East Midlands Councils
Councillor Development Network Notes
9 December 201410am – 12 noon
Attendees:
NAME / AUTHORITYLeona / Bendall / Blaby District Council
Michael / Hopkins / Charnwood Borough Council
Phil / O’Brien / Derby City Council
Lisa / Butterfill / East Midlands Councils
Moira / Hunt / East Midlands Councils
Anne / Ireson / Kettering Borough Council
Pene / Just / Leicester City Council
Marcella / Heath / North Kesteven District Council
Amanda / Taylor / South Holland District Council
Cllr Roger / Gambba-Jones / South Holland District Council
Viv / Nightingale / Rushcliffe Borough Council
Nigel / Carter / Rushcliffe Borough Council
Apologies:
NAME / AUTHORITYCllr Janet / Patrick / Broxtowe Borough Council
Sue / Rodden / Broxtowe Borough Council
Pat / Stevenson / Chesterfield Borough Council
Cllr Mary / Malin / Kettering Borough Council
Nina / Wilson / Lincolnshire County Council
Mark / Pemberton / Mansfield District Council
Julie / Grainger / Mansfield District Council
Sarah / Evans / Melton Borough Council
Cllr Pru / Chandler / Melton Borough Council
Rav / Kalsi / Nottingham City Council
Paul / Davies / Nottinghamshire County Council
Ardip / Kaur / South Derbyshire District Council
Cllr Debbie / Mason / Rushcliffe Borough Council
Diane / Baker / Rutland County Council
Carol / Mundy / Wellingborough Borough Council
Agenda Item / Information/Actions
1 / Welcome / The meeting was held at the offices of East Midlands Councils. Nigel Carter chaired the meeting in place of Cllr Mason and welcomed everyone.
2 / Previous Notes
Matters arising / Agreed with the following amendment – elections take place 3 out of every 4 years at Derby City Council.
3 / Sharing of current activity/priorities / Rushcliffe BC;The main focus is on member induction programme and IT training.Rushcliffe provide an allowance for members to purchase their own IT/IPADS.
Derby City; The current focus is on safeguarding training, emergency planning, adult learning service, bespoke training package on IT (questionnaire and programme)
Kettering BC;Current priorities are a mixture of briefings and training to include; town centre regeneration, IER, budget, gypsy and traveller, HRA business plan, CIL, on-going IT training. Finalising the Induction Programme Post Elections.
Charnwood BC;prospective councillor event was very successful and the joint working between Leics authorities was very beneficial resulting in excellent attendance (3 times higher than previously) due to the amount of advertising. Charnwood are finalising their induction programme and their recent Charter Re-accreditation was successful.
Blaby DC; prospective cllr events have been successful particularly with younger people attending (and they have been attending some council meetings also), ICT awareness briefings – bringing IT and IPADS and doing modern gov. Paper light is a member led initiative. Regarding IPADS Blaby operate loans through the staff benefits scheme.
Leicester City; the main focus for 2015 is Member induction. IPADS and paper light is also another focus and changing the website.
South Holland DC; Ensuring induction programme is both comprehensive and spread out. Holding a prospective cllr event on 21 Jan prior to full council meeting which people can then attend.Undertaken 2 presentations on local democracy for local high school linked to their curriculum; ICT Member Working Group agreed the IPAD route.
North Kesteven DC; Focusing on IPAD training in January. Two local democracy events were held in October based on mock elections (7 Secondary Schools 14/15 years olds) – recruited 10 onto NK Youth Council. Main focus is also on Councillor Induction Programme (not to overwhelm members) and encouraging e-learning more now that members have IPADS. Have tried e-feedback forms following training but the response rate was 50% compared to 90% when paper forms were used.
4. / Update on the EMC Councillor Development Programme 2014-2015 and Regional Induction Support for 2015 / Lisa provided an overview of the draft Councillor Induction Programme for 2015-2016 which includes a range of support options for councillors. The following feedback was provided:
- To ensure there is a good translation to the events/activities that I do at my council. Connection between on the ground and what we put in the policy (and in the programme).
- To show progression on some areas of development e.g. Scrutiny – to see how it fits together as a whole, ie have 4 events on Scrutiny for example.
- Nothing before end of June.
- New role as a councillor – could be July & September 2015. Perhaps make sure June/July offer is also in the Autumn too.
- Move Making progress on problems to later in the year
5. / Concluding the 4 year term of office / South Holland District Council kindly presented their approach to concluding the 4 year term of office and Amanda shared and communicated their ‘end of term’ plans and programme.
- Year 1 – Induction process – understand role and how they operate
- Year 2 –PDP’s
- Year 3 – Mid-term review – revisit – is it working
- Year 4 – Process of figuring out if previous 3 years have worked. We produce an ‘end of term’ survey in order to capture what they know and their experience and feedback and whether they are standing or not.
6. / Any other Business / Kettering advised that they had introduced a suggestion box for evaluation forms to be posted into which has increased the response rates.
Phil O’Brien asked if EMC could recommend a trainer to undertake public speaking training. ACTION: Lisa to send Phil contact details.
7. / Focus and dates of the next meetings / It was suggested that the focus of future meetings could be Induction Review, Evaluation and PDPs. It was suggested that there would be 3 meetings in 2015/16:
8thJuly 2015
11th November 2015
3rdFebruary 2016
Timings are: 10am – Midday
Local Authorities confirmed that they would be happy to host meetings.
8. / Close / Lisa thanked Nigel for chairing the meeting.