5.1 The roles and responsibilities of a councillor

Becoming a councillor is a significant and rewarding commitment. The position would place you at the heart of local democracy, shaping services and helping improve outcomes for the people you represent.

It is not without its challenges. Legally and constitutionally, the councillors who are elected are ‘the council’. The powers and duties collectively lie with all the councillors. This requires councillors to govern the organisation and make difficult choices about where finite resources should be spent and how much funding needs to be raised locally to deliver services.

Community leadership

A key role of a councillor is to be a community leader.

If elected, this will require you to be visible, accessible and responsive to the concerns of the electorate. This includes what is typically known as casework: helping to make things right if they don’t get the service and support they should. It can also involve helping individuals or groups to navigate public services and signposting people to where they can get support with their issue.

Being an effective community leader also means championing local voices and ensuring their perspectives are taken into account in council decisions. Councillors also need to communicate council policies back to communities and explain why decisions have been taken. Increasingly, councillors are expected not only to represent communities and take decisions on their behalf, but also to encourage and support wider public participation in local democratic decision-making.

Decision‑making

Councillors take key decisions, such as setting the council’s budget and agreeing policy proposals that determine how the council’s resources are used. This will primarily happen through participation in full council and committee meetings, although there will be a significant amount of time needed outside formal meetings to attend briefings and read papers on the issues that will be put before you.

You should check whether your council operates any online or hybrid meetings, where you can join the meeting remotely using videoconferencing technology. This won’t necessarily be an option for every meeting, but where applicable, it could allow you greater flexibility to attend meetings and take decisions.

Strategy and policy development

Councillors collectively set the strategic direction of the council. If elected, you will play a role in shaping strategy and policy through committees, party groups or informal discussions with officers and councillors. To be effective a councillor must:

• understand existing strategies and policies
• assess whether they are suitable for local communities
• contribute to the development of new approaches where needed.

Scrutiny

Scrutiny is a vital part of good governance by councillors and includes:

• monitoring the performance of services
• ensuring that public money is well spent
• checking that policy decisions deliver the intended results.

If elected, you may find yourself sitting on a formal audit or scrutiny committee; even if you do not, you will still have an ongoing responsibility to question, challenge and evaluate the council’s work.

Partnership working

Councils are expected to work with many partner organisations to deliver more effectively for local people and improve outcomes. Collaboration and joined-up working is key. Consider these examples:

• If the council decides to cut local youth clubs, it may bring a cost saving in the short term. However, the police and criminal justice system may experience increased pressure if the closures result in increased anti-social behaviour among youths.
• If the NHS board in your area reduces its capacity for mental health support for young people, this may result in schools experiencing an increase in complex behavioural and wellbeing issues in pupils who require specialist support.

In both examples, savings are made for one public body at the expense of another.

There can be all sorts of consequences from decisions taken by public bodies. Therefore, having effective partnership arrangements in place to support better collaboration between public service partners is crucial.

Councillors help shape and scrutinise partnership arrangements, ensuring that collaboration is effective, transparent and focused on the needs of citizens. As we have covered already, councillors will be appointed to sit on boards and committees of various partnerships such as a CPP or IA.

Regulatory duties

Some councillors will serve on regulatory or quasi‑judicial committees such as planning or licensing. These roles are bound by legislation and require impartiality, training and adherence to the Code of Conduct for Councillors.

If you are elected and find yourself having to make decisions on planning or licensing applications, you will have to undertake mandatory training to understand the specialist requirements of these regulatory functions.

Party political or group role

If you are elected through a party, you may have additional responsibilities, such as:

• participating in group meetings
• engaging with local party members
• contributing to party policy discussions.

If you are a member of a political party, you may wish to speak to a sitting councillor in that group to understand what will be expected of you.