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This workshop looked at the different roles of being a councillor, particularly in what can councillors should or could be doing in response to massive challenges to spending and budget discussions.

The workshop split into four groups. They were given a list of different roles councillors can undertake - every from helping people to scrutinising the council. We asked them to come up with three that best describe what a councillor should do.

The report 21st Century Councillor has published this week along with TweetyHall, Local Government Information Unit (LGIU) and Local Government Chronicle (LGC) looking at the lessons from the recent elections about the use of social media by politicians, parties and citizen activism.

The report features casestudies from Cllr Dean Russell (St Albans), Cllr Antonia Bance (Oxford City) and Cllr Mark Gracey (Purbeck).

Read the blog post on TweetyHall or download the report.

This was the angst plea from Cllr David Clifford of Rushmoor BC while he awaited the results of his Post Graduate Certificate in Local Governance for Councillors. David, along with his fellow councillor-students, was among the first to graduate from this programme last year at London South Bank University. For David, the anxiety was worth it! He reflected "This course has taught me more in the last twelve months than I could ever have imagined about local governance and my role as an elected member of a local authority. There is no question in mind that I am a better community advocate as a result." David has gone on to study for a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) at LSBU so he is getting used to the anxious wait for results!

The programme was hailed as a huge success by other participants too, receiving such comments such as "I can honestly say" confessed Cllr Ruth O'Keeffe of East Sussex County Council, "I have never been on a course that held my attention in the way the Postgraduate Certificate course has done. It has been consistently interesting and has informed my practice as a councillor in a way I did not think an 'academic' course would be likely to".

The healthcheck result for the East Midlands was presented to members and officers from their regional network on 30th June 2010. We discussed both the results of the Induction healthcheck, and a presentation from Judi Billing on the work the 21st Century Programme has done with Leicestershire County Council.

Since we last looked at results for the East of England various 'movers and shakers' in the top ten have gone up and down, but Waveny DC still tops the region. The results were presented to the E of E Member Development Network in Cambridge, June 24th 2010:

The results from the North East were presented to the Member Development Network in Gateshead, June 15th 2010. Watch the slideshow to find out which three authorities 'scored' the highest from those who filled it out:

The top ten results from West Midlands are presented here, along with some interesting data on what are the ten most, and least, common items on an induction programme.

The results were presented to WM Member Development Officer & Member Network in Birmingham, May 27th 2010.

The top ten results from Yorkshire and the Humber are presented here, along with some interesting data on what are the ten most, and least, common items on an induction programme.

The results were presented to Y&H Member Development Officer Network in Wakefield, May 18th 2010.

The results also include our first council who scored 100%! watch the slideshow to find out which one:

For the last year we have been running an online tool which gives local authorities and councillors an idea of how their council is 'rated' in terms of member induction. We are half way through providing individual breakdowns for each region - but as we are one week to go before elections nationally and locally, we wanted to publish the results so far for each of the individual question as a helpful guide to officers reviewing their plans.

The report also features a casestudy from Leicestershire County Council, who has been working with 21st Century Councillor since last year on their member induction programme.

You can download the document here.

The results of the member induction health check for the north west today showed Blackpool tops the list of local authorities investing in their member development strategies.

Over 230 responses have been collected, with results still to come for the East and West Midlands, North East, South West and Yorkshire and the Humber.

The presentation today was to member development officers from authorities in the North West, hosted by North West Employers.

The 'Social Media Guide for Councillors' is launched today as a joint publication edited and put together by the IDeA's social media expert, Ingrid Koehler and turned into an online resource for local government by the 21st Century Councillor team. This follows on from the successful 'TweetyHall' (which tracks the tweets from local councillors) launched last year by the Leadership Centre for Local Government in partnership with FutureGov

The guide is aimed at councillors who are already some way to understanding the potential of using the web - and want to take it to the next step in terms of using all the free tools and resources that are now online.

"Good communication with residents is the bread and butter of most councillor's day to day interactions," says Ingrid, "and we are certainly not suggesting that social media is a substitute for good old fashioned knocking on doors, or leaflets that tell residents what is going on in the council or in their local area.

"But many councillors realise that by using social media they are able to target new audiences and 'listen in' and indeed contribute to conversations happening outside the formal political sphere"

The site features casestudies from local councillors, top tips, top myths, helpful links to online video guides and much more - all at the guide to using social media