if you can work out who they're gonna contact and then we'll come back and we'll move on to the second part.

How did you find that? So hopefully you managed to work out that the new youth club, that they would hopefully go to the local government like the mayor or local councillor.

And for the ban on single-use plastics would be a central government, maybe specifically looking for the minister responsible for environmental decisions.

And, again, the playing field, again, would be a local government.

Now that moves us onto the second part of the task.

So pick one of Izzy and Laura's issues and explain how both local and central government could respond with support.

Although there's a person they would contact first, the issues might overlap.

So can you think how each part of government would respond with support? If you give this a go and then we can go through the feedback.

How did you get on with that? Now there are lots of different ways that it could be responded.

So this just starts to get you thinking, but you might have had a completely different answer and that's okay and it will be just as valid.

But I've just given you an example here so you can see.

So we've got the new youth club.

Local government could support by finding out if there's a local need for the more youth service, whereas central government would provide funding to the local government for the service.

Now if you looked at the plastic one, central government would support by introducing the ban with clear fines for its continued use, whereas the local government could support by improving local recycling policies to ensure more plastic types are recycled.

And then the school playing field, local government could support by working with the community to raise awareness of the issue where central government could support by providing funding to help schools keep their playing fields.

So with this task, the idea is just mainly that you can see the difference, that local and central government are not gonna do the same thing.

They work differently and there are different ways of going around issues and getting support with that.

Which brings us onto the summary.

So we've been looking at the difference between local and national or central government.

So hopefully you know, power in the UK is divided into national, regional, and local government branches.

The national government, or central, led by the Prime Minister, is responsible for the overall governance of the country, including managing the economy.

The prime minister appoints ministers, known as the Cabinet, who lead departments and implement policies for the whole of the UK.

Some powers are devolved regional governments across the UK and local governments manage specific areas or counties and carry out central government's policies to meet local needs.

And that's what we just saw there in the final task.

That brings us really to the end of the session.

Now I hope that you are able to know the difference between local and national government now and that you've enjoyed working through the session today.

Thank you for working with me and enjoy the rest of your day.