Improving educational content for 2022 Council Elections
The Election Education Program was implemented in three stages with key outputs for each stage:
Stage 1: Pre-election Program Training for key staff in supporting preparations for the transition of councils and election processes.
Stage 2: Candidate Program Redesigned content for candidates, including a series of candidate information sessions delivered across the state by the LGA + delivery of collateral for Councils to run their own candidate sessions.
Stage 3: Elected Member Program - a new program for inducting Elected Members post Council Election.
Councils are thought leaders and ready for the future
This project has achieved a significant change in introducing a new LGA Training Standard for Council Members that reflects the new legislative responsibilities and reinforces the leadership expectations for council members.
| Project Outcomes | How well has the project achieved this project outcome? |
|---|---|
Improved Election Educational Content | A continuous improvement approach has been applied based on the key recommendations from the 2018 Election. The content included:
|
A new contemporary and compliant LGA Training Standard | This project has supported the development of a contemporary LGA Training Standard for Council Members, introducing a leadership competency framework (Themes: Behaviour, Civic, Legal and Strategy and Finance).
|
Updated key LGA educational materials and collateral | This was completed in time in readiness for the post-election training delivery, however there were constraints given the new Standard was not released until 5 October 2022. |
Strong engagement in 2022 Elections | Candidate engagement was slightly above 2018 results. |
Improved Elected Member Leadership performance | The new Standard has resulted in an improvement in council member performance. There will be multiple factors that will contribute to performance, not just the training. For example, council members willingness to learn, level of councils investment in quality training and the leadership culture and effectiveness of Mayor/council and CEO/staff working relationships. |
Please describe how the benefits of the project will be sustained beyond the life of the project.
Section 80A of the Local Government Act 1999 (the Local Government Act) and Regulation 8AA of the Local Government (General) Regulations 2013 (the General Regulations), sets out the legal requirements for training and development for council members. The LGA will continue to work with councils to ensure that they comply with the Local Government Act.
How has the project milestones and/or outcomes been shared with SA councils, regional LGAs and/or the broader local government sector?
The candidate information session pack, train the trainer program and was shared with the sectors 68 nominated Council election contacts. Over 80 participants engaged in the train the trainer program for delivering candidate sessions (mix representation of CEOs, Governance/HR/Comms staff).The development and engagement of the revised LGA Training Standard for Council Members has been shared with all 68 Councils through a nine week consultation process and all Councils invited to a embargoed launch of revised LGA Training Standard for Council Members, in attendance with the Minister for Local Government. Several communiques were sent to key sector via Latest News, Council nominated election contacts and LGA Training.
Funds Management
A majority of the objectives and actions of this project was delivered within LGA staff capacity and capability and $67, 000 were returned back to the Scheme.
