I went to this training session today at the Local Government Information Unit in London.  It was a useful session and gave a good overview of the roles and skills required to be an effective local community leader. Our trainers for the day were Alan Waters from LGIU and Steve Skinner, an LGIU Associate.

We talked about setting the context of community leadership since the Big Society agenda has come into effect as well as the comprehensive spending review and the Localism Bill.  It was described as councils having much more freedom and control but over much less.  Councillors need to balance community activities and needs with strategic corporate issues for local authorities and it’s not always easy!

We talked about the eight leadership roles as in the star image (my self-scores are marked) and the ladder of participation which has five levels:  informing; consulting; joint decision-making; joint action; and supporting community organisations in self-help.

After lunch we talked about creating the right environment for community leadership and working with other community leaders.

A really interesting discussion then ensued about councillor-officer relations and it was a good to have a full and open discussion with members and officers from different authorities.  Trust and respect were two very important attributes of good working relationships as were good communication and regular updates.  I was interested to hear that in one authority new councillors have an officer mentor for a period.

I think my quote of the day was “sharp elbows and loud mouths”, describing those who always seem to get hold of available community funding first.