Debate on International Women’s Day, House of Commons, 10 March 2022

• It is vital that local government reflects the communities it represents. However, despite women winning the right to stand in elections over 100 years ago, only 35 per cent of councillors are women. Councils are committed to breaking the bias women continue to face, through supporting more women into local politics and positions of leadership, and ensuring all local services actively work to overcome gender-based inequalities.
• Our members feed-back that a lack of pension contributions and parental leave; a lack of flexibility in how they can attend meetings and the abuse and intimidation directed at those at in public life, act as barriers to women and other under-represented groups standing as a councillor or taking on responsibilities as a cabinet member.
• We are committed to tackling these issues and helping councils to improve their diversity and inclusion, including by calling on the Government to reinstate the flexibility for councils to hold remote and hybrid meetings and encouraging the provision of leave arrangements. Through our sector led improvement offer, the LGA also provides a series of programmes, campaigns and toolkits to help our members encourage and support women and those from other underrepresented groups to run for political office.
• The LGA’s Be a Councillor campaign is at the heart of our work to encourage more people from all walks of life to engage with politics and to stand as a councillor. Our Women’s Leadership programme also offers vital support to female councillors, to help them hone their political skills, build their professional networks and support them into positions of leadership.
• The LGA has also launched a toolkit to help councils create underlying policies, procedures, ethos and environment that encourages and empowers women, parents and carers to become local councillors and take on leadership positions.
• In response to growing concerns about the impact of the increasing level of public intimidation and toxicity of debate on our country’s democratic processes, particularly at a local level, we launched our Civility in public life programme in 2019. The Online Safety Bill is a vital opportunity to help tackle the online abuse many councillors face, and we look forward to working with Government to strengthen the legislation.
• Councils’ services play a vital role in proactively improving the lives of women, ranging from the support councils provide to new mothers, to protecting domestic abuse victims, tackling female genital mutilation (FGM), providing affordable and secure housing, family services and much more.
• The LGA is committed to tackling inequality in all its forms. We are working to support councils to address the inequalities exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the disproportionate impact they have had on marginalised groups through an intersectional approach.
• Democracy and decision-making are strengthened when councillors reflect the people they seek to serve and represent. Representative councils, with equal participation of men and women, are best able to engage with and speak for their communities and carry out the business of local government effectively.

The LGA’s Be a Councillor campaign aims to help councils encourage a more diverse range of people consider standing for election. Councils are encouraged to think about holding prospective councillor events, creating short films to showcase the role of the councillor or sharing our e-Learning to educate on what local government does. A variety of councils across the country are supported to run their own Be a Councillor campaigns. The LGA has worked with Elect Her (formally known as The Parliament Project) on several events focused on encouraging more women to stand for election. Elect Her is an organisation aimed at inspiring, empowering and encouraging women to run for political office in the UK.

We know that many prospective councillors are put off standing because of their already busy lives, with women in particular more likely to have caring or childcare responsibilities. We want to see more women, parents and carers stand for election and encourage them to step up to leadership roles in local government, while still being able to live their lives outside of the council chamber.

The LGA’s toolkit Twenty-first century councils, backed by the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, is aimed at helping those who have other responsibilities, such as looking after children, including those with special needs, caring for an older relative or who want to start a family, to be councillors and represent their communities. It also provides support to women councillors and their families, some of whom have faced intimidation, particularly online, and to encourage and empower them to stand for election again in future.

The LGA is working to reduce the barriers that often prevent women from entering politics, for example, by encouraging councils to have leave arrangements in place, and calling on the Government to reinstate councils’ powers to hold online and hybrid meetings.

Throughout the pandemic, councils effectively conducted all of their business virtually, which allowed them to make critical decisions without delay and carry out the everyday functions of local democracy. Crucially, the option to attend meetings virtually increased accessibility for both councillors and the general public, particularly for disabled people and those with caring responsibilities. As a result, many councils saw positive increases in both public participation and councillor attendance. Conversely, LGA research confirmed that the return to exclusively in-person meetings since May 2021 resulted in a reduction of public and councillor attendance at council meetings. We are therefore calling for the flexibility to hold online and hybrid meetings to be restored to councils, to maintain these gains in accessibility, inclusion, and participation in local democracy. We support the public petition for councils in England to have the choice to meet remotely.

The LGA runs a wide range of leadership development programmes, including a series of networking events for those under-represented in local government, and particularly in leadership positions. The popular Women’s leadership programme supports women councillors to hone their political skills and build professional networks.

Across the UK, there are growing concerns about the impact an increasing level of public intimidation and toxicity of debate is having on our country’s democratic processes. Feedback from our members indicates that there is not a consistent response from the police across the country and that there is confusion about reporting, support, legislation and impacts for our society and democracy. In response, the LGA is working closely with WLGA, COSLA and NILGA to coordinate a programme of work entitled Civility in public life.

The purpose of the programme is to address the intimidation of local government members and officers; to address standards of public discourse; to address standards of political discourse and behaviour in public office; and to provide support and advice to councils and councillors. Many councillors continue to experience abuse, harassment and intimidation, and, in particular, councillors have highlighted that they face misogynistic, homophobic, racist and other forms of harassment in relation to protected characteristics. Everyone in public life should be able to go about their daily business without abuse or fear of attack. Yet the reality of the abuse councillors face can prevent people, particularly women and other-represented groups, from entering into and staying in politics.

Resources under the programme include a Guide to handling harassment, abuse and intimidation, including online abuse, and digital citizenship support and resources, including our five rules of engagement online. The rules support candidates and councillors to set out how residents can engage with them online; they highlight that polite disagreement and debate is welcome, but abusive, discriminatory or threatening behaviour is unacceptable, and what will happen if the rules are broken.

To support our Civility in Public Life programme, the LGA has also been developing a call for evidence of abuse and intimidation of councillors, to capture elected members’ experiences and emerging trends around abuse and intimidation from the public.

It is vital that the upcoming Online Safety Bill makes progress in tackling abuse and harassment online. At present, much of the focus is on tackling harmful content after it is posted, however this approach places significant responsibility on the person receiving abuse and has had limited success in shutting down abuse and harassment. The LGA supports the recommendation of the Joint Committee for the Bill to include a specific responsibility on social media and service providers to have systems in place to identify reasonably foreseeable risks of harm arising from their platforms, and take proportionate steps to mitigate those risks of harm. We are calling for this to include explicit reference to users with protected characteristics.

The Government, the Independent Press Standards Organisation and Ofcom should also consider how to ensure the media and politics lead by example in relation to civility and respect. Local government recognises its own leadership role in this area, which we will continue to develop through the Civility in Public Life programme.

Councils have a significant and positive impact on the lives of their female residents, through the range of vital services they provide. These range from the provision of affordable and secure housing, to providing support for new mothers and families, preventing domestic abuse, tackling female genital mutilation (FGM), and working to make public spaces safer for women.

Addressing VAWG and all forms of domestic abuse is a key priority for councils. Domestic abuse and other forms of violence and abuse, have devasting consequences for the victims, their families and children. As the Prime Minister outlined in the Beating Crime Plan, “If we are to succeed in levelling up this country we must give everyone the security and confidence that comes from having a safe street and a safe home”. To effectively tackle domestic violence and VAWG we continue to advocate for a whole-system app

roach, that is underpinned by sustainable funding for the range of critical services, including children and family services. Our ultimate aim is to prevent violence and domestic abuse from occurring in the first place, and we have been consistently calling for a greater focus on prevention and early intervention measures. This continue to call for increased national investment in evidence-based perpetrator programmes, which aim to prevent perpetrators behaviour, and for best practice from Domestic Homicide Reviews to be shared on a national level. We are pleased that the Government has listened to calls from the LGA and domestic abuse sector and has committed to bring forward a perpetrator strategy as part of the forthcoming Domestic Abuse Strategy. To make the progress that’s needed, this must be shaped by victims and survivors and be backed with long-term, adequate funding.

Long-term, sustainable Government funding is needed to help councils and their partners deliver a comprehensive approach to tackle VAWG and domestic abuse, which enables long-term planning and the delivery of appropriate and accessible provision. Councils’ youth services and early-intervention children and family services play a vital role in identifying and supporting victims of abuse and stopping escalation to prevent violence occurring in the first place. There is clear evidence on the social and fiscal benefits of prevention and early help programmes, which shows that these interventions deliver both improved outcomes and cost-savings. However, these services remain under significant pressure with many councils consistently having to overspend on their children’s services budgets.

Long-term and sustainable funding for specialist services for domestic abuse survivors is also needed to ensure help is available to all who need it, when they need it. We look forward to the Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s work to map community-based support services, which will help to provide an evidence-base for the value of these types of services and the investment that is needed.

For International Women’s Day, we have collated the following case studies of councils’ innovative work and projects to tackle discrimination and improve the lives of women:

• North Hertfordshire District Council- Councillor parental Leave Policy
• Milton Keynes Council- Women into Work Scheme
• Islington Council- Holloway prison social housing project-women’s building
• Barnet Council- Tackling perinatal mental health problems
• Swindon Borough Council- Menopause Network Group
• Norfolk County Council- Domestic Abuse Champions

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Megan Edwards, Public Affairs and Campaigns Advisor

Email: [email protected]