Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to our lesson today, my name is Mr. Miskell, and I'm your citizenship teacher for today's lesson.

Now, today's lesson really is quite an exciting and interesting lesson, it focuses in on what do local councils do, and it's lesson four of six in this particular unit of work.

However, before we get started with our lesson today, I need to make sure that you've got a few things sorted.

Now, firstly, you need to make sure that you've got a pen or a pencil by your side, and importantly, you've got a sheet of paper, and that's really important so that you can participate in our activities that we're going to do together, and also that you can make any notes that you may well need in order to recall some of the learning that we've gone through together today.

Lastly, you need to make sure that you're in a quiet space so that you can participate in our lesson without any distractions whatsoever, now, if you have not got those things sorted, then you can pause our lesson now, and you can restart it when you are ready, but if you are ready, let's get going with our lesson today.

Now, this is a kind of overview of what this particular unit of work actually addresses, what it covers, and what we're really looking at today is lesson four, which is about what do local councils do, but it's part of an overall unit of work about where does power reside in the United Kingdom? Where does power rest in the United Kingdom? Now, in order to go about answering that question, about what do local councils do, then this is going to be our agenda for what we're going to learn together today, so firstly, we are going to look at what services do local councils actually provide, and once we've done that, we're going to look in at the role of local councillors, because they're decision makers in those local services provided by councils, and that's going to lead us on to asking that important question about what makes councils actually powerful organisations, and then we are going to move on to the power of local councils, and we're going to focus in on a case study, I'm going to get you actually making some decisions, and that focus is going to be on planning, and planning new developments, and lastly, we are going to bring all of our learning together, and we're going to try and answer that question about how can you use local councils to make your voice heard, and that's really important, because ultimately it's about why is learning this important, and it's important because it allows us to make our voice heard, and we're going to address that, and bring overall our learning together at the end of our lesson.

So we are now just going to do a bit of a true or false activity, a little bit of a quiz to start our lesson off, and I'd like you to think back to our last lesson, and I'd like to hear you shout out either true or false in response to this in a second, so firstly, a cabinet member is a councillor responsible for a portfolio area like roads, education, or finance, is that true or is that false? I'd like to hear you say that now, is it true or is it false? Now, hopefully you have just told me that it is true, now it is true because cabinet members are councillors, just like back-bench councillors, but what separates them and what makes them different, is that they are actually responsible for a portfolio area like roads, education, or finance, and they're responsible for the leadership of that, and making day-to-day decisions guided by council officers, about what's going to happen in that particular portfolio area, or another way of saying portfolio area is often like a department within a council that provides a service, so thanks very much there for thinking back to our last lesson.

Now, that's going to lead us on to what services do local councils actually provide? And I'm going to take you on a little bit of a tour in a second of my city, but in order to do that, and in order to do task one, I would like you to focus in on this, so what services do local councils provide? So in a moment, you're going to watch a video of my trip around the city, and I'd like you to a create a mindmap of all the different council services that you might encounter, so, "What services do I encounter?" And there's a hint here, and my hint to you is a service is something physical like a street light, or it can be something less physical, such as children's social services as well.

Now, the table that you are going to create, the mindmap table you're going to create, is going to look something like this, so in the very centre of it, I would like you to put services provided by local councils, and then around it, I'd like you to put little kind of arrows, and you're going to put the different council services as you're watching this video, that we encounter, so I'm going to make this full screen now, and make sure you create your mindmap, so that you can add to it when we are watching my video tour of my city.

So as you can see on screen, we are going to go on a walking tour, and I'd like you to join me on a walking tour of my city, and see what the local council does to help with the next task, and remember, the next task is actually you creating that spider diagram, and adding in what different services to it, that I encounter, and by that I mean, what services does the local council actually provide? So let's see if we can now go on that little walking tour around my city.

So I'm out and about, and I'm walking through my city, and what we're going to do now, is we are going to go on a walking tour, and try and look at what local government does throughout our towns, cities, villages, and counties across England.

Roads and street-crossings just like this one, are maintained by local councils, so that we can cross the road safely.

Without local councils, there'd be no recycling or rubbish collection, and there'd be no bins in our towns and cities, like this one here.

You can probably hear diggers, and people working on the building site behind me, and local councils are responsible for the planning of sites like this, and giving them permission to build.

Local councils also give out licences, and make sure that standards like food hygiene and safety are a real top priority in takeaways, in pubs, and in cafes, just like the one at the back of me now.

Street lights are also something that are maintained and run by our local councils, so that we can make sure that our streets are safe in the evening, and we feel very secure.

Taxis are also something that are licenced by local councils, that means that local councils check to make sure that they're safe to operate on our roads and our streets.

They look after our parks and our open spaces, just like the one at the back of me now.

Even though it's really windy at the moment, the building behind me is a library, and that's an example of another service that is run by the local council.

Local councils also spend an awful lot of time trying to encourage events and cultural activities in their towns and cities, and behind me at the moment, you can see an example of that, that's the World Snooker Championship, in Sheffield.

So I hope you've enjoyed our trip around my city together, looking at what local councils do, and our local councils do an awful lot, and I've only mentioned a snippet of the sorts of things that they do, things like maintaining our parks and open places to make sure that they're safe places, and brilliant places for us to be able to enjoy, things like making sure that our roads are maintained and our street lights are lit in the evening, so that we feel safe and secure, like making sure that we've got libraries that we can go and learn in as well, so I hope you've learned a little bit from our walking tour of my city.

So thank you very much there for participating in a walking tour of my particular city, and I hope you were able to pause at the end of that particular video of my walking tour around the city, and be able to add to your diagram about all the services that are provided by local councils, that we encountered on that particular journey around my city.

Now, some of them that you might well have put on there, will be parks and open spaces, or those might be libraries, events and cultural activities, street crossings, rubbish collection, recycling, planning of new buildings, giving out licences to cafes and pubs, and also licencing taxis, and I'll make this full screen now, so that you can pause our lesson, and you can add these to your spider diagram, just in case you may well have missed one or two things there, to make your table, to make your spider diagram even better.

Now, things that weren't mentioned on that particular walking tour, might be some of the things that are on screen now, because there are a variety of other additional services provided by local councils, such as education, libraries, parks, council houses, licencing of pubs, planning of new buildings, rubbish and recycling, children's social work, cemeteries, local museums, adult social care, trading standards, environmental protections, leisure centres, and youth services.

Now, feel free to pause our lesson now, and add these to your spider diagram, to make them even stronger, and explain those additional services provided by local councils.

Now, it's important to remember when we mention services, that services can sometimes be confusing, and why is that? The reason is that many services are provided directly by local councils, but sometimes some are outsourced to private companies, or not-for-profit organisations, this can make things confusing, and an example of this on your screen now, is one about bin collections, and bin collections are funded by local councils, but they're often provided by private companies, so the logo of your local council might not be on the side of the bin collection waggon that travels along your streets, and that might make you really confused, and it might make you think, "Well, that service isn't provided by the local council, "and paid for through kind of taxes." Council tax, those are the income coming to your local council, but it still is, it's just provided by a not-for-profit organisation or a private company.

Now, that kind of leads us on to thinking, if we've got services that are provided in a local area, then the people who make decisions about those local services are local councillors, so what do local councillors do? What do they do? Now, I'm going to introduce you to Councillor Sophie, now, Councillor Sophie is a councillor in Sheffield, and she was first elected in 2017 when studying for her degree in English literature at university.

Now, I'm going to introduce you, and show you an interview that I filmed a short while ago with Sophie, and what we're going to do, is we are going to ask Sophie a series of questions, I'm going to ask her three particular questions, and I'd like you to jot these down, they're questions that have also attached to the worksheet to help you, that are part of this lesson, so question one, I'd like you to look out in this interview with Sophie, an answer to the question, why did you decide to stand for election, and become a local councillor? Question two, what do you enjoy the most about being a councillor? And question three, why are councillors important in their local communities? So question one, question two, and question three, so three particular questions I'd like you to look out for, when you are watching this prerecorded interview that I've done with Councillor Sophie, now, I will make this full screen now, so that you can pause our lesson, and you can jot down those questions, so you know to be looking out for them, when we participate in our interview with Councillor Sophie.

Okay, so we are now on this part of our lesson, where we are going to listen to me interviewing Councillor Sophie Wilson.

So let's listen to Councillor Sophie.

Hello, Sophie, and thanks so much for joining us in our lesson today, it's lovely to have you here.

Hi, Mr. Miskell, thank you for inviting me.

It's lovely to see you, Sophie, we are really interested in your role as a local councillor, and we've got some questions for you that our students are going to be really interested in finding out, can I ask you, why did you decide to stand for election and become a local councillor, Sophie? Well, at the time I was already an activist, I was already very into politics, I was looking at what my own local councillors were up to in the town hall, where councillors congregate and make decisions, I was following their decisions, some I thought were really great, some I thought were really bad, and I just didn't really see myself represented, I'm a young, working class young woman, grew up in relative poverty, and didn't see people like myself involved in the council, and involved in that decision-making process, and I thought, "Actually, people "like me are really underrepresented, "and I should go for this, "and I should actually see if I can have a say "in these decisions, "and see if they would work for people like me too." There was a by-election, so that's when one councillor, their term unexpectedly comes to an end, due to they just leave or death, so we had a by-election in my local area, so I gave it some serious thought, I thought about what a councillor is, and I thought, "Actually, I'd quite like to do that." And I went for it and I won the election, and I've never looked back since.

Well, congratulations, Sophie, and what you enjoy, obviously you're really enthusiastic about being a councillor, what do you enjoy the most about being a local councillor? Quite a good question that, I'd definitely say the variety of work, and having a purpose in my work, it's really great to wake up, and yeah, a lot of it is hard work, but you're actually making a meaningful difference, it's a real privilege to represent my community, to represent people I grew up with, people I've known all my life, that is a really, really great feeling, but yeah, definitely the variety, one day I could helping out in a food bank, or another local charity, the next, I will be in full council, which is where all councillors meet every month to make the decisions for that month, and pass motions, give speeches, take important vote, so it's really different day-to-day, and that's probably what I enjoy the most.

And Sophie, last question, why are councillors so important in their local communities? That's quite a tricky one, I'd say, I'd say we're probably the first point of call, as well as the last point of call for many out there struggling, so we serve the community and no one else, whereas a lot of people, people go to for complaints, to get an issue sorted, or to get a question answered, they might be working for a company, or have another agenda, so local councillors solely serve their community, they are there to represent them and help them, so we cover small areas, so people in our community might know us really well, so like I said earlier, I'm representing lots of the people I grew up with, people I've known all my life, people I know really, really well, and feel comfortable coming to me with really personal issues.

The other point is we're always on the community's side, yes, there might be two or more opinions in a community, and it's our job to weigh that up, and think, "Who am I going to support in this dispute?" But at the end of the day, we are on the people's side and nobody else, and we're the people that can really get things done for them, make a difference, make those inquiries, sort out the problems, yeah, so we're often the first point, and the last point of call, for people who are really in a pickle, and just need someone to help them out.

Well, thank you so much, Sophie, I've certainly learnt an awful lot from listening to you now, and I'm sure that our students have as well, so thank you very much, and thank you so much for joining our lesson today.

Thank so much for having me, I've enjoyed it, thank you.

Thank you, Councillor Sophie, bye-bye.

See you later, bye.

So it was great there to hear from Councillor Sophie, and there were three particular questions that we were interested in her answers about, so question one, well, we asked her, didn't we? Why did you decide to stand for election and become a councillor? Now, she said these things, now you can add these to the notes that you've already made about this, to strengthen them and make them even better, Well, she said, didn't she? That she was very interested in politics, she said she didn't see herself represented as a young working class woman, and she wanted to change that, she wanted to see people like her represented.

Question two that we asked her, we said, "What do you enjoy the most "about being a councillor?" And her response was this, she said that she enjoyed the variety of work, she enjoys having a purpose and making a meaningful difference, and lastly, she said, one day she can be helping at her local food bank or making a speech at full council, she said it was very varied work, and question three, we asked her, why are councillors important in their community? And the things that she said to us were these, she said, councillors are the first and the last point of call, they cover small areas, and people often feel comfortable coming to her, and her job is to be on the side of the community.

Now, I will make this full screen now, so that you can pause our lesson, and you can add to your notes to strengthen them, and make them even better with regards to question one, two and three, that we directed to Councillor Sophie there.

So now we've interviewed Councillor Sophie, and we've thought a little bit about what the role of local councillors actually is, then that leads us on to this question, about what makes councils actually powerful organisations, and task three is really about that particular question, what makes councils powerful? I'd like you to write a short paragraph, explaining why councils are powerful.

You may want to make reference to what you have learned, for example, what power means, the services councils provide, and how that links to power, and the role of local councillors, and how this makes them powerful.

Now, if you're a little bit confused here, my hint, written on the screen, is power equals, so power is the ability to influence and direct behaviour of other people, and to guide the course and outcome of something.

Now, as you can see on screen at the very bottom in italics, I've done a bit of a sentence starter for you, just to help you out, and I would start the sentence here, and my answer with councils are powerful because.

Now, good luck with this particular task.

Now, well done giving that task a really, really good go, and really we were thinking about what makes councils powerful.

Now, students in my class often give me answers like this, so feel free to look at this answer that I'm going to now share with you, this model answer, and add to your own answer to strengthen it, and make it even better, so, councils are powerful because they make big decisions in local areas, on services that matter to residents, for example, how many times each month bins get emptied, to whether a new council housing development is given planning permission.

The role of a councillor is to be on the side of the community, representing them in the town hall, where decisions are made, power is the ability to influence and direct behaviour of other people, and guide the course and outcome of something.

Local councils are where decisions are taken in our community by local councillors,.

the ability to influence what happens in our communities makes them powerful.

Now, I'll put this full screen so that you can pause our lesson now, and you can upgrade and strengthen, add to your answer there, feel free to use sections of this feedback answer to make your answer even better.

So now we've thought about why local councils are important, we're going to look at one of those powers that makes them important, and it's about the power of local councils, with a focus on planning.

Now, before we do this, and before we carry out this particular task, we need to understand what we mean by planning, now, one of the most important powers that local councils have is to make planning decisions, local councillors sit on planning committees to decide whether the applications for new developments, like housing or offices, should get the go ahead, in making their decisions, councillors have to consider a lot of different factors, including what the law says, that's set by parliament, the views and potential concerns of existing residents, the strength of the plan put forward by developers, and the potential impact of any development on the actual area.

Now, we've looked at what planning actually is, and that leads us on to task four, which is really a case study, and it's about the Apple Valley development.

Now, you are going to be a member of the council's planning committee, and as a member of the council's planning committee, today you are tasked with weighing up the arguments about whether the Apple Valley development should be approved.

Now, this is what the Apple Valley development is, so the proposal from the developer, is to build 250 new houses on the edge of town, housing is in short supply in the area, and the developer will supply much needed homes.

The new homes will all be energy efficient, and will come with solar panels on the roof, existing residents are concerned that the new development will create extra traffic, and the plans for a new junction to enter the site, may increase the risk of road traffic accidents in the area.

The site of the new housing development, is currently the home of a family of rare bats.

I'll make this much bigger on your screen, so that you can pause our lesson now, and if you would like, you can better understand it by pausing it, and reading it over again here.

Now, what I'd like us to do, is use that understanding and knowledge that we've got about the Apple Valley development, and to be a member of that planning committee.

So look again at the case study, and decide whether the planning permission should be granted, granted means given.

You should consider the following points when making your decision, so look back over what we've said together just then, and what are the views and potential concerns of existing residents, what about the strength of the plan put forward by developers, and are there any potential impact of any of the new development on the area? I'll make this full screen now, so that you can look at it in greater detail, and I'd like you to pause the video to complete your task.

Now, remember to resume it once you have finished.

So well done there for giving that particular task a really good go, and for being a member of the council's planning committee, being a councillor there, now, there are three potential areas that you are asked to look at, the plans for the Apple Valley development, and students in my class often share with me these types of answers, so number one, you were asked the views and potential concerns of existing residents, well, there were concerns, weren't they? That the new development will increase extra traffic, and that plans for new junction to enter the site, may increase the risk of road traffic accidents.

You were asked to consider the strength of the plan that was put forward by developers.

Well, housing is in short supply in the area, and the developer will build 250 new homes, and homes will be energy efficient, and they will come with solar panels on the roof, which is great, but what is the potential impact of any new development on the area? Well, the site is currently the home of a family of rare bats, which is an issue, isn't it? Because we all care about the environment, so I will make this much bigger now, so you can pause our lesson now, and you can strengthen your answer by adding these things to it, if you don't have all of those facts about the Apple Valley development.

Now, based on the case that was presented when we read about it, would you agree to grant, so to agree, to planning permission for the Apple Valley development, or would you reject it? Let's just hear you say that for a second, are you going to grant it, or are you going to reject it? Now, the reality is that you would have to vote alongside other councillors on a planning committee, and you'd have to make that decision based upon the facts that were presented to you on the day, not on anything else, but just on the facts that were presented to you that day, and you'd either decide to grant or reject it, based upon those facts as well.

Now, all of that information that we've learned today about local councils, about what makes them powerful, actually then leads us to question how we can use local councils to make our voice heard, and this is really the part of the lesson, which allows us to bring things together, and say, "Well, why is this information important?" We know that local councils are powerful bodies, but what can we do if we want to influence them to make a change in our community, or to stop something from happening? Well, there are lots of different things that we can do, so how can you use local councils to make your voice heard? Well, you could support or object to a planning application in your area, you could register to vote and support council candidates that you maybe agree with, you could join your local youth council, and a youth council is an organisation that is often run by a local council, where young people can get elected to, and represent the views of young people to councillors, but also to other bodies and organisations in a local council area, often elections are run in schools, colleges, and in youth clubs and settings across cities, and towns, and counties.

You might want to speak up as a concerned resident at a council committee meeting, that might be a planning committee meeting, just like the Apple Valley development that we considered, but it could be on anything else.

It might be that you want to draw up a petition to send to the council expressing resident's views, remember a petition is a list of names that show that people support a particular 'cause, and of course in a democracy that's more powerful, and there are more people who sign up to it, because, of course, politicians, decision makers want people's votes, they want to please people, so the more people that you can demonstrate support an issue, the better in a democracy.

You could also turn up at one of your local councillors regular surgeries with constituents, and what we mean by a surgery is, it's not like a GP surgery, it is simply a meeting where you can go and turn up, and speak about your views on a particular issue to your local representatives, like a councillor or a member of parliament, that type of thing as well.

You could organise a local demonstration or march in connection with the issue, that means that you'd be going on the streets, obviously with your parents' permission at the moment, because many people who are looking at this video will be perhaps under the age of 16, to organise a local demonstration or march in connection with the issue, and lastly, you could hold a public meeting on the issue, and invite your local councillors along, to tell them about the strength of views in your local area on a particular issue.

Now, today's lesson has been quite varied, we've looked at lots of different things, we've looked at what services do local councils provide, that's then led us on to thinking about what is the role of local councillors in deciding about those services, then we've considered what makes councils powerful, and we've looked at one particular area that makes councils powerful, which is actually about planning, and you looked at the Apple Valley development, and you made a decision about whether you should reject or approve that development, and lastly, we looked at various different things that you can use to make your voice heard by local councils, which is really about bringing our knowledge together, and saying, "Well, why is it "that you're learning about this information? "Why is it actually relevant to you and your life?" And it really is about your ability to change things in your community, because only by understanding who makes decisions in our local community, can you be powerful, instead of powerless.

Now, today's lesson I hope is something that you've enjoyed, but I'd like you to consider sharing your work with Oak National, and if you'd like to, please ask your parents or carers to share your work on Twitter, by tagging @OakNational, and using the #LearnwithOak.

And lastly, don't forget to complete the exit quiz now, so please complete the exit quiz now.

So thank you very much for participating in our lesson today, it has been wonderful to be your citizenship teacher for our lesson today, don't forget to please complete that exit quiz.

Thank you, bye-bye.