Officer development

The Local Government Chief Executives’ Development Framework is being used as the basis for the curriculum of this new programme aimed at supporting newly appointed chief executives to create a solid foundation to build upon when taking on the role. The expectation is that they will continue to deepen their knowledge and experience across a broader spectrum of existing and emerging topics over time. For more information, visit the Chief Executives Development Hub

Our Children’s Improvement team has established an offer of support for chief executives in delivering their accountability to provide effective children’s services. The offer aligns with the support available via our children’s improvement advisers who work with our principal advisers in each region. The work on the chief executive support offer is led by Philip Simpkins and steered by a bimonthly meeting of regional lead chief executives. Outputs to date have included an updated Chief Executive Must Know Guide, themed webinars and individual support.

We are working closely with Solace and the Staff College to ensure alignment. The work has several strands and will be developed as in line with identified needs, they include:

• support for chief executives of councils receiving an inadequate judgment for their children’s services – including access to advice and support from chief executives who have delivered an improvement journey and one to one support
• a package of tailored support for new chief executives depending on their needs and experience
• line of sight review – enabling the chief executives to think through their line of sight on children’s services and safeguarding partnerships
• regional finance offer – supporting the Section 151 officer and finance teams in respect of children’s services
• facilitated conversations- support for the senior leadership team to develop a common vision and purpose in respect of corporate parenting
• focused finance review- to help local authority to better understand the use of resources and capacity across children’s services and the impact of this on budgets.

We also offer peer mentoring for chief executives who would like to develop their leadership of children’s services. If you would like further information about any aspect of this offer, please contact Philip Simpkins at [email protected] or on 07392 003902.

The CIPFA Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Leadership Academy is aimed at serving and aspiring CFOs across the public sector who want to strengthen their personal impact and leadership skills. Delegates from English local authorities may be eligible for an LGA bursary.

The new CIPFA LEAD Programme is a Leadership Development Programme aimed at new and existing Section 151 officers. The programme will develop their leadership skills and capabilities as strategic leaders, supporting their role in the governance and assurance of their organisation, and exploring their relationship with other statutory roles in the golden triangle. Bursaries are available for this programme.

GovXchange is the secondments programme aiming to drive collaboration and knowledge interchange between local and central government. Developed by the Cabinet Office and LGA, the programme supports individuals employed by the Civil Service, local or strategic authorities to undertake secondments, including short and long-term opportunities, part-time arrangements and job swaps. The programme is open to individuals across grades who want to develop skills, gain new experience and make a tangible impact in public service. For more information please contact [email protected]. 

The Government Commercial College provides key commercial and contract management learning for civil servants and the wider public sector. These free e-learning courses cover a range of topics, and are designed to support those in both commercial and non-commercial roles to develop their skills and achieve a baseline of professional excellence.

You need to register for an account to gain access to the course catalogue and the courses.

• The Local Government Association, working with Apolitical, has launched a first-of-its-kind training programme on digital excellence specifically for local government to pilot with 30 local authority senior managers across England.
• The LGA has worked with PUBLIC and cyber security partner DAINTTA to develop free online guidance – and a free e-learning course – to help councils embed greater cyber resilience in their procurement processes and supply chains.
• The LGA Cyber, Digital and Technology (CDT) team provide advice and support to councils through various services including Cyber 360s, Reaction exercises, and post-incident support, focused on supporting one council/shared service at a time. Please email [email protected] to book in a conversation.
• The LGA is working with Solace to deliver cyber and digitalisation skills workshops as part of their Ignite, Springboard and Total Leadership programmes. Find out more about Solace leadership training
• The CDT team has produced a series of Cyber Unpacked videos to help council officer learn more about cyber security and digital concepts in a short-form, engaging format.
• The LGA provides various forums for officer development to collaborate with like-minded colleagues within the cyber and digital space across groups: Local Government AI Network, Local Government Digital Committee (LGDC), Digital Inclusion Network, Transformation Network, Digital Construction Working Group and more. Find out more about our networks
• AI Unpacked is a series of short explainer videos on artificial intelligence (AI) designed to provide officers and councillors who are new to the topic with a starting point for understanding and engaging with AI concepts.

The Ignite programme is for established CEX who have ideally been in role for two years or more.

Ignite is designed to enable local government Chief Executives to further develop their understanding of their roles in an increasingly complex environment. Lasting approximately 9 months, our Ignite programme is supported by the LGA and delivered in partnership with Collaborate CIC.

Impact: The Local Government Graduate Programme (formerly the National Graduate Development Programme) seeks to match talented and passionate graduates with councils on a two year programme. Graduate trainees rotate between placements, gaining a variety of experience whilst undertaking a leadership qualification to help them develop into the future leaders of the sector.

The Inspire Programme provides structured development opportunities for existing and aspiring monitoring officers. It will develop their leadership skills and capabilities as strategic leaders, supporting their role in the governance and assurance of their organisation, and exploring their relationship with other statutory roles in the golden triangle. Bursaries are available for this programme.

Visit the Lawyers in Local Government website to apply. 

Boosting Middle Leaders is a leadership programme which brings together councillors and officers to build relationships, share perspectives, and develop practices that will help them to deliver the best outcomes for their places and communities. 

The programme, delivered through a blend of online and in-person workshops and residentials, is part of the LGA Leading Edge programme, delivered in collaboration with the Leadership Centre.

We are seeking councillors and officers who are in the pipeline to the most senior roles.

Find out more about this programme including the module dates and how to apply.

We sponsor Solace to deliver managerial leadership programmes to rising stars and executive leaders. Programmes include: 

• Total Leadership: Total Leadership is for officers operating at a senior executive level within your organisation.
• Springboard: The Springboard programme is aimed at ‘rising stars’ within their authorities.
• AMPlify: The AMPlify programme is aimed at talented and motivated leaders and managers from minoritised ethnic backgrounds.

LG Challenge is an annual competition for local government officers to take part in a series of real-life challenges hosted by local authorities across the country and compete for a £10,000 scholarship.

The new local resilience programme provides resilience and crisis management learning and development training to local government officers. Details will be confirmed soon. 

This includes in-person training to council chief executives and online training to other council staff through our Resilience Unpacked series.

Pathways to Planning is a recruitment programme attracting a diverse pool of graduates to work as planners in local councils. The programme recruits and assesses graduates on behalf of councils, and also upskills them by funding graduates’ postgraduate study. Councils pay graduates’ salary and support their learning and development.

The Recruitment Reset is a ten-week development programme designed to empower councils with the tools, insights, and strategies needed to modernise their recruitment practices. By focusing on efficiency, effectiveness, and fairness, the programme aims to create a recruitment process that is not only inclusive but also sustainable, leading to a stronger and more resilient workforce.

Our senior officer leadership training in carbon literacy will help senior council officers, across all services, to explore their crucial local leadership role in responding to the climate emergency. During the course, participants will commit to two carbon-reducing actions. These actions will be evaluated by the Carbon Literacy Project for participants to be certified as 'carbon literate', enabling them to train others in their area of work.

Two UK Government funded programmes have been developed for Section 151 Officers and Monitoring Officers with CIPFA, LLG and ADSO. These programmes recognise the complexities that these two statutory roles work within, seeking to support them to increase their impact as strategic leaders and strengthen their ability and confidence in ensuring the good governance and assurance of their council.