Sector support offer for local authorities 2026/27

The Local Government Association (LGA) provides practical support to councils and combined authorities, and individual councillors and officers across England through its Sector Support Offer, which delivers unrivalled value for money.

This page sets out the Sector Support Offer available to councils and combined authorities in England for 2026/27. This includes our Sector Support Programme, funded by UK Government, providing a range of tools and support to support corporate performance and improvement, including:

1. peer challenge and peer support
2. LGA principal advisers and regional support
3. governance and assurance
4. finance
5. research and data
6. attracting new talent (councillors and officers)
7. councillor development
8. officer development
9. transformation learning and skills
10. workforce and HR support.

This programme provides local and combined authorities in England with vital tools and support to deliver critical services to communities, while helping to drive change and improvement across all regions.

The Sector Support Offer* also includes a range of service-specific support and wider specialist offers, including Partners in Care and Health (adult social care), public health peer reviews, children’s services, cyber, digital and technology, One Public Estate (OPE), Council Housebuilding Support Service (CHoSS), planning (PAS and Pathways to Planning), Joint Inspection Team (JIT), procurement and sustainability, communications improvement support, strategic highways peer review, community cohesion, local resilience programme, which are all funded by UK Government departments (in whole or in part), and culture and sport. Further detail on each of these areas is set out below.

To find out more about any aspects of this support, please contact the principal adviser for your region. Councillors may wish to contact that their relevant political group. 

_{* Please note: In some instances, conversations regarding future funding arrangements are ongoing.}

Corporate Peer Challenges (CPCs) provide an important and valued improvement and assurance tool, with 100 per cent of councils in 2025/6 saying that the process of preparing for and participating in a CPC has had a positive impact on the council.

Our CPC programme, informed by the assurance and support framework, provides robust and credible challenge, with a stronger focus on performance, governance and culture to reflect the current challenges to the sector. This offer is informed by UK Government Best Value standards, which set out that all councils should have a CPC every five years.

All peer challenges are delivered by accredited councillor and officer peers and supported by our experienced regional support teams.

To find our more, please visit Corporate Peer Challenge or contact your principal adviser or regional teams contact.

Our principal advisers and regional teams lead our relationships with local and combined authorities and provide a gateway to our support, informed by regional perspective and significant expertise.

This offer also includes bespoke support for local and combined authorities facing significant challenges, including challenges related to finance, performance and/or in statutory and non-statutory intervention; and to respond to changes in political leadership or control, to aid smooth political transitions and ensure members and officers have access to the help they need to deliver effectively in their roles. In both cases, support is provided by our regional support teams and expert member and officer peers, with direct experience of these scenarios.

This year’s elections offer has been enhanced in preparation for the large number of authorities having elections this year, alongside preparations for shadow elections in areas impacted by local government reorganisation (LGR). 

Our changes in political leadership hub, which links to the complete range of post-election tools and support available to local and combined authorities or contact your principal adviser or regional teams contact to find out more.

We offer a range of training, development opportunities and tools for councillors and officers to support skills and knowledge in good governance and assurance. 

In partnership with the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny (CfGS), further support is provided to support good governance and effective overview and scrutiny functions.

The LGA's financial resilience programme supports to local and combined authorities to build skills and identify issues to promote good financial management and respond to financial challenges and opportunities as they arise. This offer is supported by our Finance Improvement & Sustainability Advisers (FISAs) and regional support teams.

LG Inform, our award-winning data benchmarking platform, uniquely integrates thousands of data items about a council into a single system for benchmarking. It is available free for all local authorities and allows local authorities and residents to compare their council’s performance against other authorities, including Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) 'nearest neighbours'.

The data in LG Inform is regularly updated and supports informed decision-making, providing comparative data and themed data reports in response to live issues and relevant to a wide range of service areas, including planning, children’s and adults’ services. It now features a new report capturing all available metrics for the Local Outcomes Framework.

We provide voluntary benchmarking clubs to compare data not otherwise collected in a comparable way – including information on workforce capacity, which is undertaken jointly with the National Association of Regional Employers (NARE), and made available within LG Inform. Training sessions are also available to support officers and councillors on how to use LG Inform and build personalised reports.

Further tools and opportunities are available to support local authorities to develop an evidence-based culture to enable well-informed decisions and improve performance management, service design, accountability and transparency.

The Sector Support Programme provides tools and support to attract talent and develop greater skills and capability to deliver impact and change. Programmes reflect and respond to the strategic issues facing local government – supporting councillors and officers to build the knowledge and experience needed to deliver the outcomes that communities deserve.

The LGA offers wide ranging development opportunities available for all councillors. Whether new in post, or experienced and looking to develop critical leadership skills, this extensive and established programme offers comprehensive development opportunities for all councillors to deliver better outcomes for communities. Course content for councillor leadership programmes below has been reviewed in light of devolution and LGR. 

Delivered with specialist partners, officer leadership programmes are tailored to ensure officers have the skills, knowledge and resilience needed to deliver positive change for the sector. Course content for all officer leadership programmes below has been reviewed in light of devolution and LGR.

Councillors and officer leadership support

We also offer leadership support jointly available to councillors and officers.

Effective transformation planning and delivery is essential to deliver future organisational resilience and better outcomes for communities.

Further information is at the LGA transformation hub.

Our comprehensive workforce programmes recognise and respond to complex issues facing the local government workforce, including recruitment and retention challenges. This year’s offer will also provide enhanced guidance and support to help councils and combined authorities incoming employment law reforms and HR issues.

To find out more, contact [email protected]

The Workforce programme also involves ongoing leadership of national collective bargaining arrangements for all bargaining units relating to local authorities. This role involves provision of tools and resources to support effective industrial relations and pay benchmarking support to local authorities, delivered through the LGA’s role as the secretariat and officer function for National Employers. 

The following programmes relate service specific and specialist areas delivered as part the wider Sector Support Offer.

• Local Government Reorganisation and Devolution
• Partners in Care and Health 
• Public Health
• children’s services improvement programme
• cyber, digital and technology
• One Public Estate
• planning (including PAS)
• joint inspection team
• Impact: Finance Stream
• communications improvement programme
• culture and sport
• strategic highways
• community cohesion
• local resilience programme.

Local Government Reorganisation and Devolution

The LGA provides a range of tools and support to help councils and strategic authorities a range of support to help navigate changes relating to the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act.  

Our devolution and LGR offer is set out in detail on the LGA’s Devolution and Reorganisation Hub. It includes:  

• LGR and devolution webinars and events  
• LGR networks – spanning delivery, communications, HR and councillor network Webinars and events  
• our LGR toolkit, setting out resources from across the sector to help those going through LGR.  
• a range of bespoke offers, including support from LGA regional teams.

To find our more, please contact your principal adviser or regional teams.

Partners in Care and Health

As Partners in Care and Health, the LGA and ADASS, funded by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), deliver wide ranging tools and support local authorities to improve the way they deliver adult social care and public health services to deliver better outcomes for residents.

In 2026/27, the offer includes:

• universal guidance, events, and tools and resources to support councils in their own improvements, managing the three strategic shifts and identifying where necessary where targeted support is required
• targeted support to those councils identified as needing assistance to address challenges in service delivery, resource capacity and managing the three strategic health shifts
• intensive support, through tailored improvement support to those councils identified as ‘Requires Improvement’ or ‘Inadequate’, as a result of CQC Assessment.

Support will cover a range of themes across the following areas:

• working with people
  • learning disabilities and autism
  • professional practice
  • unpaid carers
  • mental health
  • safeguarding
  • co-production
• providing support
  • workforce support
  • commissioning & market management
• strategic leadership
  • supporting elected members
  • finance & resources
  • digital transformation

To find out more, contact [email protected].

Public health

A new programme of public health peer reviews and improvement support will be delivered from 2026 and over the next three years. This programme, funded by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), will be developed in partnership with public health responsibilities and Directors of Public Health, to ensure it can best support their improvement ambitions.

This offer includes:

• public health peer reviews and improvement planning
• universal support, available to all council
• targeted and call-off support, based on priority sector or specific council need.

To find out more, contact [email protected] or [email protected].

Children’s Services Improvement programme

We offer councils a wide range of Children’s Services Improvement support, delivered through Department for Education (DfE) funded programmes designed to facilitate and enable improvement in children’s services.

In 2026/27, our offer includes:

• universal support, including training and development delivered at a national, regional or council level; alongside the facilitation of regional networks for councillors and officers; and the development of tools, guides and case studies.
• targeted support, including access to children’s improvement advisors with extensive experience as directors of children’s services and chief executives to provide direct support and challenge to councils. This support also includes the delivery of peer challenges, diagnostics and bespoke support using our pool of over 400 children’s services peer experts.
• intensive support, peer mentoring and support, using experienced councillors and officers, to support those new in role of experiencing specific challenges.
• support for the early years sector, with a focus on speech, language and communication. This support also involves peer challenge, targeted support, development of tools and resources, sharing of practice and delivering learning and training events.
• national centre for family hubs, providing support and challenge, developing resources, delivering learning and development, sharing best practice.

To find out more, contact your LGA principal adviser or children’s improvement adviser.

Cyber, digital and technology

Our cyber, digital and technology support offer, funded by Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), provides support to strengthen digital resilience, share knowledge, and help councils navigate digital, cyber, AI and LGR DDaT considerations.

In 2026/27, our offer includes:

• general digital, data and technology support, providing evidenced cyber, digital and AI capability products to equip officers at all levels, and elected members, with the skills, confidence and awareness to apply good digital practice in their roles
• local government reorganisation (LGR) support, providing focused digital, data, cyber and technology support to councils undergoing reorganisation, including resources aligned to the MHCLG LGR playbook and insights drawn from councils with lived LGR experience
• LGR learning and engagement, including workshops, teach‑ins and webinars to support councils preparing for, or progressing through, reorganisation and to share lessons learned across the sector
• research, insight and data analysis, identifying councils’ digital and cyber readiness, risks and priorities to shape targeted support and inform government understanding of sector needs
• incident response and recovery support, providing strategic cyber support to councils affected by incidents, helping to minimise disruption to services and support recovery and learning
• cyber resilience activity, including cyber and LGR 360 exercises, incident response and business continuity activity, with insights shared to inform sector resilience and government priorities
• AI capability and responsible adoption, supporting the safe, ethical and responsible development, use and scaling of AI in local government through guidance, resources and practical learning opportunities
• AI foundations and evidence building, helping councils understand the benefits, risks and trade‑offs of AI through shared insight, peer learning and evaluation to inform informed decision‑making
• support for staff and elected members, providing practical information, advice and guidance, including templates, tools and learning resources across cyber, digital, data, AI and LGR
• networks and communities of practice, facilitating collaboration and peer‑to‑peer learning across cyber, digital, data, AI and local government reorganisation, and sharing emerging themes with MHCLG and DSIT
• policy insight and sector voice, representing local government perspectives on digital, cyber, data and AI policy development, and strengthening engagement with government and technology partners.

To find out more, contact [email protected].

One Public Estate

Our award-winning One Public Estate programme, delivered in partnership by the Local Government Association, Office of Government Property (OGP) within the Cabinet Office and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), supports locally-led partnerships of public sector bodies to kickstart regeneration and transform public service delivery. Our improvement programme supports local One Public Estate partnerships, led by councils and involving NHS, blue lights and government departments, to develop programmes of joint property projects.

In addition, One Public Estate utilises these OPE partnerships across councils to promote and deliver the Brownfield Land Release Funds (BLRF) on behalf of MHCLG, to date remediating unviable council land for 14,000 homes.

In 2026/27, our offer includes:

• providing continued practical and technical support to local OPE partnerships to facilitate joint working, data sharing, project development and project delivery on public land
• a further round of BLRF3 funding, as announced by government on 31 March, 2026
• providing advice and assistance to councils to develop investment cases and a pipeline of projects, where there is potential for housing to be unlocked on unviable brownfield council land, in anticipation of future rounds of BLRF
• providing advice and assistance to councils to access the Prisoners Building Homes programme, encompassing tools, advice, and grant funding to help councils utilise modular homes on small council-owned sites
• the OPE programme provides all councils with access to a regional team to support OPE and BLRF activity, and to various One Public Estate peer network events.

To find out more, contact your regional OPE programme manager or [email protected]. 

Planning (including PAS)

Our Planning Advisory Service, funded by Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), offers a range of services to councils and local planning authorities, helping them understand and respond to the Government’s reforms to the planning system. This includes holding events that range from general overviews through deep dives to specific workshops and 1:1 support.

In 2026/27, our offer includes:

• mainstreaming Biodiversity Net Gain into plans and planning decisions
• improving the use of design practice in local guidelines
• helping councils introduce nutrient offsetting mitigation schemes
• testing and piloting new approaches to local plan-making processes and advising and supporting councils trying to adopt local plans before the December 2026 deadline
• improving the way councils manage and fund local infrastructure through developer contributions
• piloting a new system of funding for councils involved with Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects
• support to councils at risk of failing performance standards for the speed and quality of planning decisions
• supporting the introduction of new approaches to running planning committees
• designing and delivering various capacity and skill building events and courses
• exploring and testing a new model of strategic planning
• reflecting and sharing learning from large sites and the ATLAS programme
• supporting the digital planning community and deliver GIS training packages.

Our specialist graduate programme, Pathways to Planning, is also among our core planning offers. The programme finds, trains and funds graduate planners and surveyors in the public sector.

Alongside this list of grant-funded work, we will continue to offer planning-specific packages of training and peer work, whilst acting as a convenor and route for feedback to Government, helping them understand the needs of councils.

To find out more, contact [email protected].

Joint inspection team (JIT)

The Joint Inspection Team (JIT) are a multidisciplinary team that assess fire hazards and provide specialist fire safety advice to local authorities. Funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), the JIT are invited by local authorities and inspect blocks using the Housing Act 2004 and associated powers of the local authority.

In 2026/27, our offer includes:

• helping local authorities to make safe private sector residential blocks with fire safety defects in their areas
• inspecting blocks across England (up to 2 days per block), to assess and advise councils on appropriate enforcement
• helping with disputes where landlords refuse to make safe their blocks, including attending court as witnesses as required
• helping local and combined authorities adapt to the changing fire safety regulatory framework, including remediation orders, the new Building Safety Regulator (BSR) framework
• training local authorities on how to use the Housing Act 2004 to enforce on landlords slow to remediate. The training offer includes:
  • in person training courses in different regions at a level 1 and level 2
  • online training offer of videos and case studies.
• ‘parachuting in’ service to support council staff by providing training on how to identify blocks that need works; how to prioritise blocks for inspection; how to run a site inspection; and how to progress through various stages of enforcement.

To find out more, contact [email protected].

Impact: Finance Stream

Our specialist Finance Pathway of the Impact Graduate programme is designed to recruit and train participants in different areas of finance to support the development of the skills and experience required for a successful career in public finance.

This includes:

• rotational placements across key finance areas, including budgeting, pensions, treasury and internal audit
• study towards the CIPFA Level 7 qualification, including the Professional Accountancy Qualification (PAQ), leading to Chartered Public Finance Accountant (CPFA) status
• leadership development opportunities alongside technical training
• access to the wider Impact networks, events and professional development support.

To find out more, contact [email protected].

Communications improvement programme

The Communications Improvement programme offers a wide range of support for member councils. This includes proactive support such as networks, events, resources, training and strategy development as well as reactive support like crisis communications and other ad-hoc assistance.

The cornerstone of the offer is one-day communications health checks and three-day communications reviews. These are led by experienced officer and member peers, who visit councils in-person to support them to better communicate and engage with their residents. 
 

In 2026/27, our offer will include:

• peer support, including one-day communications health check, and three-day communications review
• strategic support and strategy development
• workshops, events (mixture of commercial and free) and networks (Local Government Communications Leaders’ Network, LGR Communications Network, Devolution Communications Network)
• organisational and place narrative support
• communicating in a political environment support
• media training including social media
• online resources (Comms Hub resources such as toolkits on: LGR, AI, SEND, public affairs and disinformation)
• crisis comms support
• CommsNet bulletin for council comms teams to showcase work from the LGA, as well as tips, case studies, health updates and news for council comms teams across the country.

Further information of our support can be found on our communications support offer page and CommsHub.

To find out more, contact [email protected].

Culture and sport

Our culture and sport improvement team offer a range of improvement programmes to help councils encourage local residents to take advantage of the opportunities for culture, physical activity and sport. This includes our sport and physical activity councillor improvement programme, funded by Sport England, which provides tools and resources to help councillors and officers understand and advocate for physical activity and break down barriers to participation - for example, Leadership Essentials courses, podcasts and webinars.

This year, Sport England are also funding our Leading the Movement: place-based leadership programme, which develop systemic leadership skills and capability at a local level. This programme aims to support collaborative working between partners to co-design targeted and sustainable solutions to health inequalities, increase community engagement and improve quality of life outcomes for people of all ages. In 2026/27, this offer includes:

• a range of officer leadership programmes
• recruitment and development of facilitators, including increased recruitment from under-represented backgrounds.

We also deliver cultural services improvement programmes, funded by Arts Council England, which highlight the role of culture and library services in helping councils to engage, and support, communities to achieve sustainable social outcomes and supports councillors and officers to champion cultural activity in their local areas.

In 2026/27, this offer includes:

• leadership sessions across a range of cross-cutting themes, including economic growth, health and wellbeing and local government reorganisation, including a senior officer leadership programme and a new lead library officers programme
• continued delivery of culture and library peer challenges, with an expended scope for devolution and reorganisation-related good practices.

To find out more, contact your LGA principal adviser or regional team.

Strategic Highways

Funded by the Department of Transport (DfT), Strategic Highways peer challenges are a new addition to our peer challenge offer providing support to Local Highway Authorities rated red by the Department for Transport, to aid their improvement; strengthen leadership and delivery; and support good practice.

In 2026/27 this offer includes:

• provision of support to strengthen strategic alignment, service delivery and operational leadership and effectiveness of the highway’s maintenance service through:
  • provision of councillor and officer sector expert peers
  • identification of best practice approaches
  • identification of areas where performance, efficiency and strategic planning could be enhanced.

To find out more, contact your LGA principal adviser or regional team.

Community Cohesion

Funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), our Community Cohesion offer provides support to councils to strengthen their capability and capacity to address community cohesion challenges.

In 2026/27 this offer includes:

• networks and events (both an officer and member Special Interest Groups on Countering Emerging threats - SIGCE) to publish advice, share best practice and provide peer-to-peer support
• bespoke support delivered through the SIGCE, covering topics including tensions monitoring, mis/dis and mal-information, cohesion awareness and incident reporting
• new support delivered through the Stronger Cities Network, focusing on the development of a toolkit and a series of workshops showcasing effective international approaches to building cohesive communities
• support delivered in partnership with Belong, including the development of guidance on community tensions monitoring and disinformation, and frontline staff cohesion training.

To find out more, contact your LGA principal adviser or regional team.

Local Resilience programme

Our new Local Resilience programme, funded by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), provides resilience and crisis management learning and development training to local government officers. This includes in-person training to council chief executives and online training to other council staff.

In 2026/27, this offer includes:

• a bespoke learning and development programme for chief executives, delivered in partnership with Solace and the UK Resilience Academy, including in-person training
• e-learning training package for all local government officers through our new Resilience Unpacked series, providing foundational understanding of key concepts and processes that underpin local government resilience and emergency planning
• the development of tools and resources to support local government chief executives and leaders/mayors.

To find out more, contact [email protected] or [email protected].