Minutes:
The Head of Legal (People) attended the meeting to provide an update on
the Member Development Strategy and to agree the next steps to improve
engagement with Members.
The Member Development Strategy 2023-2027 was approved by Council on 29th
November 2023.
The Strategy sets out our commitment to supporting Members
with their continuous development, and details how we will equip Members with
the skills and knowledge needed to fulfil their roles effectively. It also
covered how we would identify development needs; the ways in which Members could
participate in continuous learning and development; and how we would evaluate
and measure the success of all learning.
The
Member Development Strategy aligns closely to the Council Plan and People
Strategy to ensure all activities contribute to delivery of key commitments to
meet the needs of our diverse communities.
Members
were advised that the key issue remains engaging members in their own
development and the development of others to contribute to the improvements in
culture that we are trying to achieve.
In
order to improve engagement the next steps were proposed
for the following six months:
·
Meeting
with group leaders to discuss: Launch of a skills
audit; Promotion of the personal development plans; Review of the training
programme offer; Identify any issues.
·
Establish
the member led Communication and Member Resources Working Group, which
included in the draft terms of reference ‘To identify what, particularly
online, resources may be provided to members to assist them in carrying out
their role’.
·
Review
of induction offer to new members to identify how we can better deliver
the induction training of any new members post the main round of elections as
it doesn’t lend itself easily to be delivered to one person. This would include
the introduction of a buddy system - allocated Democratic Services Officer and
another member for settling in/enquiries.
·
Carry
out a Members Skills Audit to assist members to identify their own
strengths and development areas, helping them to plan their development journey
more effectively, and to use their skills to support other members/committees
in their areas of expertise.
·
Refresh
of the offer of the Personal Development Plan via targeted communication
with all members, with input from group leaders
·
Review
of Training and Development Offer. Following the skills audit, review of
the offer sent to all members with all available training and development
options - including both internal and external resource. To include an offer
for members to indicate any courses/training that they require so that this can
be sourced.
This would include a particular review of the standards and
code of conduct training offer, particularly with regards to their use of
social media, including liaison with the LGA for a bespoke training workshop.
·
Annual
review of Members Development Strategy
by way of evaluating: training evaluation forms and other feedback received,
feedback through committee groups and member meetings, 1-1 meetings, statistics
on Councillor participation, annual Survey
Following discussions Members suggested that training should be offered
at different times due to some Members working or having caring
responsibilities. Members felt that training
offered on Teams could increase attendance levels.
AGREED as
follows: Members agreed to all of the suggested next steps to improve Member engagement.