MEMBER TRAINING WORKING GROUP
Meeting, Monday, 18thJuly, 2016at 10.00 a.m.
PRESENT: Councillors:BrookandPidduck.
Officers:Jon Huck, Democratic Services Manager and Paula Westwood,
Democratic Services Officer (Member Support).
ITEM
1 – Appointment of Chairman for 2016/2017Councillor Pidduck had nominated Councillor Brook for the position of Chairman for 2016/2017 and it was,
RESOLVED:- That Councillor Brook be appointed Chairman for 2016/2017.
COUNCILLOR BROOK IN THE CHAIR
2 – Apologies for Absence
No apologies had been received.
3 – Confirmation of Minutes
The Minutes of the meeting held on 18thJanuary, 2016 were agreed as a correct record.
4–Matters Arising from the Minutes
Referring to Minute 27 – Personal Development Plans (PDPs) Update, the Democratic Services Officer – Member Supportreported that a couple of Personal Development Plans and reviews remained outstanding. It was agreed that she would print out the Development Plans for those Members concerned which would be handed out at Full Council on 19th July and that Councillor Brook would urge Members at their Group Meeting to complete and return these or alternatively make an appointment to meet with the Democratic Services Officer – Member Support as soon as possible.
Referring to Minute No. 30 – Any Other Business (Update on Tablets for Members), the Democratic Services Manager advised the Group that it was anticipated that the first stage of implementing the tablets would be in place by the end of the year and that training would be provided for Democratic Services Officers who would then training Members on how to use the tablets.
ITEM
5– Quarterly Budget Monitoring Report
The Democratic Services Officer (Member Support) had reported that a budget allocation of £5,000.00 had been made available for Member training and development for the financial year 2016/2017. So far this financial year, £115.00 had been spent from the budget, leaving a total of £4,885.00 for the remainder of the financial year.
RESOLVED:- To note the expenditure to date from the Member Training Budget.
6 – Quarterly Training Monitoring Report
The Democratic Services Officer (Member Support) submitted a report detailing the attendance at training events this quarter, including:-
Training/Workshop Percentage
Treasury Management Training 20%
Member Briefing: Cumbria LEP 33.3%
(Local Enterprise Partnership)
HMF Awareness Session (Supported Housing) 57.1%
HMF Awareness Session (Homelessness) 57.1%
The feedback reports from each of the above mentioned training events had been appended to her reportand it was noted that each of the sessions had been very well received.
RESOLVED:- To note the attendance levels and feedback received from the training events this quarter.
7 – Feedback from Ad Hoc External Conferences
The Democratic Services Officer (Member Support) reported that Councillor Brendan Sweeney (Deputy Leader and Council’s representative of the Furness Health and Wellbeing Forum) had attended the LGA Public Health Conference and Exhibition in London on 3rd February, 2016.
ITEM
He had spoken highly of the Conference and recommended it to any fellow Councillor taking the lead on public health.
Councillor Levi Gill who was a Member of the Licensing Committee had attended a training course in Manchester on 28th June, 2016 ‘Licensing Hearings and Safeguarding’. The course had been organised by the Institute of Licensing and had been provided jointly by Cornerstone Barristers and Poppleston Allen Solicitors. The course objectives had been to provide a valuable learning opportunity to advance or refresh the knowledge, understanding and practical expertise of delegates in relation to Licensing Hearings and Safeguarding.
All Members of the Licensing Committee had been offered the opportunity to attend the training.
Councillor Gill had reported that the training had been very relevant as an introduction to licensing for new Committee Members, or equally as a refresher course for Council Officers/Police staff who dealt with the work of the Committee.
RESOLVED:- To note the feedback received.
8 – Attendance at Training Events – Year on Year Comparison
The Democratic Services Officer (Member Support) submitted a report demonstrating the percentage of Members attending training events for the year May 2015 - April 2016 with comparable data from previous years.
Appended to her report was a year on year comparison chart indicating the percentage of Members who had attended training events as well as a graph upon which the average percentage rate of attendance at training events for each year had been plotted.
To summarise, the average percentage number of courses attended by Members was as follows:-
- 2003/2004 – 39%;
- 2004/2005 – 24%;
- 2005/2006 – 26%;
- 2006/2007 – 38%;
- 2007/2008 – 32%;
- 2008/2009 – 53%;
- 2009/2010 – 50%;
- 2010/2011 – 42%;
- 2011/2012 – 56%;
- 2012/2013 – 54%;
- 2013/2014 – 40%;
- 2014/2015 – 37.3%; and
- 2015/2016 – 47.7%
RESOLVED:- To note the information.
9 – Members’ Private Web Area – Annual Usage
TheDemocratic Services Officer (Member Support) submitted a report demonstrating the number of Members who had accessed the Members’ Private Web Area from May 2015 - April 2016, as follows:-
Month / No. of Visits / No. of Page Views / No. of Unique Visitors / No. of Returning Visitors
May 2015 / 18 / 80 / 16 / 7
June 2015 / 35 / 270 / 22 / 15
July 2015 / 24 / 129 / 12 / 10
August 2015 / 5 / 26 / 4 / 4
September 2015 / 0 / 0 / 0 / 0
October 2015 / 8 / 61 / 5 / 2
November 2015 / 12 / 56 / 9 / 7
December 2015 / 12 / 36 / 10 / 3
January 2016 / 12 / 66 / 10 / 6
February 2016 / 10 / 53 / 6 / 2
March 2016 / 16 / 59 / 8 / 5
April 2016 / 8 / 36 / 7 / 4
She reported that the number of Members accessing the Members’ Private Web Area had improved significantly compared with the previous year. For example, between May 2014 and November 2014 there had only been a total of 20 page views over the 7 month period, made up of six different areas of the site. The area had only been accessed by one new user during that period. The 2015-2016 figures presented above demonstrated a significant improvement.
ITEM
Unfortunately, she had been unable to provide comparable data for the 12 months as between December 2014 and April 2015 there had been a changeover of IT servers which had impacted upon the report that recorded the number of hits that the Members’ Private Web Area received as it had been pointing to the old URL which had resulted in the report recording zero hits. Notwithstanding that, it was evident that the area had been far better utilised than in the previous year.
RESOLVED:- To note the information.
10 – Local Plan Briefing and Tour of the Borough
The Democratic Services Officer (Member Support) reported that Members would be aware that it had been agreed in principle for the Local Plan Team to facilitate a briefing for Members on the Local Plan and then follow up straight afterwards with a tour of the Borough on a minibus (Minute No. 24 of the meeting on 18th January, 2016 refers).
She today advised Members that due to tight timescales on the production of the next draft of the Local Plan, the Local Plan Team had considered it appropriate to postpone this briefing and tour until later in the year when there would be more capacity within their Team to deliver it.
RESOLVED:- To note that the Local Plan Briefing and Tour of the Borough would be postponed until later in the year.
11 – Charter Level 1 Review
The Democratic Services Officer (Member Support) reported that the Council was due for re-assessment for the Charter Award. She reported that the Council had been initially awarded with the Charter in 2006 and it was a requirement that the Council be re-assessed every three years to ensure that they remained committed to the ongoing training and development of their Elected Members.
At a meeting of this Group in March 2015, it had been agreed that due to the limitation in time and resources at that time, coupled with the fact that it was an all-out Borough Council Election in May 2015, it would not be possible to collate all of the evidence required in time for the Charter re-assessment to take place in July that year. The Democratic Services Officer (Member Support) advised that the Council were now in a position to start the assessment process and she had made contact with North West Employers’ Organisation (NWEO) – The Awarding Body.
ITEM
For the benefit of Members who had not been involved in the assessment process in the past, she had appended detailed information to her report which explained the history of the Charter, the assessment criteria and the review process.
To summarise, the Assessment Process for the Charter Level 1 review involved uploading documentary evidence via a secure web portal to demonstrate that the Council met the assessment criteria.
North West Employers Organisation then evaluated the evidence uploaded and assessed whether the Authority met the required standards prior to the verification visit. The verification visit would involve a Member of the Regional Development Committee and an Officer from NWEO visiting Barrow and interviewing the following people:-
- The Leader (or Deputy);
- The Chief Executive/Chief Officer;
- The Leader of the Opposition Group;
- Chair or Portfolio Holder;
- Chair or Member of the Training Group;
- A newly Elected Councillor;
- Three randomly selected Councillors; and
- An Officer responsible for Councillor learning and development.
RESOLVED:- To note the information.
12 – Schedule of Future Meetings
The Democratic Services Officer (Member Support) submitted a report with a schedule of meetings for this Group for 2016/2017 as follows:-
Monday 10th October, 2016;
Monday 16th January, 2017;
and Monday 3rd April, 2017.
RESOLVED:- To agree the schedule of meetings outlined above.
The meeting closed at 11.00 a.m. /
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