Purpose of report

To seek the endorsement of the Standards Committee of the specific arrangements for member training in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the postponement of local authority elections until 2021.

Recommendation:

That the Standards Committee resolves to:

1.              Endorse the arrangements for member training in 2020/21 as set out in the report

The Monitoring Officer presented the report which set out the proposed arrangements for member training in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the postponement of local authority elections until 2021. She advised the Committee that the compulsory induction and training programme planned for 2020 would now commence in 2021 and that 2020 would be treated as a “non-election year” for the purposes of member training under the terms of the agreed member Training and Development Scheme 2020-24, which had been endorsed by the Standards Committee at its meeting in March 2020.

In discussion the Committee noted that:

·       There would be no compulsory training for Code of Conduct or Planning in 2020

·       Where there are changes to councillor roles such as Lord Mayor (in November 2020), training will be offered to those councillors directly.

·       Personal Safety training will be offered to candidates standing in the May 2021 local elections, subject to the availability of this training either on a face to face or online basis depending on the circumstances in early 2021.

·       Briefings on topical issues will continue to be offered to councillors.

·       Councillors may, with the agreement of their Group Leader, draw on the Member Training budget held by Committee and Member Services to access external training courses and events relevant to their special responsibilities or the reasonable learning and development of a councillor.

·       Training, equipment and other support has been offered to all councillors in accessing meetings held remotely under new legislation passed in April 2020. The need for this training had not been anticipated in the Member Training and Development Scheme for 2020-24. Feedback from councillors has been broadly very positive about the support provided by ICT and Committee and Member Services.

In response to a question from the Committee the Monitoring Officer confirmed that supplementary training would be provided if there was a recognised need, for example regulatory changes which would impact on the planning or licensing committees.

The Committee were mindful of the changes in the patterns of exploitation that had been reported during the COVID-19 pandemic and considered that annual Safeguarding training should be provided.  Members of the Committee who had been present for the previous discussion on training in March 2020 believed that this was what had been agreed at that meeting.

The Monitoring Officer undertook to amend the member Training and Development Scheme 2020-24 to reflect the view of the Committee and to instruct officers to provide Safeguarding training for councillors in 2020.

The Standards Committee resolved to:

1.     Endorse the arrangements for member training in 2020/21 as set out in the report and subject to the amendment that Safeguarding training should be provided on an annual basis.

Purpose of report:

To seek the endorsement of the Standards Committee of the new member training and development scheme for the municipal years 2020-24.

Recommendation:

That the Standards Committee resolves to:

1.    Endorse the Draft Member Training and Development Scheme (Appendix 1)

2.    Note the arrangements for buddying (para. 6f & Appendix 2)

3.    Note the arrangements for offering personal safety training and guidance to members and election candidates (paras. 8-9)

The Head of Law and Governance introduced the report which built on existing good practice and represented the outcome of previous input by the Standards Committee as well as feedback from councillors and officers. The Draft Training and Development Scheme (attached as Appendix 1) was intended to support newly elected councillors to become effective in their role as early as possible while not overloading them. Code of Conduct training would be compulsory for all councillors on a biennial rather than an annual basis, reflecting the positive culture of the Council and the fact that councillor conduct has not been a significant issue. There was an expanded programme of optional training which included role specific training and a focus on emerging issues such as personal safety and social media. The Scheme also granted discretion to the Head of Law and Governance to agree where councillors were not required to attend compulsory training by exception.

The Committee thanked officers for their work in drawing up a comprehensive training scheme and in discussion noted that:

·       The offer of personal safety training for existing members and election candidates was welcome.

·       It could be difficult to get some councillors to recognise the value in being trained so there was a need to think about how to position the training with councillors.

·       All election candidates would be informed of the key training dates and what to expect in their early weeks in office, if elected. The Head of Law and Governance would also be meeting with candidates and agents.

·       Safeguarding training was vital and should be compulsory on an annual [or biennial[1]] basis. Issues of coercive control came up regularly in different scenarios (e.g. domestic violence, county lines drug trafficking, child sexual exploitation) and councillors should be trained on how to recognise and report safeguarding concerns.

·       Online safety was similarly important and would be picked up in social media training.

·       Scrutiny training was very important and should include a focus on good scrutiny outcomes from other councils. Consideration should also be given to training to Scrutiny members collectively as well as individually.

·       The frequency of compulsory licensing training reflected the significant impacts of decisions taken by councillors on peoples’ livelihoods.

·       While there were many clear benefits in attending face to face training, there would be merit in officers exploring whether some training could be made available online, for example by utilising the training resources of partner organisations.

·       It would be helpful if acronyms were explained in reports.

 The Standards Committee resolved to:

1.     Endorse the Draft Member Training and Development Scheme 2020-24 subject to:

                            i.         the requirements for and frequency of safeguarding training being increased,

                           ii.         the inclusion of a focus on domestic violence and other issues of coercive control within safeguarding training,

                          iii.         further exploration of options for online training delivery;

2.     Note the arrangements for buddying;

3.     Note the arrangements for offering personal safety training and guidance to members and election candidates.

Purpose of report:

To seek agreement of the principles for the new member development and training scheme for the municipal years 2020-24.

Recommendations:

That the Standards Committee resolves to:

1.      Comment on the proposals and respond to the questions posed in this report.

Member Development

The Committee was supportive of the view that it had a role to play in identifying members’ development needs and shaping a member training programme to enable all elected representatives to meet the challenges facing them and to support their work in committee, in their ward and in Council in the 2020s. 

The Committee acknowledged that its members should work within their political groups to encourage and promote the importance and benefit of all training, not just that relating to ethical standards, amongst their colleagues.

Compulsory training

The Committee considered that Code of Conduct, Planning and Licencing training should be compulsory training for councillors and that the following topics might be added to the list of compulsory training:

·       Finance (to provide an introduction to local authority finances, the budget process and medium term financial plan)

·       Safeguarding

·       Ethical Values and Behaviours (to include issues such as equality and diversity, unconscious bias, anti-Semitism, misogyny)

The Committee acknowledged the risks associated with introducing too large a programme of compulsory training but felt that all of the topics identified were of sufficient importance to be included in a compulsory training programme.

The Committee then considered the frequency and scheduling of a compulsory training programme.  They felt that the current arrangement of compulsory training on planning every 2 years was reasonable but that the frequency of compulsory training on Code of Conduct (currently annual) could be reduced. Consideration should be given to the proposal that all councillors (whether newly elected or re-elected) should only receive each of the compulsory training modules in their first year of office. Recognition should also be given to those councillors who brought transferrable skills and experience from their professional life or other roles in community or public service.

Non-compulsory training

The Committee suggested that non-compulsory training should be offered to all councillors on an annual basis.  These sessions should:

·       meet any identified behavioural or cultural issues and any skills gaps

·       address any new or emerging issues of relevance to the Council

·       provide specialist knowledge on particular themes (e.g. within planning) that built on the information provided as part of the compulsory programme

Induction

The Committee recognised the importance of induction training in setting the culture of the Council and the behaviours of councillors and agreed that the induction programme should be compulsory.  The Committee was satisfied that the revised format and scheduling for the induction sessions that had been introduced in 2018 should be replicated in 2020 – 2024.

The Committee asked officers to review the “induction” arrangements for a member elected as a result of a by-election to ensure that, as far as possible, it reflected the standard programme.

Buddying

The Committee considered that the informal buddying arrangements between newly elected councillors and members of the Committee and Member Services team had been a constructive initiative which complemented any mentoring arrangements within the political groups.  The Committee confirmed that the arrangements should be in place for newly elected councillors in May 2020.