Like many others, last Friday was spent glued to the BBC’s election coverage to the complete abandonment of all other productive activity. The number of Labour councillors newly elected on 5 May now stands at around 866 and, like most, I think we did well (Scotland aside), but clearly there is still a long way to go to regain the electorate’s trust. But this isn’t a piece about whether or not these were good results for Labour – plenty has been written about that elsewhere. 

Over the weekend, new pictures started appearing on council websites – most notably

Liverpool, where the mug shots of 11 new Labour councillors successfully managed to combine a post election look of excitement and exuberance, combined with generally looking a bit shell shocked and exhausted after months on the campaign trail. As the numbers of new councillors continued to climb steadily upwards, I was taken back to this time last year, when we were welcoming 14 councillors into our group of 50 on Hackney council. I’m sure some of those 866 have stood and won before, but what lies in store for the first time Labour councillors and what can they expect over the next six months? 

Once you’ve been elected as a councillor, life is never quite the same again and you’re thrown into a world of juggling competing ward, council and political commitments and long nights of meetings – for many, on top of day jobs. The first six months can seem baffling and overwhelming, as you learn to navigate yourself round the bureaucracy of your council in order to get things done on behalf of residents. There’s no set way of being a councillor and while there are lengthy lists of expectations and suggestions for the role, what happens in between is very much down to the individual. 

However, the chances are that whatever problem you come up against, someone has experienced it before, so our first piece of advice in Hackney was to ask for help from colleagues. We had a mentor scheme where longer standing councillors were paired with new councillors and, while this didn’t work perfectly in every case, it was aimed at reassuring new councillors that there was someone they could turn to, however trivial the issue might seem to be. 

Most local authorities now have well developed member induction and training sessions. In Hackney, this consisted of quite a few death-by-PowerPoint sessions on the key responsibilities of each department, but these were an opportunity to find out how the council operates and meet senior officers – invaluable in the early weeks. Council officers also experimented with creative approaches such as a scrutiny bus tour of the borough. We organised an induction Q&A with the mayor alongside the corporate programme where new members were given an overview of the more political side of the role. Formal training needs to be offered on an ongoing basis – some will engage, others won’t – but the opportunity has to be there to continue to develop your skills and understanding of the role. The more practical the better – some of our more successful sessions were around problem solving for casework and social media training. There are also IDeA courses if you fancy whole weekends up in the Midlands with councillors from across political divides. 

One of the biggest risks for new councillors is feeling disempowered and disengaged from decision making, especially when part of a large group. Relatively simple things like away days, using scrutiny creatively to involve councillors in smaller reviews, and establishing good protocols with cabinet for sharing information on key issues can help. Sign up to updates from the LGA and LGIU– there are a raft of policy initiatives coming out of government at the moment that have an impact on local government and it’s a good way of keeping up to date. 

Another challenge facing all Labour councillors at the moment is the reality that in these times of massive reductions to council budgets, delivering on your pledges and local manifesto is not going to be easy. You will often be at the frontline in meetings with residents in having to explain the impact of the coalition government cuts in your local area. For many of us, this is not the reason we got involved in local politics and we have to fight hard to explain how Labour councillors are making decisions with the money that is available to us to help defend key local services and protect the most vulnerable in our communities. 

Being a Labour councillor is a hugely rewarding experience. So to those 866 new councillors – you won! Enjoy it. But ask for help from colleagues and request opportunities for training if your local authority isn’t providing them. In your ward work, remember always why you wanted to make a difference in your local community and the importance of continuing to be guided by resident voices in all you do. And for those of you worried about the nutritional impact of life as a councillor – stay off the council biscuits! 

Photo: d g