Supporting council improvement – 2022/23 highlights

The 2022/23 campaign saw an additional focus on improving representation of disabled people and a targeted campaign to attract more disabled candidates to the role.

Our Behavioural Insights programme supported councils to deliver behaviour change within local communities, improving outcomes and reducing demand on public services.

We offered councils a wide range of support to improve children's services, with two programme strands being funded through the Department for Education.

Our Civility in Public Life programme continued to provide tools and resources to help address growing concerns relating to councillor intimidation and harassment.

Our Climate Change programme supported councils to reach their own carbon reduction and adaptation targets.

Our communications support offer provided a range of support to councils to develop and deliver more effective communications to communities.

Our councillor development programme supported councils to build greater leadership capacity and develop local politicians at all stages, from selection to becoming leader.

We co-created and delivered lottery-funded programmes for cultural services (with Arts Council England) and for sports and physical activity (with Sport England).

Our Cyber, Digital and Technology programme published resources and guidance, provided policy representation and incident response support, and convened local government digitalisation networks.

Our Economic Growth and Recovery Improvement programme provided resources and support to enhance the role and capacity of local councils to deliver economic growth.

Our finance programmes used expertise from across local government, informed by regional intelligence and data, to support local authorities to manage complex financial challenges facing the sector.

Our Housing Advisers Programme supported councils by helping them to meet their local housing needs in a simple, flexible, and locally led way.

Our free local area data benchmarking tool – LG Inform – supported councils to increase their service delivery capabilities and champion data-informed decision-making.

The NGDP (National Graduate Development Programme) placed high quality graduates in councils across the country, helping councils to meet strategic goals and build a pipeline of future talent.

Our Next Generation programme offered ambitious and talented councillors political development opportunities developed within party political traditions and with party political experts.

In 2022/23, we sponsored a range of officer development programmes, designed and delivered by Solace, for the sector’s rising stars, executive leaders and chief executives.

Our award-winning One Public Estate (OPE) programme supports locally led partnerships of public sector bodies to kickstart regeneration and transform public service delivery.

Our Partners in Care and Health programme supported councils to improve the way they deliver adult social care and public health services, helping Government to understand the challenges faced by the sector.

Our highly valued peer challenges programme provided councils with effective insight, guidance, and challenge to enable continuous improvement.

Our Planning Advisory Service (PAS) delivered programmes funded by DLUHC, Defra and Natural England to help local planning authorities to improve and update planning services.

Our Procurement and Commissioning programme supported councils to prepare for the new Transforming Public Procurement regime and address key procurement challenges.

In 2022/23, our far-reaching regional support programme engaged with all 333 councils in England, helping to ensuring that councils had the support they needed to harness opportunities and address challenges.

Our Better Use of Data programme supported councils to recognise the value of data, make good use of it in decision-making, bring better outcomes for residents and businesses, and enable efficient working across services.

Our Workforce and HR programme supported councils as employers as they faced workforce challenges and uncertainty, where new and increasing demands on our workforce brought challenges and opportunities.