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Hello, my name is Mrs. Harris and I'm the person who's going to be guiding you through today's session.
I'm really happy to see you here.
Let's get going.
This lesson is called What is the Role of the Local Councillor? And it comes from the unit entitled, How Does Local Democracy Work? By the end of today's lesson, we're going to be able to say, I can explain what a local councillor is and explain some of their key roles and responsibilities.
Now, some of this content you might have heard a little about before and some might be a little bit more challenging, but all that's okay because I'm here to guide you through it all and we're gonna learn together.
Let's go.
Some of the key words we're going to use in this lesson are shown on the screen now.
I'm going to say the word and you're going to repeat it back to me.
First one is councillor.
Ward.
Council officers.
Our first learning cycle is called what is a local councillor? Local governments are made up of councils.
Now these might be a single tier government where one council is in charge of all of the services in the area, or it might be a two-tier government, two layers of government where these both councils share the responsibility for providing services to people who live in the area.
Leaders in these councils are called councillors.
It's nice and needs to remember, isn't it? Council, councillors.
Now councillors are voted in by local residents.
They're chosen as the people to represent them and their views and that essentially is what a local councilor's job is to represent the people who live in that area.
Quick check for understanding then.
What is this phrase describing? Someone voted in by local residents to represent the local people and their views.
What's that phrase describing? Is it a, councillor, b, council officer, or c, council? I'll give you a few seconds to think about it.
Let's check the answer.
It is a, a councillor.
That's right.
John's there to tell us that council officers are not voted in like councillors are.
They are actually employees of the council and their job is to work with and to advise the councillors.
There are lots and lots of councillors within a council.
Now, each city or countywide area that is covered by a council that is served by that council is divided up into districts, okay? And every council district is then divided up further into smaller areas and each of those have got their own councillors.
Now, these smaller areas within a district, they are called wards.
Have a look at what Sam's telling us.
So North Lincolnshire Council is an average-sized council.
It's got about 170,000 residents and it's got 19 different wards and in those 19 different wards are 43 different councillors.
John's telling us about a completely different kind of council.
Have a look at this.
The largest county council is Kent, that has 81 councillors, but they have 72 wards.
The biggest difference here is the population where Kent County Council serves approximately 1.
6 million residents.
That's a huge contrast, isn't it, to the North Lincolnshire Council, which serves 170,000 residents.
The smallest council in the UK is the isles of silly.
They've got 16 councillors and there are five wards and that serves approximately 2,100 people.
True or false then.
The smaller area a council focuses on inside a city or town is called the borough.
Is that true or false? I'll give you a few seconds to think about it.
Let's check.
The smaller area a councillor focuses on inside a city or town is called the borough.
That is false.
No, it's not the borough.
So what is the correct name? You can tell me or you can tell the person next to you.
The correct name for this smaller area that a councillor focuses on is called a ward.
Well done.
Yeah, each council area is separated into districts and these districts are separated into wards.
Great job.
A local councillor then their job is put very, very simply is to represent the people in their ward.
Now how they do that is in so many different areas and it's much more complicated than just saying all they do is represent the people.
Essentially, that is their one and main task.
Now, their main jobs include things like helping the council create services and these services have to meet the needs of the residents who live there.
Things like parks, schools, roads.
They also have to listen to residents and understand what their needs and concerns are.
It's really key 'cause if you have a councillor that doesn't listen to the residents, can they really represent the people in their ward? Another one of their main jobs is to attend and to speak at meetings, to discuss things like ideas, plans, look at projects, areas of development for the area and to vote as well on really important matters.
And Sam's there to tell us that her local councillor fought to get a new pedestrian crossing after listening to the worries that residents had about crossing the busy road.
And now people feel safer.
It's really important, isn't it? People spoke, the councillor listened to them and then the councillor put things in place to make people feel safer.
Great job, councillor.
Councillors also take part in planning and licencing decisions, so that might be talking about where new buildings are going to be put.
It might be talking about where factories are going to be built.
It could be licencing decisions as well.
Things like if you've got a pub or a club or a bar, they need a special licence to be able to sell after a certain time and to have their events going on after say 11:00 p.
m.
at night.
Councillors also work to promote the interest and needs of their community to the local government.
So it's really important that each councillor can maybe link with other councillors so they can work together to make things better for people who live in their areas and that networking, that linking can make a huge difference if you've got people working together for the same kind of goals.
Local councillors also have lots of support for local events and projects that benefit the community.
That could be something like a Christmas fair or a summer fair, or a fundraising project, or networking that's linking in with local charities or local groups that help people.
And councillors really try to get involved in that sort of work.
Laura's here telling us about her councillor.
She says, "Our councillor noticed that there was nowhere for teenagers to be together indoors and pushed to get an old shop turned into a social space for us.
Now we have somewhere safe to be together in the evenings.
It even runs daytime sessions for older people." Again, brilliant councillor.
People spoke, they said what they needed.
They said what would make their lives better.
The councillor listened to that and then put plans into place to make this wonderful social space, which doesn't just serve just the teenagers who originally wanted to have that space, but it also has the sessions for older people too.
Fantastic.
Have a look at these.
We've got a, parks and leisure, b, listening to residents, and c, speaking at local events.
So which of these things might a councillor do or support within their job? I'll give you a few seconds to think about it.
Let's check the answers.
Here we go.
All of them.
That's right.
A local councillor really gets involved with all of these things here.
Well done.
Here's your first task then, task A.
I would like you to write a short paragraph to explain in your own words what a local councillor is.
I've put some words on the screen that you might want to use to help you when you're writing your explanation.
These words are ward, council, elected, role, and community.
Pause the video to give yourself the time to do the task and then we'll come back together and go through it.
How did that go? All right, let's go through it together then.
Now your answer might have sounded something like this.
Remember, it's not going to be exactly the same as my words, but let's see if we've got some of the key things there.
My answer is a local councillor is an elected person who represents the small area inside a city or town area called a ward.
Their role is to listen to what people in the ward want and need, and to help improve things like parks, schools, and roads.
Councillors go to council meetings to discuss ideas and work with other councillors to make decisions that help everyone.
Did you get something like that? Did you manage to use some of those words from the word bank? Really great job.
Well done.
Let's move to our next learning cycle then.
How do councillors and council officers compare? How does a person even become a councillor? Well, there are certain rules that they have to follow before they can consider it.
So, first of all, a person must be 18 or over.
They must be a British or a Commonwealth citizen and they must have lived or worked in the area that they want to be a councillor for.
So if I decided I really wanted to be a councillor for a ward in the Peterborough area, I must have lived or worked in the area within the 12 months before me wanting to become a councillor.
Does that make sense? That makes it, doesn't it? So you don't have somebody living in London who is a councillor for an area in Scotland, for example, and you don't have somebody living in Cornwall who is a councillor in the north of Yorkshire.
That doesn't make sense.
So they have that role to make sure that the councillors actually have a connection and know what life is like in that area.
It's really important.
Councillors are diverse and come from all different backgrounds.
Now there isn't a particular qualification, there isn't an exam you need to pass to become a councillor.
What is the number one thing is that the councillor is committed to that local area.
Things like race, gender, disability, educational background, none of that matters when becoming a councillor.
Being a councillor is open to everybody providing they meet the rules on the previous slide that I showed you, some people might have worked in different jobs before becoming a councillor.
They might have been a doctor for years, they might have worked in a supermarket for years, they might have been a teacher for years and then they decide, yes, I want to be a councillor, I want to serve my local community.
They might be coming up to retirement or they're going to stop working and decide to take on this new job as a councillor.
Maybe they've only just finished their education and are very young and they decide they want to be a councillor.
As we've said, the number one most important thing is that the councillor or the person who wants to be a councillor is absolutely committed to that community that they want to work within.
Let's have a quick check then.
So, councillors can have a range of different a, backgrounds, b, careers, c, identities.
Which ones of these are true? I'll give you a few seconds to think about it.
Let's check the answer then.
So councillors can have a range of different backgrounds.
Yes.
Careers.
Yes.
And identities.
Yes.
Remember, councillors can be from any background so long as they're 18 years old and above, British/Commonwealth citizen, and have worked while lived in the area.
And remember number one, they are committed to the community that they wish to work within.
Amanda Onwuemene was elected as local councillor in 2022.
Her ward is Birkenhead and Tranmere.
The council is Wirral City Council and the political party that she is a member of is the Green Party.
Now Amanda, she hasn't just been a council all of her life, she has actually been a nurse, a midwife, health visitor, a lecturer, and she still also works as an adult mental health therapist.
So you can see a really varied background there but a particular interest in health.
Amanda attends these committees in groups.
Now, she's the chair of the Greens of Colour group.
She's part of the Green Party Women.
She's part of the Corporate Parenting Panel.
So her role there is to fight on behalf of children who are or have been looked after by the council.
So for example, children in foster care.
And she's also part of the Children, Young People, and Education Committee.
So another fighting role there for children to have the support and the resources and the opportunities that they need to do their very, very best in life.
Laura says here that one of Councillor Amanda's passions is the NHS and making sure that people can have health appointments when they're needed, as well as access to things like social care.
So that's when the council can support people with if they've got disability needs or if it's older people who need extra support.
Daisy Blakemore-Creedon was just 18 years old when she won her seat in May 2024.
She was right in the middle of her A-level exams. Her ward is Fletton and Woodston, the council is Peterborough City Council, and her political party that she's a member of is the Labour Party.
She grew up in a council-owned home and her family used food banks.
So she had a really good understanding of what a lot of families are facing with things like rising living costs and people struggling to afford the things that they need on a daily basis.
So in addition to her councillor duties, Daisy is also the chair for the Eastern Young Labour group and she volunteers with a charity called Family Action.
John is here to tell us that some of Councillor Daisy's priorities are supporting the most disadvantaged in the community.
Now, being disadvantaged often means you have fewer opportunities or extra challenges in your life.
Can sometimes mean that you don't get the same chances and you don't get the same success as people who don't have challenges in their life.
So she's really, really passionate about supporting people with disadvantages.
Another of her passions is breaking down barriers to opportunities for children.
So that's getting things out of the way that stop children being able to achieve their very best and live their best lives.
Michael Millar was voted in as local councillor in 2023.
His ward is the Kippax and Methley ward under Leeds City Council and the political party that he's a member of is the Labour Party.
Now, Michael at the time was the youngest councillor in Leeds when he was voted in.
Some of the committees he's on are the Planning Council.
So the Planning Council makes decisions about new buildings and developments, what their impact will be in the area and decides whether they're going to be allowed.
He's also part of the Infrastructure, Investment and Inclusive Growth panel.
That's a mouthful, isn't it? Which improves places basically where people live and the qualities of opportunities for people within the local area.
Sam's here to tell us that Councillor Michael also works at a supermarket and he sees just how much that rising costs, so everything getting more expensive.
He sees how that affects people on a daily basis and he really wants to make sure that people can afford to live and not just live but live in a clean and safe environment with the things that they need to be able to have a comfortable life.
Alex Yip was voted in as local councillor in 2015.
His ward is Sutton Wylde Green, the council is Birmingham City Council and the political party that he's a member of is the Conservative Party.
Now, before he was elected in 2015, Alex actually ran a chain of takeaways.
He taught English in Shanghai in China and he'd also volunteered in orphanages and schools across Africa.
So Alex is now a councillor and as part of his role, he is the Shadow Cabinet Member for Social Justice, Community Safety, and Equalities.
A shadow cabinet member is not the real minister but they are ready to take over if their party wins power.
But his job is to act as if he was in charge of the area and to help by coming up with ideas and plans for how to improve things, but then has to be ready in case his political party wins the power and then he would step into the position and be the real minister, suppose.
Now the area that Councillor Alex works in with this is all about emergency planning.
So if there's a flood or something happening in the area, it's about ensuring fair opportunities for everybody who lives in his ward and the council.
It's about promoting respect and our shared values, and looking at all of the ways that communities can be happier and work together.
And it's just generally about general safety for all as well.
He's also a trustee, which means he's heavily involved with the charity YMCA.
He also has a special interest in schools and education and some of the jobs he's done before have been about making sure children with special educational needs get the funding that they need or the transport that they need to be able to get to school.
Councillor Alex strongly believes in giving back to the community.
So not just taking what you can get from the community but actually giving back to them and contributing your skills and your time.
You could say he really agrees with being an active citizen.
He's a really strong supporter of and fundraises for mental health charities, and as well as his councillor role, as I've said, Alex is also a school governor and he's also a magistrate, which is a little bit like a judge in courts as well.
So one of these councillors, Michael Millar, is involved on the planning committee.
Now, what the planning committees decide, is it a, what is built in the area and what impact it will have? Is it what schools plan to teach? Or is it how high the food costs will be? Which one of these do you think? I'll leave you for five seconds and come back and we'll go through the answer.
Okay, so planning committees decide a, what is built in the area and what impacts it will have.
So we've touched a little bit on the main duties of a councillor and what they need to do.
So the first thing, as we've said, is to represent that area, that ward and the people who live within it.
That is absolutely key to a councilor's job.
They have to provide community leadership of their area.
They have to try and lead others to bring people together to really make that area work for the people who live there.
They're also really involved in developing council policies.
So in other words, they get dialled back with all of the other councillors and they make decisions to create services and ideas that are going to better serve the residents in the area.
And they also take part in things like planning and licencing decisions.
So planning permission for buildings, licences for restaurants, taxis, entertainment venues and things like that.
So a councillor does the following.
They represent an area or a ward and its people, they provide community leadership, they develop council policies and they.
What's the missing thing? Is it makes planning and licencing decisions? Is it makes laws which apply to the whole country? Or is it sets tax rates across the UK? Which was the missing thing out of those four? I'll give you a few seconds to think and we'll join back together and go through.
Let's find that missing thing then.
So a councillor does the following.
It represents a ward and its people, it provides community leadership, develops councillor policies, and makes planning and licencing decisions.
Well done if you've got that.
Now, what helps a councillor do their job? Well, obviously they need to be up to date with news stories that might affect people in their ward.
Then you'll find that local councillors have to speak to newspapers or television companies and other ways of the media to give their opinion on things that are happening.
They do spend a lot of time in an office taking part in things like meetings, making decisions, meeting with other councillors, but most of their time will be spent communicating with residents and moving around their local ward.
This is arguably the most important part of their job.
You've got to have a connection with the residents that's absolutely central to doing the best for local people.
Being a local councillor then, as you can imagine, involves juggling.
You know when people juggle and they've got all the balls going up around and trying to keep them all going, it's basically being a councillor.
There's so many responsibilities and so many tasks and so many areas that they have to give their time to and their attention to to be able to do them well.
They have to be excellent and really skilled at managing their time so that they can get all their tasks and their jobs done and all their meetings done really, really effectively.
So here is a day in the life of Councillor Amanda who we met earlier on.
And here's what she says.
"At 10:00 a.
m.
I check my diary to see what preparations I need to do for any meetings coming up in the next two or three days.
This can mean reading council officer reports of 300 plus pages.
I need to ensure that I allow enough time to do this, so I do this in the mornings.
At the council meetings, my role is to scrutinise." That means to examine and look really carefully, "At the council officer's reports.
So I have to write questions to ask during the meeting.
These meetings can last between two to three hours and they happen roughly once a fortnight." So you can see in the morning she's got a lot of reading to do, a lot of preparation as she has to write questions to check that what the council officers are saying makes sense and that it's right for the people in her area.
So she has to be really well-prepared.
"At 1:00 I visit a resident in their home to discuss any issues they might have.
This can range from fly tipping in the area." That's when people dump rubbish illegally and just leave it in piles.
"And it could be to antisocial behaviour." So that includes things like all kinds of behaviour that affects other people in a negative way.
"It could be about blocked road drains or barking dogs.
At 2:00, I visit a local cafe and workspace to drop off a Seed Library I've put together.
This has been made from seeds that were given to me and from plants I've grown on my allotment.
At 3:00, I spend time replying to and writing emails.
I may also report any issues I've been told about on my visits or any issues I've seen while walking around my ward.
At 5:00, I attend a Budget Oversight online meeting, where we look at how much government funding the council has received compared to how much it needs to spend." So central governments, that's our national government, give money to the local governments and they give them certain jobs that they have to do.
And so, Councillor Amanda, she sits on a committee which discusses how much money they've got and how much more they need to be able to spend.
She says, "Our focus today is keeping schools well-maintained and also funding." So paying for the transport to take children to and from school.
"At 7:00," Councillor Amanda says, "I check my diary to see what's coming up tomorrow.
I pack reports I need for any meetings I'm attending and I work out all my timings and my route." Make sure she avoids traffic and has the best way to get there.
And her motto is, fail to plan, plan to fail.
And finally at 7:30 she gets to relax.
So you can see she's got a really full on day there.
Lots of reading, lots of reports, lots of meeting with people, lots of making decisions.
And so, you've got to be really skilled at managing all of that to do the very, very best for the people who live in your area.
Now interestingly enough, councillors are not paid a wage for the work that they do.
So lots of people, they'll be paid by the hour.
So if they work nine hours in that day, they'll be paid for nine hours.
If they work three hours in that day, they'll be paid for three hours.
It's not the case with councillors.
They are given an allowance rather than a full-time salary.
So even if, theoretically, if they did 100 hours in a week, they would still only be paid the same as somebody who works 40 hours in a week.
But because of this, because it's a smaller allowance, this means that many councillors also have second jobs as well as their councillor role.
So do you remember me saying about Councillor Michael, he also works in a supermarket as well as his councillor role.
Councillor Amanda also works as an adult mental health specialist and so on.
Many councillors they also choose to volunteer with charities and local groups and this is really important because it gives them chance to connect with local people, to connect with charities that are helping people and it helps them understand the issues that people are facing in their everyday life.
And it's also really helpful practically.
It's always good to have a second pair of hands to help you do things if you are helping people.
True or false then.
Many councillors have second jobs.
Is that true or false? Few seconds to think.
It is true.
Yes, many councillors do have second jobs.
And why? Because they're paid an allowance rather than a full-time wage.
So they often have to do more than one job.
Many councillors also volunteer.
That means they don't get paid for helping out charities, helping out local groups.
Now councillors are in charge of the whole council area.
They all work together, all the councillors in all the wards work together, but they don't have specialist knowledge of every single area they make decisions for.
Now, we talked about Councillor Amanda and how she's got a really detailed background in health services in the NHS.
So she's really good for that.
But not all councillors can have such a detailed view for every single area that they have to deal with.
And so, that means they have to be guided by people who do have detailed knowledge and these people are called council officers.
Council officers are there to support the councillor.
So even if they don't have the same beliefs and ideas for the local community, as a council themselves, it doesn't matter.
Their job is to support the councillor and what the councillor is trying to do for the residents of the area.
A council officers then use their specialist knowledge to assist the councillors in making decisions but the councillor has to make decisions about something like education.
They're going to want to be guided by people who do have a really in-depth knowledge of schools and education and how it works.
So let's have a look at an example here.
If a housing development is being planned, then it's the council officers, they'll research the area, they'll research the plans, and they'll look at what the impact could be.
Is that gonna be a good thing? Is that gonna be a bad thing for the area? And then they take their opinion and they present that to the councillors.
Yeah, and they have big discussions and meetings about these plans.
The councillors then are the ones that make their decisions.
So after listening to the council officers, they make the decision based on that and then they go forward with it.
If it's a yes, then the council officers, they'll carry out what the councillor says they need to do.
They'll finalise it all and see it basically through from when the decision is made of yes, all the way through to the end when the project is over.
Now it's your job to put those steps we've just talked about in order.
All right, so imagine a local housing development is being planned.
Here are the four steps on the screen in front of you in that table but they're in the wrong order.
It's your job to put them back into the correct order that they happen when council officers advise councillors.
You might want to pause the video to give yourself the time to do it and then we'll go through the answers.
All right then, let's check the answers.
So, we've got number one, if a housing development is being planned, council officers research the area, plans, and what impact that will be.
Number two is the council officers give their expert opinion to the councillors.
Number three, the councillors then make their decision and finally the council officer carry out and finalise the decision and make it happen.
They see it through until the end.
Have you got those four in the correct order? Really, really well done.
Fantastic.
Any decisions that council officers and councillors make, these have to follow the law of the UK.
Council officers they work for the council.
Now these are not elected in like councillors.
Remember, councillors are chosen by the people who live in the local area, aren't they? Well, that's not the same for council officers.
They're paid a wage and they're employed by having an interview and being given the job.
Depending how much experience or responsibility or how many people they lead, a council officer's wage will be different depending on that responsibility.
So if they have a higher responsibility and lead lots of different people, they will have a higher salary than a council officer who doesn't have quite so much responsibility or leadership role.
If you're a council officer who is in charge of the entire council, your salary will be much higher than a council officer who has only just started in their role.
That's not the same with a councillor, is it, 'cause they get a fixed salary and it doesn't matter if they've been a councillor for 20 years or a councillor for two years, their allowance will be the same.
So although councillors and council officers work together for the same aim, it's to support their residents, isn't it, their roles, their wages, their salaries, and their accountability are very different from each other.
So quick true or false then.
All council officers are paid the same salary.
Is that true or false? I'll give you a few seconds to think.
And the answer to that is false.
Yeah, it's false, isn't it? Why? Well, we've just discussed, haven't we? A council officer's salary depends on how much experience they have.
So the chief executive who is in charge of the most of the council they'll be paid more than a council officer who's only just started and doesn't lead anybody else.
I'm going to give you a few minutes to read through this slide and then we'll discuss it.
Pause the video now to give yourself the time to do that.
Let's go over it then.
So the role is slightly different, isn't it? A role of a local councillor they are elected in, they're chosen by the people in their area to represent them.
They're often members of political parties, so we've talked about somebody in the Green Party, somebody in the Labour Party, somebody in the Conservative Party today.
And a councilor's job is to make final decisions on things.
Whereas a council officer's job is to advise the councillors.
They're the ones to give them that extra knowledge, aren't they, because they're the specialists.
They're not elected in.
It's a regular job where they have an interview and have to prove that they can do the job, but they also have to remain something called impartial.
That means they can't be a member of a political party.
They can't show their own views of what they want to happen.
They're not allowed to do that.
Their job is to do what the councillors ask them to do.
There's a difference in pay as well, isn't there? So, local councillors, they're not paid a wage.
They're given an allowance for doing their job, which means often they have to take another job as well because it's not particularly well-paid is a role despite all the responsibility that they have.
A council officer, however, is a paid staff member and their salary will be different depending how much responsibility or how much experience they have.
And the accountability of local councillors too.
So accountability it means that you have to be trustworthy and reliable and you have to be responsible for the decisions you make.
So if you make a good decision, you can have the good consequences of that.
If you make a poor decision, you might have negative consequences for that and that's what being accountable is.
Local councillors are accountable to the voters.
So if they make lots of poor decisions and the residents are not happy with them, they don't think they're being represented, then they're gonna be held accountable to that and they might well be voted out unless they do the opposite of that and they're really good listeners, they make lots of changes and support to happen they might get voted in next time round.
Council officers have different accountability.
People that sort of manage them it's not the voters, it's their bosses.
Just like in so many other jobs, it's the person who is their boss, their leader, who is sort of in charge of what they do.
Overall, they're accountable, they're responsible to the chief executive.
Now that is the big, big boss of the council.
That's the one who is the most senior council officer within the council itself.
This person on your screen then you're going to decide if you think this person is a councillor or a council officer.
Have a read of their words and you're going to decide whether you think this person is a councillor or a council officer based on what they say about their job.
Pause the video to give yourself the time to read it and then we'll come back together.
All right then, so do you think this person is a councillor or a council officer? Three, two, one.
This person's a council officer, aren't they? Yeah.
Good.
Did you spot how they have to advise others that they're not elected.
They're an expert in planning and that they advise and help make decisions.
Yeah? Great job.
Well done.
Task B.
Aisha and her friends are going to be attending a council meeting to give their views about a skate park that is being planned in their ward.
Now Aisha turns up to this meeting but she doesn't really understand about the different people sitting around the table.
And so, she messages you to get your help.
Your task is to write a text message to Aisha explaining the difference between local councillors and council officers.
It's a text message, so you don't want it to be really, really long.
So think about how you can quickly and concisely start in a short way, describe the differences between councillors and council officer to Aisha.
Pause the video to give yourself the time to do it and then we'll go to the next slide and go through it together.
Let's see what we could have for this then.
Your answer might look something like this.
"Hi Aisha, councillors are the elected representatives.
They make the decisions but are advised by council officers, who help them work out how things can happen.
Officers are often experts in their area.
Officers then finalise the decisions or make them happen.
Did you get something similar to that? If you did, great job.
Fantastic.
You've just helped advise Aisha.
B of your task then.
You're going to choose a community issue that you feel strongly about.
And when you've done that, you're gonna explain how a local councillor can help you solve this issue.
Who might they need to work with? Jun here, he has an idea and he says, "I hate that there is nowhere safe for my little brother to play out near home.
We need something like a playground building close by." Sam says, "There's so much litter along our local canal.
It's a nice place to bike and walk, but the rubbish makes it look awful." So they've got some community issues that they feel strongly about.
What's the issue that you feel strongly about or you might choose Jun's or Sam's to write about instead.
So remember, you're explaining how a local councillor can help solve this issue and who might they need to work with.
Pause the video to give yourself the time to do it and then we'll come back and go through the answers.
Let's take a look at this together then.
This community issue is about a lack of sports facilities.
In my community, there is a lack of free sports facilities.
Many children and teenagers like to play sports in their free time, but there are a few places that they can do this safely and for free.
A local councillor could speak to younger people about what they would like.
They could talk to the council to get funding to build outdoor multi weather courts, which are free to use and safe.
They could work with council officers to find the best place for the facilities, so that most people will benefit.
It's great, isn't it? So they're working with the people in the area, they're working with council officers, and they're talking about other councillors as well.
They're talking to the council of how best to do that.
Alternatively, you might have said something about a different issue like this.
There are no safe biking routes in my community.
Cycling is free but many people just don't feel safe to ride on the busy roads.
A local councillor could work with council officers to find options for cycle lanes or off-road paths.
They could have an event to ask residents what they need to be able to travel without using their car.
They could speak to other councils to see what they did to solve the issue.
Again, they're working really well with other people there, aren't they? They can do that to work with the residents, to work with other councillors and within the council, to work with council officers, and also speak to other councils to find out what they did as well.
Perhaps your answer was something like that.
Really well done on that.
Let's move to our third learning cycle then.
What qualities do you need to be a councillor? So as we've talked about throughout this lesson, councillors have got a really important role to play right in the centre of the community.
They work with lots of different people, including, very importantly, people in the community themselves.
They often work with charity workers, council officers who are our specialists and experts, and other councillors as well, as well as lots and lots of other council workers as well.
They might also work alongside central government representatives and they're called MPs or Members of Parliament.
Laura's telling us that MPs are voted in by citizens at general election.
So a little bit like a councillor really.
They're chosen by residents in the area and they help make laws and other important decisions.
So working with all of these people in so many different ways, teamwork and problem solving skills are really, really important for a councilor's role.
Councillors need to have lots of different personal skills to carry out their job successfully.
For example, 'cause they're listening to a resident's financial worries.
So their worries about money, that would require quite a lot of empathy to be able to understand what they're saying and understand what their worries are.
If they're speaking in a full council meeting, might require some confidence.
If they're putting their own opinion across, they'd need to be quite assertive to say, "This is what I believe.
This is what I think." If they're taking advice from council officers, they'd need to be open-minded because perhaps a council officer has a different opinion to what the councillor thought and actually maybe the councillor needs to change their mind to fit with what the expert says.
And if they're guiding others on community projects, they're going to have to need some leadership, aren't they? Be really good leaders and to help move everybody forward together.
So a quick check for understanding then.
In which of these situations would empathy be a particularly helpful quality? Would this be with a, putting their own opinion across? Would it be b, listening to a resident's financial worries? Or would it be c, speaking in a full council meeting? I'll give you five seconds to think about it then come back.
Hey, so which of these would empathy be a particularly helpful quality? A, b, or c.
Ready? B, yes.
Empathy, that understanding and that hearing that person when they're talking to you about something so important.
Yes, empathy.
There are other skills as well which are really important, now especially time management.
Do you remember Councillor Amanda? Yeah, lots of different things to fit in and really, really good with time management because they often have other jobs, busy schedules, and if you don't get your time management, if you don't plan it out, you might not be able to do your job to the best of your ability.
Clear communication and being trustworthy are also really important ways of building up a relationship.
You have to be able to trust somebody, don't you? If you're asking for their help and you're telling them your opinion, you need to be able to trust them with that.
So being able to be approachable.
So that means people feel welcome and you're friendly when they come to speak to you.
It's important, isn't it? If you've got somebody that makes you feel uncomfortable, you're not going to want to come to them, are you, for help? So that's why councillors have to be really open and warm and friendly towards people.
So what's the missing word here then? Clear communication and are excellent ways of building up a good relationship with residents.
Could be in that space? I'll give you five seconds to think about it.
Clear communication and trustworthiness are excellent ways of building up a good relationship with residents.
Absolutely.
You might have also put something like being approachable is an excellent way of building up a relationship too.
Either of those.
Great job.
Your final task then, task C.
The first part of that task is to write down five skills or qualities that you think are important or helpful for a councillor to have.
The second part of your task is to then explain why you think it's important for a councillor to have these skills.
Pause the video, give yourself the time to do it, and then we'll go through some possible answers.
Let's see these possible answers then.
So your answer might have included hardworking, open-minded, trustworthy and approachable, assertive, confidence, leadership, and good time management.
Any of those we've mentioned, haven't we, when we've been talking about the qualities.
So if you've got some of those, really well done.
Part two then, your answer might have included this.
It's important for councillors to have these skills because they need to be assertive and confident to stand up for the community, while good leadership and trustworthiness brings people together and guides in the right direction.
In addition, good time management allows them to juggle all their tasks to get things done for the community.
Together, these skills help councillors serve their residents better and make a positive impact.
If you got those in your answer, you have done a brilliant job.
Let's summarise our lesson today then, which was what do local councillors do? Councillors are voted in by local residents to represent the local people and their views.
They're chosen, aren't they? They're chosen by the people who live there to do that.
Their main duties are representing a ward and its people, providing community leadership, developing council policies, and taking part in planning and licencing decisions.
Council officers use their knowledge to assist councillors to make decisions about their specialist area like we talked about building planning.
It might be education, schools, even things like road maintenance as well.
Qualities that might be useful for councillors to have are hardworking, trustworthy, approachable, confident, empathetic amongst many, many others as well.
So remember, a councillor needs to be really passionate about the area that they live in, but they also need to have those skills to be able to do their job really well.
Thank you for joining me today.
I've really, really enjoyed having you alongside me.
Hope to see you again another time.
