Autumn 2019Interview with Elsie Wraighte

Elected as councillor for Kingsway in May 2019, Elsie speaks to Claire Flett about overcoming a tough childhood and how she wants to help others from a similar background

I am from Barrow-in-Furness and I grew up with my mum and my brother, Chris. We did not have the easiest time growing up. When I was three, my mum left my dad and we lived in a refuge. We were in the homeless shelter for a few months.

Then we moved from council flat to council houses and we were in private rented for a while so it tough, but I did have my mum there, who was very keen that I should go to school and get a good education. I was the first person in my family to go to college, and the first to go to on university. I went to the University of Manchester where I studied politics and international relations.

At college and university, I was with people who were affluent or from different backgrounds and had completely different experiences to me. I would say that has shaped my outlook, my beliefs and my politics and my wanting to become a political activist and, ultimately, to become a councillor.

On graduation, I worked as a think tank researcher and then I worked for a charity called the Social Mobility Foundation, which was about getting people from disadvantaged backgrounds into the top professions and universities.

I came to Rochdale in 2015 to work for the local MP. I then worked as a PA at Rochdale Council and then as a political advisor/office manager for Tony Lloyd MP, before moving to my present job as an assistant transport strategy officer.

There was not a lightning bolt moment when I decided I would like to become a local councillor; I thought I was well positioned to do it now and I saw that some of the people here face a lot of socio-economic challenges - that was my incentive to try to make things better for people. I knew that I had strong Labour values of fairness and equality, and wanting to make things better. Getting my current job and buying a house in Littleborough means I am in a stable place, I am settled, so the timing is right.

When I was first elected as a Labour councillor for Kingsway (in May 2019), I was very keen to talk to as many people as possible to find out what people’s concerns were so that I would be a better representative - I feel that deeply and I take my responsibilities seriously. 

In the time I have been a councillor, I have attended lots of meetings and done a lot of casework. This is people coming to me with housing problems, antisocial behaviour, policing, the cleanliness of the local area and local environment.

I am currently working on a social mobility initiative. Its provisional name is Pioneering Rochdale and the idea behind it is to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds in Rochdale, giving them some of the skills that children from disadvantaged backgrounds sometimes do not have, like networking, confidence, giving presentations or even being aware of how to speak to other professional people. It is a really important point that they get the academics right, that is so key, but there is another side, like presenting yourself well and being able to express yourself.

Having graduated and spoken to people from a similar background to mine, it is a real issue so the idea behind the initiative is to get Rochdale-based professionals involved.

It is important that it is a Rochdale-based initiative, Rochdale-based young people, Rochdale-based businesses and professionals, to do a few different things.

One component is mentoring, another is to have some inspiring professionals’ panels where a businessperson speaks to a group of young people about what they do and how they got to where they are and their background, and in the future, hopefully, work placements in different sectors.

I have only just started speaking to the council leader and the cabinet member responsible and having early meetings with officers, and will hopefully start to do something early next year. I am hoping that local colleges and apprenticeship providers will refer young people to the initiative.

I am really keen to do this; my own experience has made me sure that this is the right thing to do in Rochdale.