Councillor and officer development

We offer a wide range of leadership, training and development opportunities to support councillors and council officers in their roles. Our offer to councils provides tools and support to enhance council leadership, skills and capacity, including through our programmes which develop the local government workforce and attract new talent to the sector.


During what are increasingly challenging times for the local government sector, it is important that councillors and officers have the skills and knowledge needed to deliver on local priorities.

Our sector support offer provides training and development opportunities to help councillors and officers to deliver effectively in their roles. Our programmes support councillors and officers to navigate complexity, harness opportunities and address live and emerging challenges in areas such as adult social care, children’s services, economic growth, financial governance, housing, and more.

Given the scale and nature of these challenges, we support councils to build skills and capacity through our National Graduate Development Programme (NGDP) and our Be a Councillor campaign so that we have a continuous pipeline of talent.

We also provide tailored support for disabled councillors and candidates.