Leading from the front bench
Cabinet and Portfolio Leadership.
A day for councillors moving into cabinet: leading a portfolio, reading the budget and its warning signs, handling the politics and managing the risks of deciding in public.
- Level
- Immerse
- Learning time
- 10 hours
- Where
- Serving the public
- Price
- £249
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, portfolio holders and councillors preparing for executive roles
Overview
This one-day programme is organised in four movements. First comes the role: group life, the whip and its limits, and the move into cabinet, where a portfolio is a promise and the principle is to decide the what and trust officers with the how. Second, the money: the scheme of delegation and call-in, revenue and capital, the balanced budget duty, what a section 114 notice means, and the cases of Woking, Somerset and Northamptonshire. Third, the politics: coalition building rather than toxic politics, the pre-election period, your campaigning and governing voices, and political communication and acumen, tested against Birmingham's bin strike and the Isle of Wight's cross-party budget. Finally, the risks: setting an appetite you can actually manage by, with Wells Fargo as a warning of drift.
Aims
This programme aims to develop cabinet members and portfolio holders who lead their area with confidence: clear on the line between political and managerial leadership, able to read a budget and its warning signs, ready to take lawful decisions in public with a proper record, and wise about when and how to speak.
In summary, you will be able to:
- Explain the portfolio holder's role, the scheme of delegation and the balanced budget duty, and how members and officers share leadership of the council.
- Assess a council budget and its financial resilience using plain questions, the statutory officers' advice and the lessons of Woking, Somerset and Northamptonshire.
- Plan coalitions, public communication and a risk appetite that let you decide in public with confidence, a proper record and a clear governing voice.
What you'll develop
By the end of this Immerse, you will be able to:
- Distinguish political from managerial leadership, applying the principle of deciding the what and trusting officers with the how across the five portfolio threads.
- Apply the distinction between predisposition and predetermination to the decisions you take, especially in planning, licensing and other quasi-judicial work.
- Assess a council's financial resilience using the Fair Funding Review 2.0, system pressures and the lessons from Woking.
- Apply five plain questions to any financial paper, testing income security, true cost, risk, cash timing and assumptions with professional scepticism rather than cynicism.
- Plan pre-meetings, specific asks and cross silo alliances that build a coalition before a decision is formally made.
- 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.
- Apply message discipline and practical principles, such as holding an agreed line and escalating rather than improvising, when communicating under political pressure.
- Assess whether a risk appetite statement is quantified, qualitative where needed, linked to strategy and set by category.
Built from 7 parts.
10 hours 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
- 04Did we live within our means?The language of finance and the income statementBitesize · Finance for Non Finance Professionals3 modules
- 05Alliances and corridorsCoalition building and office politicsBitesize · Influence, Persuasion and Negotiation2 modules
- 06Reading the room politicallyPolitical communications and political acumenBitesize · Working in a Political Environment2 modules
- 07How much risk is enough?Risk assessment and board risk appetiteBitesize · Strategic Risk2 modules