Agenda item

Report of Head of Democratic Services.

Following the informal workshop which had been held for all members on 1^st November 2007 the Council Business Committee was reminded of the need to review the Member Development Strategy and agree the training priorities for Councillors for the remainder of 2007/08 through to 2010/2011 which would inform the training programme.

The Committee considered the information that had been gathered from the one to one interviews and the workshop on Member Development.  Further evidence had also been gathered from evaluation of training events, anecdotal comments and Members suggested that this should be used to determine the delivery methods for the key priorities such as timings, training methods and venues.

Members discussed the themes that had emerged and how these fitted within the corporate priorities.

Members considered the training priorities that had emerged and agreed that the following key 6 priorities should be taken forward and developed within the budgetary constraints for Member Development :

• Local Government Finance
• Overview and Scrutiny
• Communications (including media)
• IT training
• Decision Making Process (including County Council functions)
• Ward and Community Leadership

It was also recognised that there were several other topics that had been identified in the one to one interviews and workshop that should be included in the Training Programme but were considered to be lower priority areas. It was agreed that these priority areas should be used to develop the Member Training Programme for the years ahead.

The Committee recognised that the support for newly elected Councillors, Cabinet Members and those with full time commitments were cross cutting themes and should be reflected within the 6 key training priorities that had been identified.

They recognised that Member Development should not focus just on training, but also the support provided to Members in their roles as democratic representatives and as Community Leaders. In particular Members acknowledged that the key priority of Ward and Community Leadership could be addressed by means of a project to develop the access to Ward and Council information and this would complement any formal training in this area.

In relation to the key priority of IT training, it was agreed that a further project area be developed to increase the use of IT by Members and the promotion of web pages for Councillors, and that the next meeting of the Business Committee would include a webpage training session and would be a paperless meeting as part of the project to increase the use of IT by Members.

Members agreed that there was a need to develop the facility for other types of learning and development resources such as shadowing, mentoring, online e-learning and the development of the Member library to include a wider range of topics.

It was further agreed that the Strategy should include the successes of the last year in terms of Member Development, budget and resources available to Members and would be reviewed in April 2008.

Resolved:

(1)        That the following key 6 priorities should be taken forward and developed within the budgetary constraints for Member Development :

·         Local Government Finance

·         Overview and Scrutiny

·         Communications (including media)

·         IT training

·         Decision Making Process (including County Council functions)

·         Ward and Community Leadership

(2)        That the revised Elected Member Training and Development Programme be          produced incorporating the above priorities and the discussions outlined       above.

(3)        That the revised Member Development Strategy be updated to reflect the   discussions outlined above and submitted to Council for endorsement.

(4)        That the next meeting of the Business Committee include a webpage training session and  be a paperless meeting as part of the project to increase the use of IT by Members.

(5)        That the Strategy be reviewed again in April – May  2008 to ensure that it    continues to be adequately aligned to the Council’s Corporate Priorities and       that the annual review takes place at that time of year in the future.