LGA Support for Disabled Councillors

The LGA's highly effective coaching programme offers disabled councillors one-to-one coaching sessions to support them to be brilliant leaders of their communities. The coaching focusses on personal leadership development and is open to councillors from any political party, including independents. 

The coaching provides a safe space for councillors on a one-to-one basis to examine, explore and reflect on their own leadership style and how they bring it to bear on the challenges they are facing in their role, strengthen personal resilience and embed those behaviours that will support them to confidently navigate the complexity of their local and political environment.  

Each councillor has an initial ‘chemistry meeting’, where they will get to know their coach and set their personal leadership goals. This is then followed by 3 x 1-hour coaching sessions via Microsoft Teams or Zoom, where their coach will support them in achieving these goals.  

The LGA's leadership programme for disabled councillors, shaped in partnership with the leading charity Disability Rights UK, has been co-produced with disabled people and councillors, ensuring it responds to the specific needs of disabled leaders. The carefully chosen topics and activities will take disabled councillors through a six-month journey of personal development and will accelerate and develop their leadership skills so they can become resilient and confident local leaders. 

The LGA's Be a Councillor campaign inspires people who are passionate about their communities to stand for election and become local leaders. As part of this, the LGA have developed a bespoke national campaign to encourage disabled people to find out more about becoming a councillor.   

To support disabled people considering standing for election, they have published a new guide, Improving access to local government elected office for disabled people, which includes a practical checklist for councils and political groups. The guide aims to increase awareness, accessibility and inclusion at every stage of becoming a councillor.