Decision Maker: Democracy and General Purposes Committee
Decision status: For Determination
Is Key decision?: No
Is subject to call in?: No
Purpose:
To seek
approval of Member training and briefings for 2023/24 and proposed
training activities for 2024/25.
Decisions:
The
Director of Strategy, Insight and Governance introduced the report
and thanked Members for their feedback for supporting new
Councillors, which resulted in the following actions:
- The
induction would be split over two sessions rather than one as
feedback indicated this was too much information for one session.
These would be hosted in the evening to allow Councillors with
daytime commitments to attend;
- Councillors would have access to an ‘officer buddy’
from the Wider Leadership Team to assist and direct their concerns
and queries;
- Various training sessions would be held throughout the year and
repeated to allow flexibility featuring successful courses from
last year including Chairman’s training, Carbon Literacy and
Nolan Principles, which were well received, and the regular courses
such as Overview and Scrutiny skills, how to use the Constitution
appropriately, Planning and Licensing;
- There
were plans for the Communications team to make a video identifying
Council officers and various sites in the Borough;
- There
would be appropriate support for Cabinet Members relating to their
portfolios; and
- Introducing Equality, Diversity and
Inclusion training for Members, which is already in place for
officers and should be easy to adapt.
Councillors were pleased with the content of the report and made
the following suggestions:
- It was
raised that there is a budget available for Councillors that could
make use of outside organisations to pursue training of their
choosing. It was requested that new Councillors were made aware of
this fact;
- Concerns were raised that the Chairing training sessions were
scheduled for later than the first meetings of the municipal year.
It was clarified that the first meetings would only involve
electing Chairmen, and that the second part of the induction
training would include basic instruction and could be amended to
include points on Chairing; and
- That
training sessions on the content of the constitution would be
useful, both for new and existing Councillors.
RESOLVED: That the approach to Member
training for 2024/25 be noted and any additional training requested
be agreed.
Contact: Angela Woodhouse, Director of Strategy, Insight & Governance Email: angelawoodhouse@maidstone.gov.uk Email: angelawoodhouse@maidstone.gov.uk Tel: 01622 602620.
Report author: Angela Woodhouse
Publication date: 27/03/2024
Date of decision: 27/03/2024
Decided: 27/03/2024 - Democracy and General Purposes Committee
Accompanying Documents: