Working with Officers and Partners

This practical session focuses on helping councillors build effective working relationships with officers and partner organisations. It explores how trust is built and maintained, remaining professional whilst debating policies with passion. Councillors are responsible for their places/communities but often without the authority to make the changes, so influencing and effective relationships with partners are vital.

It covers:

• The respective roles of councillors and officers, and how they work together in practice 
• The importance of mutual respect, professional boundaries and valuing officer expertise 
• Working with different partners in the public, private and voluntary sector
• Building and maintaining trust through clear, accurate and timely communication 
• Importance of two-way communication
• Avoiding misunderstandings, assumptions and managing difficult conversations

 Agenda for a typical two hour online or in person workshop:

• Welcome and framing
• The role of the councillor, the role of an officer and where they overlap
• Responsibilities and professionalism - above and beyond Nolan Principles
• Partners you will need to influence if want to achieve for your residents
• What is trust and how do you achieve it - what you can do to avoid breaking or regaining trust
• Personalised exercise on trust building
• Two-way communication - how to challenge constructively
• Having those difficult, honest conversations that cement a trusted professional relationship

There is also a workbook available, that allows attendees to develop a personal plan of action for building trust with key officers and/or partners.

This workshop can be delivered online, in person or hybrid. It is typically 2 hours in length.

It can be separated out to create two different but related workshops "working with officers" and "working with partners", to allow focus on these distinct groups.

It works best if the officer/councillor relationship are already good or new, so that it builds on what is already in place. If there are problems with the relationships then it can be tailored, but this would require detailed discussions beforehand. The exercises can be altered to suit the council and the current situation.

Delivered by Liz Green, an experienced councillor, former council leader and facilitator with over 20 years in local government, and worked cross party at the LGA as a board chair and peer member,

This is aimed at all councillors. 

The workshop can delivered to the whole council or in group settings (to focus on the information sharing differences between administration and opposition councillors).

 The cost varies depending delivery such as online, in person or hybrid and level of adaptation required. We always offer value for money as we know council's have tight budgets. 

There are many variations of this workshop available, but as an indication a 2 hour in person workshop would cost around £900, but please contact us for an accurate quote.

"Liz combines expertise with an engaging style that makes her training sessions  practical and enjoyable."

General workshop feedback

" I like the relaxed but formal approach of the speakers. each section wasn't too long, so you didn't lose interest, I liked the interactive QR code polls as that broke up the session"

Online workshop webinar

"Liz brings 20 years of being a councillor, from backbencher to leader, and it is that experience that makes her training sessions so valuable."

Political group session

In the book, the mystery begins with the death of a dog, but it is solved by paying attention to what is missing as much as what is in front of you. Trust is shaped in the same way, often influenced as much by what is not said as by what is. 

In local government, working with officers relies on confidence in professional advice, but also on a shared understanding of goals and mutual respect of roles. Effective working with partners is essential to achieve the results you want, but there is no direct authority. When that understanding is incomplete, or assumptions go untested, gaps begin to form. 

● Information is a two-way exchange — it needs to be both given and received accurately and with respect
● Assumptions fill the space where clarity is missing and small gaps can quickly become wider misunderstandings

Once trust is undermined, it is difficult to rebuild, so rather than navigating uncertainty alone, members need to be able to question, test and talk things through with officers, whilst respecting their role and impartiality.