Become a peer: Frequently asked questions

You can register your interest by completing our short expression of interest form. Once we receive your details, an LGA placement coordinator will contact you with links to the online forms we use to gather the information we need.

For more details, visit our become a peer webpage.

Peer challenges cover a wide range of local authority work and combined authority/strategic authority work, including leadership, governance, finance, transformation, social care, housing and planning.

Each LGA peer has a ‘peer profile’ outlining their skills and experience. This helps us match peers to peer challenges based on the type of council, areas of focus, and the skills needed. We offer a range of online and in-person briefing and development sessions to support peers in their role.

Peers understand the real challenges facing local authorities and bring:

• credibility and mutual respect
• a collaborative, listening approach
• constructive challenge and practical support.

We provide full training and support to help you succeed. We also bring member peers together at the LGA’s annual Member Peer Conference. At these peer events, you can share insights, build networks and grow your skills to support you in the valuable work you do.

Read more in our short guide: An introduction to peer challenge and the role of peers.

We are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion, and we work to ensure peer teams reflect the diversity of local local authorities and the communities they serve.

We analyse the diversity of peers used in corporate peer challenges, including gender, ethnicity and disability. We also work through our Be a Councillor campaign to increase the diversity of councillors across England, which in turn expands the diversity of our member peer pool.

The LGA’s Improvement Committee, lead members, political group offices and member local authorities all contribute to this work.

Most officers take part in one peer challenge and one progress review each year. We always check your availability and interest before confirming your participation. Peers may also be asked to support bespoke work in local authorities including top team development and mentoring support.

Peers usually receive around three months’ notice, although it can be longer. In some cases, the notice period may be shorter - but you can always decline if the dates are not possible.

A peer challenge typically involves three or four days on-site, depending on the size of the local authority and/or strategic authority/combined authority. There is also around one day of preparation, which includes pre-reading and an initial video or phone meeting. Peers should also allow a few hours afterwards to review and comment on the final report.

Yes. We provide full training and support to help you succeed as a peer.

You will be invited to an online briefing event when you register, and we also hold regular face-to-face sessions in London or the regions. Our peer challenge managers can provide one-to-one briefings for new peers if you cannot attend an event.

The LGA books your accommodation and covers most meals during the peer challenge. You arrange your own travel, but costs can be claimed back afterwards.

If you cannot attend the team dinner the evening before, you can join an online introduction and meet the team on-site the next morning.

We recommend avoiding other commitments, as the timetable is full. If you must attend a meeting, let the peer challenge manager know as early as possible so it can be factored into the schedule.

The LGA peer challenge manager coordinates the process before, during and after the visit, supports the team on-site, and provides guidance - especially to new peers.

Each team includes:

• a lead officer peer (for corporate peer challenges, this is a chief executive peer)
• at least one member peer (for corporate peer challenges this would usually include an additional opposition member peer)
• other officer peers from relevant areas of local government or partner organisations, depending on the council’s focus areas.

The peer challenge manager drafts the final report, shares it with the team for feedback, and then sends it to the council.

Peer work is a central part of the LGA’s sector support offer, which helps local and combined authorities in England deliver vital community services and drive improvement across all regions.

Peer roles are embedded across a wide range of improvement programmes funded by government and delivered by the LGA, including:

• peer challenge and peer support
• LGA principal advisers and regional support
• local government reorganisation and devolution support
• governance and assurance
• finance
• research and data
• attracting new talent (councillors and officers)
• councillor development
• officer development
• workforce and HR support
• transformation.

To get involved in peer work in these areas, contact the peer support team.

Contact the peer team

Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC) is a core part of the LGA’s sector support offer to local authorities and combined authorities/emerging strategic authorities. In 2024/25, 95 per cent of local authorities said their CPC had a positive impact.

CPC focuses on local authority performance, finance, governance, culture and local government reorganisation (if relevant), reflecting the sector’s current challenges and the statutory guidance on best value authorities. Peer teams are independent and usually include more than one member peer.

The CPC process:

1. Peer challenge manager and team deliver feedback on the final day of the visit.
2. The manager sends the local authority a draft report for factual checks.
3. Once agreed, the final report is published by both the local authority and the LGA.

If a local authority disagrees with the findings, the LGA will:

• offer a meeting to address factual inaccuracies
• publish the final report with a local authority statement if disagreements remain.

Each CPC is followed by tailored support and a progress review about ten months later, helping track improvements and learning.

The Social Housing Peer Challenge re-launched in 2025, supports improvement in landlord services.

The LGA also offers targeted housing support programmes to help local authorities build skills and capacity for innovative housing solutions.

The devolution and local government reorganisation hub brings together information and resources for public and local authorities.

LGA principal advisers and regional teams manage relationships with local and combined authorities, acting as a gateway to our support.

Corporate Peer Challenge has also been updated to support local authorities undergoing local government reorganisation.

The LGA’s communications hub offers tools and guidance.

For recruitment, local authorities can use our national recruitment campaign toolkit, developed with Solace, to attract new talent.

We also run Impact, a fast-track graduate programme matching bright, passionate individuals with local authorities across the country.

The Improvement and assurance framework for local government helps local authorities understand how the different elements of assurance and accountability fit together, and signposts to related guidance and support.

It applies to unitary, county, district and borough local authorities in England, as well as authorities with all types of governance systems. While combined authorities have specific assurance requirements set out in the English devolution accountability framework, the principles in this framework also apply to them.

The framework signposts local authorities to the CIPFA/SOLACE guidance on delivering good governance in local government, which explains how to review governance arrangements and prepare an annual governance statement.

Support for internal auditors includes:

• LGA publications:
  • Ten questions for audit committees to ask
  • Must know guide: Working with auditors
  • Audit committee leadership essentials for audit committee chairs.
• Regional audit forums for audit committee chairs, offering training, good practice sharing and discussion of common issues.
• Guidance from the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny on the roles of audit and scrutiny committees.
• Professional support from the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors.