Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to our lesson today.

My name is Mr. Miskell.

And I'll be your Citizenship teacher for today's lesson.

I'll also be your Citizenship teacher for this six lesson unit of work, about how does local democracy work.

And this is a really exciting unit of work.

And the reason it's so exciting, is because it's important.

It's important because it gives you the superpowers, the skills and the knowledge needed to become much more powerful in your community and get decision makers to take you seriously.

It stops you being just frustrated about problems and issues in your community, and gives you the superpowers needed to get people to listen to you and make those changes in your community.

Now, today's lesson is focusing on this important question.

And the important question is, how is local government different to central government? Now that seems to really work complex question for us to be able to answer.

We will do by the end of today's lesson.

But don't worry about it, I'm going to run you through it step by step.

But before we do that, I'd like us just to pause a second and make sure that we've got everything ready.

So firstly, you need to make sure that you've got pen or a pencil.

The second thing is, you need to make sure that you've got a piece of paper by your side so you can write things down.

And lastly, you need to make sure that you're in a quiet space, so that you can take part in our lesson today without any distractions.

Now, if you've not got those things sorted yet, then you can pause our lesson now and then you can restart it when you have got those things started.

So, let's get going with our lesson today.

Now, this is how we're going to go about our learning.

And this is how we're going to structure it.

And this is our agenda for today.

So firstly, we're going to look about why it's important that we learn about local democracy.

And we're going to relate it to someone called Zac, who we're going to use throughout this six lesson unit of work.

That's going to then lead us into finding out about what we mean by government.

And then we're going to compare local government and central government.

And I'm going to give you the knowledge about what they all do.

And then I'm going to give you a case study so that you understand it even more.

And our case study is about COVID-19, as a pandemic that's impacted the United Kingdom.

And we're going to look at the different roles of local government and central government.

And what they've been doing during COVID-19 as a pandemic.

And lastly, we're going to be bringing our learning together.

We're going to be bringing our learning together.

So let's get going with what we're doing today.

Now, firstly, I'd like to introduce you to Zac.

Zac is the character who is now on your screen.

And I'll make this much bigger, so that you can follow it and read it whilst I'm talking you through it.

So why Learn about local democracy? Meet Zac.

Zac enjoys the same things many children his age love to do.

He loves the town where he lives, but there are still many things that he and his friends would like to see changed.

In this unit, we're going to look at how we can help Zac to gain the superpowers needed to change things in his community.

This will require Zac to know an awful lot about how the world works, as well as how decisions are made in his local community.

Learning this knowledge and developing these skills, will make Zac's voice powerful, making him more likely to be listened to so that he can create change.

Now, if we think about that, we're really talking about power.

And in order for Zac to be able to understand power, he needs to understand how it is distributed in our country, in the United Kingdom.

And by distributed, I basically mean, where it is in the United Kingdom.

Now this is a diagram of power and its distribution across the United Kingdom.

Not done by me, but done by Mrs. White, who also does citizenship lessons.

You might have taken part in some of her lessons as well.

The bits that I want you to focus in on, are the things that are in pink.

And the things that are in pink are really down on the branch about local government.

And here, it's also about regional government as well.

I'll make this much bigger as I run you through it, so that you can see it much more closely.

Now, if you want to bring about change in our society, if Zac wants to bring about change in our society as well, then you and he have to know who to influence and persuade to support you and your campaign.

These are the people in power.

Those with the positions and responsibility to run our communities.

So when we have an idea about change, we need to work out who would be best to approach.

For example, if you wanted to improve your local play park, then the town or parish council will probably be your first contact.

If you want to a bigger issue, such as how we deal with the COVID crisis, then your member of Parliament will be better to approach because they could bring your issue to Parliament.

Of course, it takes a lot more than just one contact to bring about change.

You need to get lots of support from a wide variety of people.

Just so how much the public opinion is on your side.

Now, there are a lot of things that are mentioned there about power and where it's distributed in our country.

And really we're talking about government.

But to understand local democracy, Zac needs to know how government works in the UK, and what it actually means.

And I'd like to share with you a definition.

Now, some of the things here are in Italic and in a different colour.

Those words, authority and policies.

Now to give you an idea these will be covered towards the latter end of the lesson in a glossary.

But I'll define them as well to help you and your understanding, I'll also make this full screen now so that you can zoom into it, and it might help you understand a little bit more.

So what does government mean? Well, government is the means by which a group of people organise themselves and divide up authority and power in order to achieve goals.

We call these goals policies.

And they usually seek to improve life for groups of people in a society.

Often by running services.

Now, there are two words there that are covered in our glossary, but I just want to talk about now.

Now, authority, is the power or might to give orders and make decisions.

Policies, are causes of actions or goals that people plan to carry out or are in the process of carrying out.

Now you can come back to this definition, and rewind our lesson to help you with this task now.

Now I'd like you to pause the video to complete this task.

And the task is task one.

What does government mean? I'd like you to write a list of goals or policies that governments may have to achieve in order to improve life for groups of people.

You may like to think about young people, older people, or the environment.

Now I'll make this full screen and you should pause the video now, in order to complete the task.

Good luck.

So well done for having a go at that task now.

Now, I'm going to give you a little bit of feedback about the task.

Now governments often have goals about how they can improve life for people.

We call these goals, policies.

And often these policies are achieved through running services like the National Health Service, or the NHS.

Now when I ask students in my class questions like this, they tell me the goals that government might want to achieve, policies the government might want to achieve, are things like keeping the population healthy.

And they do that through things like the National Health Service.

Ensuring that the population is safe and protected.

They do that through funding things like the police force.

Things like making sure that young people are educated.

And the government does that through funding schools.

Safeguarding the environment by improving recycling services is another one as well.

Now I'll make this a full screen because you can pause a lesson now, and you could add these to your notes and your answer to this question in order to make it even better if you would like as well.

So that definition of government really opens us up to thinking about what the difference is between local and central government.

And I'm going to run you through a few examples and give you the knowledge to understand this.

Because we know that by understanding this, it makes us much more powerful and it gives us the the superpowers needed to persuade decision makers about changing things in our community.

We have to know about how the world works and how decisions are made.

Now the first thing that I'd like you to do is I would like you to draw a table that looks something like this.

And up at the top of your table, you're going to have two different columns.

And your two columns are going to be about local government and central government.

And down the side, I'd like you to make sure that you've got different things that we're going to be looking at together.

And the first thing is about geographical area.

We're going to be thinking about the geographical area that local government and central government covers.

We'll be thinking about what their role is.

That means what their job is.

And we'll also be thinking about, okay, who makes decisions? Who are the decision makers in local government versus central government? Now I'll make this full screen now.

You can also find this table as part of the worksheet attached to this particular lesson as well.

So pause the lesson now, if you are drawing out the table by hand in order to take part in the next part of our lesson.

Now, the first thing on your table that I would like you to complete as I'm going to run through all these things together, is about the geographical area.

And I'm really interested in also looking at local government and central government here.

So in terms of local government, then we're saying that it has powers in a local area like a town, city or county.

Where as central government holds powers over the whole of the United Kingdom, on many different issues.

Now, feel free to pause our lesson now, and add this to your table.

Because what I'm going to do, is I'm going to run you through the next part of our table together.

The next part of the table is about roles.

And we're really interested in thinking about, what are the roles of local and central government? When we're talking about that, we're saying local government, well councils apply laws that are set by central government through Parliament.

Local government decides how local services are run.

Whereas central government is responsible for the security and welfare of the whole country, it sets laws and policies that apply to all of us.

Now, I'll make this full screen, so that you could pause our video in a second, and you can make sure that this is added to your table.

There is one word there that I have put in bold, that's part of a glossary set of terms. And it is Parliament.

Parliament is the body that makes laws in the UK.

It's made up of the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the Monarch, which is a fancy way of saying either the queen or a king.

So the next thing I'm going to introduce you to is about who are the decision makers within a local government and within central government.

And you've got some pictures down on your screen, that gives you a little bit of an indication.

So the first thing is about local government.

Local government councillors are elected by local residents to make decisions following laws that are set by Parliament.

Where as central government have decisions that are made by government ministers, who are either MPs or members of the House of Lords, and run government departments.

Like for example, the Department for Health or the Home Office for example.

And the picture that you can see on the central government there is actually of Boris Johnson's cabinet.

And around him are his government ministers.

People who run government departments.

Like for example, the Department for Health that runs the National Health Service.

Underneath local government, you'll see a picture of a council chamber.

Actually its a picture of Sheffield City Council's council chamber, where counsellors get together once a month and make decisions about what happens in a local area.

So I'll make this much bigger now, so you can pause our lesson and you can add this to your table about local and central government.

So well done for doing that.

Just to give you a little bit of a feedback, this is how your table should be looking.

And I'll go through each column.

Firstly, local government and then central government.

So local government has powers in a local area like a town, city or county.

Councils apply laws set by central government through Parliament.

Local government decides how local services are run.

Councillors are elected by local residents and they make decisions following laws that are set by Parliament.

Central government is different.

It holds power over the whole of the United Kingdom on many issues.

It's responsible for the security and welfare of the whole country.

It sets laws and policies that apply to all of us.

And decisions are made by government ministers who are MPs or Lords and run government departments.

So that's what your table should look like, after you've done today's task two about local and central government.

Now, that leads us on to this particular case study.

And our case study is about the different roles in response to COVID-19.

And we're going to have a little look, at central and local government in terms of their response to COVID-19.

The first thing I'm want to introduce you to is the central government's response to COVID-19.

And the UK Government is led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Who's in the middle there of the picture.

And he's of course being very busy.

He was very busy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He's holding a press conference there.

Now I'll make this much bigger so that you can zoom in on it.

So during COVID-19, central government has been doing these things, as well as other things as well.

It's been coordinating the National Health Service.

Now the UK Government has created new Nightingale hospitals, to open up spare capacity in hospitals.

And it's been setting the rules for lockdown.

Laws were set by Parliament to make sure that people stayed at home.

It's been dealing with the economy, and many workers were furloughed, and that means that that incomes were protected.

And it's also been dealing with education in the pandemic, because schools were advised about how to educate students online.

And these lessons today, on Oak, are an example of central government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and education during the pandemic.

Now, what I'd like you to do, is I would like you to use the case study to help explain to Zac, the different responses to COVID-19 from both central and local government.

Now, I've not introduced the case study yet about local government.

We'll do that in a second, as part of the second question to this.

But the first question is this.

I'd like you to give an example of the work carried out by central government in response to COVID-19.

Now I will make this much bigger.

And now is the time to pause our lesson, in order to answer question one of task three.

Good luck.

So well done there for really working hard and answering that particular question.

Now I'm going to introduce you to the second part of what we're going to be doing in our case study.

And that's really about COVID-19 and local government.

Because many local councils have been busy supporting food banks during COVID-19 to make sure that residents don't go hungry during lockdown.

And I'm going to introduce you to these things that local government have been doing during COVID-19.

They've been setting up support helplines.

Many local councils have set up helplines to support communities.

And they've been doing things with food banks, to making sure that they are supported.

Some local councils use funding to help support food banks.

They've been helping local care homes.

Because elderly people were vulnerable during the pandemic and many were supported financially by councils.

They've been encouraging cycling.

And that's because with public transport limited because of social distancing, many local councils have encouraged cycling across the towns, cities and counties.

Now, I'm going to introduce you once again to Zac.

And I'd like you to answer the second question here.

And the question number two is, to explain one example of the work carried out by local government to support residents during COVID-19.

Now I'll make this much bigger now so that you can pause the video and now if you'd like, and you can zoom in into the particular question.

Good luck with answering question two.

Remember that you can rewind our lesson and have a little look at the examples that were on the screen a short while ago about what local government was doing and during COVID-19.

So well done there for giving that particular question a really good go.

Now I'm going to feedback about questions one and two together.

Question one was give an example the work carried out by central government in response to COVID-19.

Well, central government proposed new laws created by Parliament to make sure that people stayed at home during the pandemic.

Is one answer.

Of course, there are other examples that you could have chosen to use as well, they are equally valid.

And question two was explain one example of the work carried out by local government to support residents during COVID-19.

Local councils have helped support cycling by creating additional space for cycling on roads.

This is because public transport has been limited due to social distancing.

I'll make this much bigger on your screen now so that you can pause this and add to your answers to make them even stronger if you would like as well.

And thank you very much for the wonderful answers that you have been producing there in response to task three.

Now, I said, during our lesson that there were a number of new words that I was introducing.

And here are examples of some of the new words that I was introducing.

I will make them much bigger on your screen so that you can zoom into them now.

The first one is local government.

This means local councils that deliver services in a county, a city or a town.

Sometimes these are known as local authorities.

Central or national government.

This makes decisions about how the country is run and how things get done.

For example, building schools or hospitals, and it's led by the Prime Minister.

Policies.

These are coourses of actions or goals that people plan to carry out, or are in the process of carrying out.

Parliament.

That's the body that makes laws in the UK.

Is made up of the House of Commons, The House of Lords and the Monarch, queen or king, for example.

And lastly authority.

The power or right to give orders or to make decisions.

That's a series of words that we've talked about today and this will help you clarify those.

Now, during today's lesson, we've done a number of things.

We've thought a lot about why we should learn about local democracy.

And we've related it very much to Zac and said that it gives him the superpowers in order to change things in his community.

And in order to change things, you need to know an awful lot about how decisions are made in our world.

You need to know an awful lot about the issue that you're campaigning, that you're trying to change.

That led us to think about what we meant by government.

And once we learned about what we meant by government, we then compared local and national or central government.

That led us to a case study about COVID-19.

And lastly, we were bringing our learning together with that case study and also with what we're doing today.

So today's lesson really has been a varied lesson.

Now it would be absolutely wonderful if you would share some of your work with OakNational.

Now if you'd like to, you can please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Twitter, by tagging @OakNational, and we're using the hashtag, #learnWithOak as well.

And the materials for this lesson have been provided from the Association for Citizenship Teaching as well.

Now before you finish our lesson today, I would like you to make sure that you complete the exit quiz now.

To show and demonstrate to me the wonderful learning that you've been doing today as part of our lesson.

So thank you very much for participating in our lesson today.

I hope you will join me for the rest of our lessons about local democracy.

So thank you very much.

And babye.