Report of:                             Anita Bradley, Monitoring Officer.

Purpose/content:               Review of Member training in 2018 and proposals for future years

Recommendation:

That the Standards Committee resolves to:

1.    Note the evaluation of the programme of training delivered to members in 2018;

2.    Endorse the arrangements for the member training programme for 2019-20 based on the proposals set out in Appendix 2;

3.    Endorse the proposed approach for the development of a new member development and training programme for the municipal years 2020-24.

The Monitoring Officer introduced the report and reminded the Committee that one of the changes agreed by Council as part of the last Constitution Review was to broaden the role of the Committee to receive reports from the Monitoring Officer on all aspects of member training, not just training on ethical issues.

The Committee noted:

·       the evaluation of the training delivered in 2018 (Appendix 1) which indicated that while feedback was positive overall there remains scope for improvement.

·       the training proposals for 2019-20 (Appendix 2) which build on the current approach of compulsory training in code and licencing; optional planning sessions and additional optional sessions on unconscious bias, mental wellbeing and the effective use of social media.

·       the outline proposals (Appendix 3) for the development of a member training programme for 2020-24.

In response to a question from the Committee the Monitoring Officer advised that training for parish councillors was the responsibility of each individual parish council and that the Oxfordshire Association of Local Councils were best placed to provide professional support and training as necessary. 

The Committee commented on the need for all councillors, but especially newly elected councillors, to be kept fully informed of changes to the organisational structure of the Council. The Monitoring Officer undertook to consider how to achieve this and to report back to the next Standards Committee meeting.

The Committee noted that further thought was to be given to the involvement of members and officers with the “project team” tasked with developing the proposals for the member training programme 2020-24 and suggested that the member involvement should be on a cross party basis. The Committee agreed that the Chair and the Monitoring Officer should take the lead in establishing the “project team”.

The Standards Committee resolved to:

1.     Note the evaluation of the programme of training delivered to members in 2018;

2.     Endorse the arrangements for the member training programme for 2019-20 based on the proposals set out in Appendix 2;

3.     Endorse the proposed approach for the development of a new member development and training programme for the municipal years 2020-24.