Michael
The Local Government Challenge is an annual competition that’s been creating the future leaders of local government for over 10 years. All whilst providing valuable consultancy and fresh ideas to local councils. We created a cohort of ten officers and travelled across the country to five councils who each hosted a challenge on a real life subject.
Jack
Newcastle was my favourite challenge. It was a challenge that gave us a lot of freedom to be creative which I think we all really enjoyed.
Helen:
Newcastle was the first place that we visited. We were working on a challenge that all local authorities are facing in terms of waste and recycling, and we had a really good support team, a great leadership team. We had elected member involvement as well, so kind of really felt it was a good start to the challenge and set us up well for the months ahead.
Marelize:
Challenge two at Calderdale was an interesting one, being based in Dean Clough, a very interesting building with lots of start-up businesses but also this stunning art gallery and it was just a surprisingly lovely place and the council were super helpful and supportive.
Hannah:
We were working around a marking campaign so played into some different strengths of the team, but also took a look at things from the tourism aspect, was really interesting. Really kind of challenged us and pushed us to think outside of the box.
Ramisa:
Challenge number three at Wiltshire Council was really interesting experience. It was a very high performing council. The challenge was around household support fund and trying to find ways to sort of plug the gap when that came to an end, and it was really interesting to see how they were planning ahead for something that was coming up in a few months.
Kerry:
The staff at Wiltshire were really, really lovely. They were really accommodating, they gave us lots of different people to talk to so we could get lots of different perspectives.
Faith:
Challenge four was at Waltham Forest and we were looking at their new model of stronger communities, which was bringing together all of the different preventative services across the council into one directorate. I really enjoyed this challenge. It was a fantastic example of a London borough who's really thinking about the future, how we can do things differently.
Ramisa:
I think Telford and Wrekin is an absolutely amazing council. Everyone is really friendly. We had a lot of senior directors be involved throughout the entire process. It’s a beautiful place and you can really see that they actually care about their people and they're really trying to come up with really good ways to improve people's lives.
Adam:
We spent some time in the new town, and then we had a lovely meal one evening Ironbridge only ten, fifteen minutes drive away, but rich in history, it was a great opportunity to network and share all of our trials and tribulations throughout the LG Challenge.
Virginia:
We started with 10 contestants we're now down to four finalists, who have been competing for the Bruce-Lockhart scholarship.
Kerry:
Jack is a natural born leader. He's always cool and composed and he's just he just oozes confidence. He's just brilliant at leading the team.
Hannah:
Jack's really good at kind of zooming out of the issues and then providing that strategic oversight and he’s also just really calm, and he’s really eager to learn. And he always puts himself forward for those areas he would like to develop instead of staying in his comfort zone.
Adam:
Marelize is very passionate, always has lots and lots of ideas, really helpful, particularly in the early stages of a challenges.
Faith:
I think Marelize has a real passion for all things to do with innovation, inward investment, tourism strategy, and she's got such a huge amount of knowledge in those areas. She always brings a fantastic energy to the team, whether you're in her team or not, she's always smiling and waving when she sees you.
Jack:
I've really enjoyed working with Faith. She is great at facilitating discussion, she asks great questions. I was particularly impressed when we did the challenge in Calderdale that she produced a TikTok video which was one of the highlights of all the challenges I think.
Hannah:
I just think really to emphasise with Faith how impressive she is in how she articulates a lot of things. I hope that through this process she's realised how impressive she is and how much she can achieve.
Ramisa:
Hannah has a real knack for being able to synthesise a lot of information. I also think that Hannah is phenomenal at answering questions. So, in every Q&A that we've had, she is the first to sort of think on her feet and answer completely effortlessly.
Jack:
Hannah's always been a fantastic teammate. She's a very can-do person, a really good team member.
Virginia:
Thank you to all of our host councils, officers, members and LGA staff who have made the 2024 programme such a success.
