Holding a portfolio
Portfolio leadership, officer advice and council budgets.
Three and a half hours on holding a portfolio: the political group and chamber, portfolio leadership, decisions, budgets and officer advice, the councillor's public voice and council resources.
- Level
- Focus
- Learning time
- 3 hours 30 minutes
- Where
- Serving the public
- Price
- £69
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Read the full terms
Certificate of Completion, or Certificate of Completion and Assessment with a short assessment
Overview and Outcomes.
Who It's For
Cabinet members and portfolio holders, and councillors preparing for front bench roles
Overview
A portfolio holder answers for services they do not manage day to day. Part of Leading from the front bench, this course starts with the political group and the chamber, using a framework adapted from the Johari window and the limits of the whip. Portfolio leadership follows, with Hambrick and Mason's Upper Echelon Theory, the line between political and managerial leadership and the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021. It then covers decisions, budgets and the three statutory officers, and the councillor's public voice ahead of the May 2027 Welsh local elections. Its final part covers council resources and an applied case study of Somerset Council.
Aims
The ambition is to help portfolio holders set direction without stepping into management, weigh officer advice with confidence, speak publicly within the rules, and explain the budget, and the choices behind it, to the residents it serves, so that a portfolio becomes a promise kept.
In summary, you will be able to:
- Identify where the whip does not apply, and plan how to dissent well when loyalty and conscience collide.
- Apply the line between predisposition and predetermination, and the two question grid on when to speak, to your work as a portfolio holder.
- Assess your council's financial resilience using the duties of the section 151 officer and the lessons of Woking and Somerset Council.
What you'll develop
Through this Focus course, you will build the ability to:
- Describe what a political group does, and use the adapted Johari window to read what is visible and hidden in group behaviour.
- Explain why a council has two top teams with shared legitimacy, and how the cabinet team brings members and officers together at the strategic point.
- Outline how a scheme of delegation, the decision cycle, key decisions and call-in shape who decides what and how decisions are held to account.
- Use the two question grid to judge when to speak, when to amplify others, when to speak with care and when to stay out of an issue.
- Describe the main sources of council income and distinguish what revenue and capital budgets should pay for.
- Describe the five foundations of local government and explain how they connect as one system.
- Identify where the whip does not apply, and plan how you would dissent well when loyalty and conscience collide.
- Distinguish political from managerial leadership, applying the principle of deciding the what and trusting officers with the how across the five portfolio threads.
Built from 3 parts.
3 hours 30 minutes of learning.
- 01Group, chamber and cabinetThe political group, the chamber and portfolio leadershipBitesize · Being a Councillor2 modules
- 02Decisions in publicBudgets, officer advice, the media and the code of conductBitesize · Being a Councillor2 modules
- 03Where the money goesCouncil budgets, finance and service deliveryBitesize · Foundations of Local Government2 modules