Aims & Objectives

In the mid-1990s, a small group of  political assistants working for different Conservative groups met at a local government conference. None knew of each other’s work prior to the conference and no facility existed for them to share ideas, discuss issues, and support each other. Thus, the Conservative Political Officers’ Network was created.

THE CPON LOGO IN 2003

Since then, CPON has grown with local authority demand for political assistance supporting elected members. We continue to maintain the original aims of providing a support network for Conservative political officers, but have expanded in recent years to provide a consultancy service to local authorities considering creating political officer positions.

THE FRONT PAGE OF THE CPON WEBSITE AT THE TIME OF ITS LAUNCH

CPON Chairmen

1997 – 2001: Tom Clarke (Kingston-upon-Thames)

2001 – 2005: Adam Simmonds (Northamptonshire)

2005 – 2010: Richard Ashton (Tameside)

2010 – present day: Richard Coates (Gloucestershire)

THE CPON LOGO IN 2005

What does CPON hope to achieve?

CPON aims to ensure that every newly appointed Conservative political officer has access to the information and support that they may need in their new role. We aim to do this by tracking new and vacant positions and contacting new appointees to offer a friendly introduction into the world of the political officer.

We believe that through our ever increasing membership of Conservative political officers, we can offer support to members in most types of authorities and scenarios. We communicate through our ‘Torypols’ web tool, regularly organise awaydays around the country and encourage regional subgroups.

The legislation concerning the employment of local government political officers is something that concerns us, and we have been working hard, along with the respective Labour and Liberal Democrat Political Assistants groups to lobby the government to update legislation.

We hope our efforts now set the high ethical and professional standards that other political officers – irrespective of political allegiance – will have to follow in the future. We have come a long way in the last decade, and this is still just the beginning…