2026/27 academic year
We are delivering CiLCA mentoring over the 2026/27 academic year. This includes 6 online sessions starting with an introductory session plus 5 other sessions for each of the 5 course Units, delivered between Oct 2026 and May 2027. All learners must attend the training sessions to satisfy the CiLCA course requirements. The mentoring sessions are free for any County Durham and Cleveland clerks and £200 for attendees from outside these areas.
Although we are well on our way with our 2026/27 mentoring, learners can join us at any point in the year and participate in any earlier missed units in our 2027/28 cycle. However, if joining midway you should not register for the actual qualification until you have done an Introductory session which we’ll be delivering during summer 2027. In the meantime there is plenty you can still do to prepare work for CiLCA before registering and which will be covered in our mentoring. Alternatively, you can wait till we start next year’s cycle with an Introductory session during the summer, followed by the 5 units from autumn 2027 onwards.
If you want to join us now you can book onto the five mentored units at CiLCA mentoring sessions 2026/27.
CiLCA is the town and parish council sector’s benchmark qualification, see SLCC | Certificate in Local Council Administration (CiLCA). It is a distance learning course administered by the SLCC (Society of Local Council Clerks) for which there is some support provided through our locally arranged CiLCA mentoring as described above. It is a Level 3 course (A level equivalent) and usually takes 200-300 hours of study. Registration costs £495 (for clerks at <£25,000 councils see note below) and there is a time restriction of 12 months for completion once registered. We recommend new clerks undertake ILCA first and commence CiLCA after about a year in post. Do not register for CiLCA until after attending the Introduction to CiLCA training. You need to be familiar with what’s expected without undue time pressure as once registered, the 12 month clock is ticking. You need to organise yourself to set time aside for studying and complying with the timeframe. This is often a key challenge for learners.
CiLCA registrations are processed on a bi-monthly basis, on the first Monday of each Feb, Apr, June, Aug, Oct and Dec.
Future subject based training dates aligning with CiLCA units
The mentoring described above is about being provided with assistance on how to successfully tackle the qualification. Although it will touch on the subject matter of each unit, we organise other, wholly subject based courses which align with the units for Units 1-4 (Unit 5 content is encompassed in the mentoring session). These courses are open to all involved in parish and town councils as the content is core knowledge for officers and councillors. These training sessions cost £20 each.
Bookings for these courses must be made separately to the mentoring and bookings will go live about 6-8 weeks prior to each course. Booking information can be accessed at Co Durham and Cleveland CTP training courses.
- Tues 22nd Sep 2026 Local Councils: The basics (Unit 1).
- Tues 13th Oct 2026 Finance/budgets (Unit 3).
- Tues 3rd Nov 2026 Managing meetings(Unit 2).
- Feb 2026 date tbc Managing Assets, Staff etc (Unit 4).
For Co Durham and Cleveland clerks of councils <£25,000 threshold
For clerks in County Durham and Cleveland, the County Training Partnership has agreed also to fund the cost of CiLCA registrations from clerks of councils under the £25,000 threshold and will be payable on successful completion of CiLCA. Please be in touch if you are interested as we would expect you to notify us in advance of registering.
If you’ve any queries, you are welcome to be in touch with us at cdalc@durham.gov.uk.
