The department provides support and advisory services to 139 local governments, including 2 Indian Ocean Territories.
Our services aim to improve the capacity of local governments to respond to community demands and expectations, levels of accountability and legislative compliance.
There are 2 support services available to local government officers and council members — a general advisory line and a financial policy and accounting help desk. Members of the public with concerns involving their local government should attempt to resolve them directly with their local government.
Find out more about resolving a concern with your local government
Email lghotline@dlgsc.wa.gov.auTelephone 1300 762 5118:00am to 4:00pm, Monday to Friday
To allow for an informed response, it is preferred that complex enquiries are made by email in the first instance.
Questions related to long service leave should be directed to the responsible area of the relevant local government, or if a member, to WALGA's Employee Relations service.
Financial and accounting support for WA’s local government sector.
Guidelines to help local governments work efficiently and effectively.
A guide to meetings for elected members to support their effective participation in council and committee meetings.
In 2018 the State Government accepted or accepted in principle, all 310 recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Royal Commission) applicable to Western Australia.
The Royal Commission acknowledged the role that local governments play in creating and maintaining child safety in their communities and made a number of recommendations aimed at using this role to promote the safety and wellbeing of children and young people.
The Child Safe Awareness Policy template has been developed in response to Royal Commission Recommendation 6.12 and commits local governments in WA to build and maintain child safety awareness and knowledge by providing information for the organisations and individuals that operate in their communities and promoting child safe messages.
Following WALGA State Council support of the template on 3 March 2023, DLGSC has created a landing page for the template and associated implementation resources so that all local government staff can access the most current versions of the documents when required.
DLSGC recommends that local governments use the template to create their own Child Safe Awareness Policy and fulfill their obligations under the Royal Commission Recommendation 6.12.
If you have any questions about the template, please contact DLGSC’s Child Safeguarding Implementation Unit by email at childsafeguarding@dlgsc.wa.gov.au