Media training for councillors

Councillors operate in a unique media environment where political leadership, democratic accountability and public representation overlap. Media training for councillors is different from our corporate media training because elected members must balance personal political views with collective council decisions, while communicating clearly, authentically and responsibly to residents.

Mosaic's specialist local authority media training helps councillors prepare for radio, television and online interviews, handle difficult or politically sensitive questions and communicate policy decisions clearly. It'll also boost confidence with tips on delivery, so you'll know what to say and how to say it. In an age of instant news and social media, tailored media interview training makes sure elected members are prepared.

Yes, this course is tailored to the delegates and their experience, so it's suitable for those newly elected, those keen to develop their media skills and those who may be taking on a new role or responsibility. We know that following local elections, new members or those in new roles can quickly face media questions around budgets, planning decisions or community concerns. Our tips and techniques will give members the skills they need to prepare and deliver their message.

This Media Training for Councillors course includes "as real as it gets" radio and television interview practicals which will be based on your local authority scenarios. As all our trainers are former BBC journalists and communications professionals, delegates will get to practice their new skills under the pressure and pace of real media situations.

Our trainers will guide the group through preparing their key messages, dealing with challenging questions and thinking on their feet. These practicals mean that councillors don't just understand the theory, but also get to experience what it feels like to be interviewed and learn from it.

Yes, every Media Training for Councillors programme is fully tailored to your local authority. Before the course we'll work with you to understand your priorities and we'll research your area to make sure every element of the training is relevant and applicable. This is particularly important in the interview scenarios which we'll ensure reflect real policy areas, sensitive issues or upcoming announcements relevant to your authority.

This tailored approach ensures councillors practise responding to the types of questions they are genuinely likely to face. It makes the training directly relevant, politically aware and can be used straight away.

We don’t do open courses for individuals. Sorry about that.

We specialise in tailored training that’s created to exactly meet your needs, so our courses will be made uniquely for you and/or your organisation.

If you’re interested in a one to one tailored session or a group course for your organisation, do get in touch!

Our courses are all tailored specifically to you and your organisation’s needs. So usually our training is delivered at your place. We’ll be pleased to come to you, wherever you are.

If you prefer to book a hotel, meeting room or other accommodation that’s fine too.

If it’s hard for you to get everyone in one place we can also do your training online using either Zoom or Teams.

Our pricing depends entirely on your needs – we don’t do “one size fits all”!

Our course development includes working with you to understand your current levels of skills and experience, what you want to achieve from the training and how we can get you there.

We’ll also want to find out how many people you want trained and where you’d like the course delivered.

Once we know all that we can price your course which means you won’t pay for anything you don’t need.

As a guide, most of our full day courses start at £1995+VAT for up to four people, so that’s less than £500+VAT a head.

But speak to us and we’ll make sure we’re within your budget.

Absolutely! And we don’t just think so – our clients keep coming back, which tells us we’re giving them real value. We’re really proud that 40% of our work is with returning clients, so we must be getting it right.

Because we specialise in tailored training, everything we do for you is aligned to your outcomes. We know you don’t want to spend time or money on training that’s not directly going to help your business or organisation.

Apart from our one to one training, our fees are always for group sessions, so the most efficient cost per head is to fill all those places. It’s also really efficient to have two trainers attend if you have a large group size or have consecutive days of training. We’re always happy to explain our pricing – just let us know.

Everything you need!

• Planning meeting(s) with you to develop learning outcomes
• Course programme development
• Course content research and creation
• Scenario research to make your training relevant and “as real as it gets”
• Delivery by our former BBC journalist trainers and marketing experts
• Most courses have our Pre Course Questionnaire so we know what each delegate wants to achieve from their session with us
• Copies of our PDF guides as applicable
• Recordings of the full training session (online training)
• Recordings of radio and TV interviews carried out during the training (in person training)
• Course admin including scoping availability, confirming resources, booking confirmation and invoicing

No problem. The great thing about tailored training is that it’s exactly that. Tailored to you, including your availability. Speak to us and we’ll create a programme that fits your time.

Yes! We like to support charities with a discount, do ask us for more details.

We also offer discounts for multiple bookings. So for example if we create you a tailored course and you book multiple sessions, later ones will be discounted since the groundwork is already done. We’ll go through this once we know what you want.

Yes. We deliver training across the world and it’s nearly always much easier for one of two of us to come to you than all of you to come to us.

As a registered BCorp, we’re committed to using public transport wherever we can. Our travel cost covers our train fare, transfers and overnight accommodation where needed. We also charge a token amount for our travel time. This is because when they’re travelling to you our trainer isn’t available to train someone else.

We’ll cover all this in detail when we send you your proposal.

Lots of organisations come to us in exactly that situation.

By bringing in our expertise your team’s skills will be sharpened even further which helps your organisation and their professional development. For example, you might only deal with a media crisis every few years – we handle them every day for our wide selection of clients!

Our training is also an invaluable external assessment of your skills, capacity and resilience. Think you’ve got all skills covered? Let us confirm that for you by putting them into practice, or help you fill the gaps.

We can also help you address professional development. Our BBC expertise means we can give credible, valued feedback to all your delegates, including conversations you may not feel confident to have.