Lesson video

Hi there, my name's Mrs. Tomassi and I'm here to work with you on your Citizenship lesson today.

So hopefully you've got everything you need, you're all good to go and then we can get started.

So today's lesson title is What are local councils and what do they do? And this forms part of the unit on Where does power reside in the UK? Hopefully by the end of the lesson today you will be able to explain the key services a local council provides and how these are funded.

We are gonna see some keywords throughout.

Now these keywords are gonna be in bold and you can always refer back to them here.

So we've got local council, which is a system of government that operates at a local level providing services to its community.

Council tax, which is a local, direct tax calculated on the basis of the value of a property and the number of people living there.

Then we've got grants, which is a sum of money gifted by an organisation or person that does not need to be repaid.

Again, look out for them in the lesson, they will be in bold and you can always refer back to them.

We will make a start with the first of three learning cycles today, and that is What services do local councils provide? This unit is all about where does power reside in the UK? So to start with, there are central and regional governments and the UK also has local governments.

Now the local governments are sometimes called local authorities or councils and they focus on managing services and policies that directly affect their local community.

As you can see in the diagram there, the regional and central governments are there and then it all comes together under local government.

You have probably heard of the local council or the local government.

Now you will hear it as either, sometimes it might be local council, local authority, and that's all part of the same thing as well.

So just to clarify that.

Any ideas of what the services is that they provide? You might be thinking.

I know a lot of people tend to think about, like, the bins being done, but actually, and they say, "Oh, you know that's all that they do," but actually they do a lot more than that.

So here's a diagram to show you.

So this is just some of the services that they provide.

There are a lot there.

We are gonna go through and look at these in a bit more detail and see what it means.

But just to give you a bit of an idea of some of them.

So we've got education, planning, rubbish and recycling's there, the leisure standards, cemeteries, local museums, council housing, food licencing, and the list goes on, there are loads there.

Without local councils, there would be no bins, rubbish collection or recycling in the UK.

They're responsible for the planning of new buildings, maintenance of roads, street lights, pedestrian crossings.

A lot of things that happen in your local area probably has something to do with the local council.

We've got Andeep here, saying, "When there was a pothole on my road, it was the local council who came to fix it." That's very true.

And then we've got Jun saying, "A new housing estate has just been built near me.

The local council made the builders add more green spaces to the plans." Again, that's also true.

They're involved in the planning process and what goes through in the local area.

So a check for understanding now.

Which of these are a service that a local council might provide? A: libraries, B: managing defence policies, or C: rubbish and recycling.

There are two answers there.

It's libraries and rubbish and recycling.

The managing defence policies, as Jun says there, are managed by central government.

So although, so the reason it can sometimes look confusing and people go, "Well, what does the local council do?" is because the local council do provide the services, but they might outsource some of them to private companies or not-for-profit organisations.

So to give a bit of an example, bin collection, it might be funded by the local councils, it might be a private company that then come in and actually do the service.

And this can be the same for other services as well, like leisure facilities and different services that the local council provide, which is why sometimes you can be like, "Hmm, I didn't actually know that a local council did that.

I thought it was a private company." And that's just because it's been outsourced.

But as you saw in the beginning diagram, there are lots of different services that the local council provide.

Now each of these come under a different department.

So just to give you an example because there are a lot and there are a lot more than this, some of them include: so planning and building control.

And that's the idea of where planning applications, building regs, land use management all comes under there.

Highways and transport.

So that will be the road maintenance when we're talking about the potholes, streetlighting, parking enforcement.

Leisure and culture, so that involves the libraries, sport facilities, museums and community events.

And again, because they're different for each local council, you might see different activities in different areas.

And then social services which would support for vulnerable adults, elderly care, and children as well.

Now the local council often need to give permission out.

So that's part of, you know, with the planning et cetera.

And they do give out licences.

Now these could be for, like, food establishments, taxis, working with children, street sellers.

So there are lots of different things that they also give licences out for.

So Jun said there, "My cousin's setting up a food store at a local market.

She is getting a licence to show she will follow food hygiene rules." And this is just one example of many that the local council would need to give permission for.

Now we've got Andeep here saying, "The local council register all births, marriages and deaths in the area.

This is a legal requirement set by central government." And then Laura is saying, "The local council makes sure our landlord is treating us fairly, including making sure the landlord carries out any repairs needed." So by working closely with residents, local councils aim to make sure the services they provide meet the needs of the community.

And there are, as you've seen, a lot of different examples.

So a check now.

Can you match the local council service with its description of what it does? So you've got the list down there, some social services, waste management, housing, highways and travel, registry office.

Which one does it go to? If you take some time now to work it out and then we can check through them in a sec.

Did you manage to work it out? So we'll start from the top.

So social services, that goes the third one down.

So that is for individuals, families and communities by addressing personal and social needs.

Waste management is collecting and disposing the sorts of recycling the household and business rubbish.

Housing manages council homes, prevents homelessness.

Highways and travel is the road maintenance, public transport, traffic management, parking, disability parking licences and cycling/walking routes.

And then registry offices provides information on how to become British, settle in the UK, registers marriage, births and deaths.

Now the local council provide a lot of different services.

Some of them are classified as essential and some are non-essential.

So if we're thinking things that are essential, when you think of what do you need, can you think of any examples? And then can you think of, actually, which ones might link to the local council and what they provide? Essential is gonna be anything for the wellbeing and safety of the community.

And some examples include any of the public health services.

So when we talked about getting the food hygiene certificate, that would be an example there.

Food inspection, because if they are not followed through, that can cause a danger to people because they could get seriously ill.

Emergency services, because again, police, fire, ambulance people were at risk if those services aren't in there.

And then water and sewage, again, water's obviously an essential, and then sewage disposal, making sure it's correct because again, otherwise people could get really ill.

So they are essential.

Now the reason that we are clarifying these is because, you might hear it, actually, you might hear it on the news that tends to be cuts made.

What happens in local councils is the cuts are more likely to be made to non-essential services, because essential, obviously people's safety and wellbeing.

Whereas non-essential might be, you know, what they enjoy doing.

So those kind of examples could be like community events, non-urgent repairs.

Obviously if it's a repair that's gonna endanger people, then it'd be urgent, that would be a bit different and that's more likely to be essential.

But then you've got leisure facilities, arts and culture events.

The problem is that when we've got the essential services, people just, they just run in the background and people don't really notice them until you need them.

Whereas the non-essential services are probably the ones that you enjoy going to, you remember, you know if you've been to any events that your community have held, or any days, you'll probably be aware if that then doesn't run, and that's when people can be upset or negative to the services.

Check for understanding then, 'cause we've just gone through a load of information.

Can you decide if these services are essential or non-essential? You've got fire services, leisure facilities, access to sewage disposal, and community events.

It was the fire service and access to sewage disposal that was essential.

And leisure facilities and community events that was non-essential.

Hopefully now you've got an idea between the two.

And this will become important when we start to talk about funding in the local council.

So we are gonna move on now to the first task.

Now part one of this task is to complete the table with a list of services provided by the local council.

You've got nine slots there.

Can you think of nine different services that the local council provide? It's up to you which ones you pick.

Take some time, when you are finished, if you un-pause and we can go through them together.

How did you get on? Now your table could look like this.

So things like education, libraries, housing planning, there are some more.

So if you had things like leisure facilities, registering births, there are a huge number that you could have included.

So this is just some that you could have had different ones as well.

Now hopefully that helps us to move on to the second part of the task, which is: The local council's budget for the year has been cut.

There is a spending review team who must reduce spending on one of these services.

The choice is waste collection and recycling, local libraries, and public parks and green spaces.

Decide which service you think should be cut.

Write a short statement that could be presented to local residents to explain your decision, including why you chose this service over others and what challenges you faced when making your decision.

And this is where we were talking about before, the non-essential and essential services.

Unfortunately the non-essential are likely to be cut.

It can be a difficult decision, so take some time to think about it and then how are you gonna respond to the residents.

When you've done that, un-pause and we can have a look at your answers.

Did you manage to decide? 'Cause actually, I think that's quite a tricky thing to do.

I don't know in that situation what one I would pick.

But if you did decide that you went to cut the waste collection and recycling, your answer could have looked like this: "So due to budget cuts, we've had to reduce spending on waste collection and recycling.

We believe the community can adapt by reducing waste and increasing personal responsibility for recycling.

Instead of stopping the service entirely, we will reduce collection frequency.

This approach allows us to continue providing other essential services, such as emergency response." Now that's quite a good and a different idea because it's not just said we're cutting the service but it's offered alternatives.

Did you manage to think of some alternatives as well if you went for that one? If you did, well done because that's a really good idea.

Now, if you went for local libraries, you could have had a response like this: "So due to budget cuts, funding for libraries will be reduced, as many people now access books and resources online.

To save money, we will keep one main library open and close smaller branches.

While libraries are more than just book lenders, they serve as community hubs, this decision was difficult, knowing it could limit learning opportunities for some." This one might be a little bit more upsetting for residents, as it has not come up with a complete solution and it is just closing the libraries.

Did you manage to come up with a better idea for this one if you picked it? And then we can move on to the final one.

So if you picked public parks, you could have said something like: "Due to budget cuts, funding for parks will be reduced as nature requires less ongoing maintenance compared to other services.

Volunteers or community groups may assist with upkeep." So hopefully this task showed you that, actually, being part of the local council and when there are budget cuts, it can be really difficult to make decisions that is gonna make everyone happy and without having to cut something that somebody is gonna be upset over.

So hopefully you've had a chance to have a bit of a go at making some of them difficult decisions and seeing what it's like.

Which then leads us on to move on to how are local councils funded? And this is important because now you can see why there might be some difficult budget cuts.

So the quality of services provided by local council often depends on how much income the council has coming in.

So when we say income, we're talking about the amount of money that they are earning or bringing in to them.

So each year they set a budget, a budget would look at what their income is and then it will set out how they will spend it.

And the spending is called the expenditure.

So they've had a look, one side they'll have their income, one side they're gonna look at their spending and you're gonna hope that they even out to balance.

If local residents call for more to be spent on one service, this can be spending less on another.

And that's what we saw in that task before.

So actually more spending was needed on essential services.

That means that something else has got to be cut, and that's how then they end up balancing everything out.

So an example of what a local council's income could be is shown there.

So you've got fees and charges there, you've got government grants, which we will go through in more detail.

But if you remember the key term being grants, that's money that you don't have to give back.

Rents, council tax, business rates and other.

If you are interested in your own local council, local council should be quite transparent of where they get their money from.

So you can always have a look at your local area on their website and see where they get their money from.

'Cause it might look a little bit different to this chart here.

Even though some of the areas might look a bit different, the local councils do receive the majority of their income from at least three main sources.

They are here.

So we've got a picture there of a building.

Any ideas what that is? Hopefully you know that that's the UK Parliament, central government.

We then have money that comes from council tax and business rates.

So most local governments or local councils will receive money from these three areas.

We will go through in more detail now so that you can see what that money is and how that looks like.

But before we do that, just to check we're still on the same page, a little check for understanding.

So which of the following are a form of income for local councils? A: business rates B: Council tax, C: income tax? Hopefully you managed to work out it's A and B,.

Income tax, as Laura says there, is a form of income for central government that's not specifically for local governments.

When we talk about grants, central government, they allocate grants to local councils based on the size and local need.

They might say that some of the grants offer a specific service.

To give you a bit of an example, so like the adult social care grant, it has to be used to pay for something to do with adult social care.

So in the example there, you've got home care services, so supporting people in their houses.

Then you've got like, another example there of the Household Support Fund.

So this is where local councils might distribute food vouchers for families in the holidays so that they can go to the supermarket and get additional food for children.

And these are just some examples.

So sometimes what happens is central government says "We are gonna allocate you money but it has to be spent on this service." Other times they might get some money that they can say, "Actually, you can pick what you spend that money on." And this has to be included when they're doing their budgets and their expenditure.

So, true or false? Local councils can spend the grants from central government on what they choose.

That is false.

Why is that false? Government grants must be spent on the specific areas they've been allocated to.

For example, adult social care grants must be spent towards adult social care services.

Now, the second income that they get comes through council tax.

And what council tax is, is it's where each household in the local area pays an amount of money per year to the council for the services they provide.

It depends on the value of the house and how many adults are living there and it's done in bands.

So you start with Band A, which is the lowest tax and it goes all the way to Band H, which would pay the highest tax.

How they work that out is based on how much the property was worth during a certain year.

But what that means is that each local council do set their own.

So it can be very different in each area.

Give you an example.

In 2024, Elmbridge in Surrey had the highest average council tax at 2,646 pound per household.

If you were in Band A in Elmbridge, you paid 1,565 pound 77p.

Whereas if you were in Band H, it went up to nearly 5,000 pound.

In Wandsworth, London, in 2024 they had the lowest average council tax at approximately 921 pound per household.

So there's a huge difference there.

And if we go to Band A there, paying 640 pound and you've got some people there at Band H over in Elmbridge paying nearly 5,000 pounds.

So there is a huge difference in what the councils can charge.

They do get capped though, so each year they can only increase it by a certain percentage.

So it doesn't mean the next year, Wandsworth will then be paying 5,000 pound.

It would be relative to where they are and it does get capped.

So true or false? Council tax is set by central government.

That is false.

Why is that false? Local councils are able to set council tax, which is why it's different in each area and the money goes to that area.

Every council must inform residents how their council tax is spent.

So they might send a letter in the post when they send the council tax bill out or they will have it on their website.

So you could have a look in your area and see how it correlates to those highest and lowest paying in the UK.

Whereabouts does your local council sit? So on that breakdown, it will have the expenditure for the services.

So when we said at the beginning they do their expenditure, they will also share that with the residents, of what they're gonna spend.

And it will vary obviously, from each local council, depending on what is needed in that area.

To give you a bit of an example here, this is what an expenditure for a local council could look like.

So there you've got nearly a third spent on adult social care, and again that could be linked, as well, to the grants that they're receiving.

You've then got children's services and schools spent a lot on, down to highways and transport have got a little bit.

Of course this would look different in each area.

And moving on to the third main way councils receive their funding is from business rates.

Now business rates are a tax on business premises.

They are set by central government but they are collected by local councils.

Local councils do keep about 50% and they send about 50% back to central government.

Again, that's not exact because it does vary a little bit depending on area.

Now they have had trials to allow local councils to retain all business rates and that's something that's ongoing and evolving.

So keep an eye out because that might be something that changes.

It might be, in your area, that you are part of the trial.

So again, if you're interested, you could have a look on the website and see.

So that finishes us off on the three main ways.

Obviously, when we looked at that pie chart right at the beginning, there were different types of income as well, which will vary from each local council and what they do.

To give you an example, some of them include things like here, we've got Sam saying, "When we go to the library, sometimes we have to pay small fines for late books." That would be an example.

Andeep says, "My family pays money to the council when we park in town.

We also pay to go swimming at the leisure centre." And then Sofia says, "I have to pay for my weekly bus pass." These are all called service charges.

So they're all examples of service charges that are charged by different areas in the local council.

So how a local council spends its income depends on many things, including: the need.

What central government says it spends on, plans for the future, population size, and opinions of local residents.

And as we were saying at the start, the local councils have to manage their budgets because they want to balance it out because they can't spend more than what they're allocated.

They're not allowed to borrow for day-to-day expenses.

The one way that can support them is they can have something called reserves, and that can help them manage their money.

So a reserve would be, if the year before, they underspend and they save some money, that money can then be used in the future to help if there's an emergency or an unexpected cost.

So a bit like having a, you know, having a savings account and going, "Actually you know, one day I might need that." It's the same idea there.

A check for understanding now.

So match the type of income to the correct definition: Business rates, council tax and government grants.

See how you get on.

Hopefully you managed to work out there that business rates was the tax on the value of business premises, council tax is tax on households and government grants is the money provided by government for specific services.

Now the second task.

So a local council has been given their budget of 200 million pound for the year.

Create the copy for a newsletter to be sent to residents in the area that explains where this money has come from and why this is important to the local council.

You should include a definition of what council tax, business rates and government grants means for any residents who might not have heard these terms before.

So you can have a think.

It doesn't matter too much what you choose, it's more about making sure that you've got the newsletter suitable for residents and that they would have an understanding.

If you pause this now, see how you get on and then we can have a look at some feedback in bit.

Good luck.

Hopefully you've managed to create some form of newsletter.

Obviously how you did this is up to you.

Here is an example and it could have looked something like this: So your local council budget explained how we're spending 200 million pound this year.

"Dear residents, as your local council, we are responsible for providing key services that help your community thrive.

This year we've been given a total budget of 200 million.

We want to make sure you know exactly where this money comes from and how we'll spend it to benefit everyone.

Where does the money come from? This year, 60% of our budget comes from council tax, 20% from business rates and 20% from government grants.

Council tax is a payment the households make to help fund services like rubbish collections, street cleaning and local schools.

Business rates are taxes that businesses pay on their properties.

This money helps to maintain roads and support services like the fire department and public transport.

Government grants provide financial support to local councils in the form of grants.

These are funds given to us to support the services we provide to you, like healthcare, social care for the elderly, and housing support for those in need.

Why this matters? The money we collect from council tax, business rates and government grants allows us to deliver the services that keep our town running smoothly.

From keeping streets clean to supporting schools, we are committed to using this budget to make life better for everyone in our community.

If you have any questions or would like more details on how we're spending this budget, please feel free to contact us or visit our website.

Thank you for your support and understanding, your local council team, working together to build a stronger, safer community." How did you get on? Did you have anything similar like that? Did you manage to get them key terms in there as well and make it positive for the residents? Hopefully you did, and that means we can move on to the third and final learning cycle: What power do local councils have? As you said this unit is called Where does power reside in the UK? So we are specifically looking at this.

So as we said at the start, we've got central and national government, they've devolved some of that power to some of the different nations there.

And then the power has devolved out.

We've got regional and local governments.

What power do local governments have? Have you got any ideas? They do have the power to make decisions on all devolved matters.

Now these are: social care, housing, parks, public transport, waste collection and education, as an example.

Again, there are more.

So if we go back to the services that they provide, then they probably have the power to make decisions on that.

What local councils can do is they can create something called local byelaws.

These are local laws that address specific issues in the community.

Now what they can't do is create a law that then would be applied nationally, but the area would look at an issue in their area.

So example, you might have seen in some areas, no drinking zones that ban alcohol.

That would be an example of a local byelaw.

Dog control rules, such as using leashes in parks, is another.

Public transport rules such as fines for not having a valid ticket on buses and trains.

These help to manage local issues that national laws might not cover.

So there might be issues that happen in a specific area and the local byelaw can then support that.

Another way that the local council has power is in some of the services that they provide.

So to give you an example, they are responsible for ensuring all children receive a good standard of education.

This includes: identifying children not receiving a suitable education.

They need to make sure there are enough school places, manage school admissions, support children with special educational needs and disabilities, and arrange education for permanently excluded students.

We've got Laura here, who says, "My friend has got an Education, Health and Care plan.

They are waiting for the local council to find a suitable education provision for them.

So this is an example here of some of the power that local councils have, is that if they don't provide enough places or there are not enough spaces, then there are people that are gonna be waiting on them.

So if they can provide that, they're offering that support to the local community.

True or false? Local councils manage school admissions.

That is true.

Another example of what power they can have.

We've got Sofia here, she says, "There's so many new flats being built, but not enough parking spaces." Local councils can make planning decisions.

So local councillors will sit on the planning committees and decide whether the applications go ahead.

They might have to think about things such as what the law's saying, the views, the strengths of the plans, the potential impact, and then what they will do as they will come to a decision of whether that goes ahead or not.

So the local residents also have power in local councils to promote change.

So we've got Sam here who says, "I am part of my local youth council and help to organise a local music festival for young people." Local residents can support or object planning applications in their area.

They can attend council committee meetings, local council surgeries, organised local demonstrations, or hold public meetings.

Again, local residents can do a lot more than that.

That is just an example of some of the stuff that they can do.

So it's telling you actually, not only does the local council have power, but the local residents do as well.

So another check for understanding here.

Local residents do not have any power to promote change in their local area.

That is false.

Why is that false? Local residents have power to make change in many ways, such as attending council committee meetings.

And we are gonna move on to the final task for the lesson today.

So pick one of the scenarios and explain how local councils have power in these situations.

You've got: "My friend's got an EHCP and waiting for local council to find a suitable education provision for them." "There's so many new flats being built, but not enough parking spaces." And "There are lots of dogs not on leads in the park.

This is causing problems for children and other park users." You can pick whichever scenario you would like and see if you can decide how the local council has power.

When you've done, un-pause and we will go through.

How did you get on with that? Did you manage to work out each situation there? So if you picked the education scenario, you could have said: "Councils have the power to manage school admissions and places.

They can find a suitable placement for the student and are responsible for making sure they receive appropriate support." The park scenario: "Councils have the power to create byelaws to require dogs to be on leads in certain areas, which will help keep public spaces safe and enjoyable for everyone." And the building scenario: "Councils have the power to make planning decisions.

Before granting development, they can make sure there'll be enough parking spaces for the development." Hopefully now you feel a bit more confident about working out what power local councils have and where that power lies.

And that brings us to the end.

There's quite a lot of different information in this session, going from what the services they provide, how it's funded, and then the power that they have.

So we will do a quick summary now, but hopefully it started to get you a bit of a better idea of the role of the local government in where power resides in the UK.

So to summarise: Local councils provide a variety of services in an area such as waste management, education, social services, transport and leisure services.

They oversee all the services but might outsource some to private companies or not-for-profit organisations.

Local councils have three main incomes that include: council tax, government grants and business rates.

They do have other sources of income as well, such as service charges.

Local councils have power to create byelaws, manage services and make planning decisions.

And that brings us to the end.

So thank you for working with me today.

I hope you have a better understanding and I look forward to working with you again.