Supporting continuing professional development for councillors
We believe that at the heart of any council dedicated to meeting the needs of its community there will also be a commitment to the development of its Councillors. This core principle underpins the North West Member Development Charter.
We’ve been supporting councils across the North West in recognising and celebrating excellent practice since the charter was first introduced in 2001.
Using an established framework, councils undertake a self-assessment to review their good practice supporting and developing councillors to fulfil the vital role they play working with and supporting local communities; before a formal assessment process which is carried out by one of our team and a member of our Executive Board.
You can find out more about the approach and what’s involved below, within our brochure. If you’re not quite ready to work towards the award just yet, you can still use the framework that we have developed, to support your planning and future focus. Why not use the self-assessment framework with your Councillor Development Steering Group to help identify the areas you’d like to feed into a forward plan?
We’ve also developed a template for councillor development conversations that you can adapt; details of which can also be found below.