Verbal update from the Head of Democratic and Member Services
Minutes:
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8.1 |
The Committee received an update from the Head of Democratic Services, following the first meeting of the Member Development Working Group, which was re-established by the Governance Committee at its meeting in July. |
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8.2 |
The Working Group had its first meeting on 13 September 2023 and looked at the several issues, including the Group’s terms of reference, a skills audit for councillors, member role profiles, a review of the current programme of learning and development; and new learning opportunities. |
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8.3 |
The Working Group looked at its terms of reference to make sure these were fit for purpose. Following discussion at the Council’s Corporate Members’ Group, the Working Group agreed to include in its terms of reference issues concerning elected members’ wellbeing, welfare and safety and to progress practical work on the LGA (Local Government Association) ‘debate not hate’ campaign, which aimed to raise public awareness of the role of councillors in their communities, encourage healthy debate and improve the responses and support for local politicians facing abuse and intimidation. |
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8.4 |
A skills survey was being developed to gain an insight of what training and development members would benefit from and how it was best delivered and to identify existing skills, which councillors had and the extent to which we could have member champions for certain areas of knowledge and skills. |
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8.5 |
Draft role profiles had been produced for four councillor roles, City Councillor, Chair of a Policy Committee, Deputy Chair of a Policy Committee and Group Spokesperson, which, when completed, would be brought to the Governance Committee for consideration. |
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8.6 |
The group reviewed the current and future programme of learning and development and agreed that one of the main issues to review was the induction programme for new councillors. |
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8.7 |
Finally, it was agreed by the Working Group to pilot self-directed, informal learning offered by Bookboon, including podcasts, eBooks and live virtual classrooms for personal and professional development. |
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8.8 |
A member of the Committee asked for a comprehensive schedule of all of the forthcoming learning and development sessions to enable members to plan their attendance and access learning and that consideration was given to learning and development to help elected members understand and work in the committee system |
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8.9 |
RESOLVED: That the report be noted. |
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