Agenda and minutes

To note the attendance at this meeting of any duly appointed Reserve Members.

Reserve Members may attend meetings:-

(i)                 to take the place of an ordinary Member for whom they are a reserve;

(ii)               where the ordinary Member will be absent for the whole of the meeting; and

(iii)             the meeting notes at the start of the meeting at the item ‘Reserves’ that the Reserve Member is or will be attending as a reserve;

(iv)              if a Reserve Member whose intention to attend has been noted arrives after the commencement of the meeting, then that Reserve Member can only act as a Member from the start of the next item of business on the agenda after his/her arrival.

RESOLVED:  To note the attendance at this meeting of the following duly appointed Reserve Member:-

To receive declarations of disclosable pecuniary or non pecuniary interests, arising from business to be transacted at this meeting, from:

(a)               all Members of the Panel;

(b)               all other Members present.

RESOLVED:  To note that there were no declarations of interest.

To appoint a Vice-Chairman of the Panel for the Municipal Year 2012/13

RESOLVED:  That Councillor Ann Gate be appointed Vice-Chairman of the Panel for the Municipal Year 2012/13.

That the minutes of the meeting held on 3 April 2012 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 3 April 2012 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

To consider and confirm the Panel’s Terms of Reference

RESOLVED:  That the Terms of Reference be noted.

To receive questions (if any) from local residents or organisations under the provisions of Executive Procedure Rule 51 (Part 4D of the Constitution).

RESOLVED:  To note that no public questions were put, or petitions or deputations received at this meeting.

Report of the Divisional Director of Human Resources and Development and Shared Services

The Divisional Director introduced the report which detailed the current state of Member Development against the Charter, stated the actions required to meet the requirements of Charter and the highlighted the future steps to attain Charter Plus.   

The officers then explained the current situation and made the following comments:

·                    the evidence had been evaluated against the requirements for Charter and then restructured against the criteria;

·                    new and old evidence had been evaluated against the criteria for Charter Plus.  There were some gaps in the evidence for Charter Plus, such as personal development plans for Members, 360 degree appraisals and shared Member and officer development and training events;

·                    there were some criteria for the Charter which did not have evidence at present and these were Member feedback from training events, examples of Members sharing knowledge with external partners and feedback from the induction process;

·                    it was suggested that a survey of Members was carried out to obtain the required feedback and that some development events involving Members and officers would be held;

·                    the re-assessment of Charter status could take place at present and an assessment for Charter Plus status could be considered after the next election and evidence from the induction programme could be included;

·                    the Corporate Strategy Board had considered the gap analysis and were supportive of shared development events for Members and officers, especially for key strategic issues.

Members made a number of comments on the current status of the Charter which the officers responded to as follows:

·                    in the past, there had been action learning teams which involved Members and officers but these had not been built on as successfully as they could have.  360 degree appraisals had been piloted, which some Members had found useful, and personal development plans for Members had been included in the e-learning package but these had not had the desired take up;

·                    there was a need to offer support for development processes, such as 360 degree appraisals and it was likely that this support would continue to be IT enabled;

·                    it was accepted that Member development events would be unlikely to achieve attendance by all Members and that there were difficulties engaging some Members in the process.  One of the values of the Charter was that it was a tool to assess Member Development against benchmarks and good practice.  It provided assurance that the Council was meeting the standard for a good organisation in relation to Member development;

·                    the cost of the re-assessment was £2,000 for a three year period.  The cost of officer time would need to be calculated.

The Members of the Panel made the following comments:

·                    a wider analysis of the benefits of the Charter was required rather than a simple cost per capita analysis;

·                    there was need to be aware of the actual costs;

·                    attendances at development events was cyclical and dependent on various factors, such as the point in the electoral cycle as attendances tended to be lower towards the end of the 4 year Council term  ...  view the full minutes text for item 53.

Report of the Divisional Director of Human Resources and Development and Shared Services

The Divisional Director introduced the report which updated the Panel on the Member Development Programme of events which had taken place since April 2012 and the progress of the Member Development Programme in 2012.  

During the discussion on the Member Development Programme, Members raised a number of issues which the officers responded to as follows:

·                    the quarterly briefings were popular and the format worked well.  It was anticipated that a similar format would be used for shared Member and officer events considering more strategic issues, such as welfare reform;

·                    there was a need to reconsider the remainder of the Member Development Programme for 2012 as a number of the courses were being repeated and were mandatory.  Consideration would be given to holding repeated sessions on the same evening as this would create additional capacity in the Programme for development events on other topics;

·                    OPM would be approached and asked to consider some development events based on real issues with tangible outcomes.  It was likely that attendance levels would increase if the development events were outcome related;

·                    a report considering alternative development event ideas would be submitted to the next meeting.

A Member of the Panel expressed support for shared development events and stated that action learning sets should be considered.  In addition, events which involved Members, officers and local residents could usefully be included as part of a revised Development Programme.  Another Panel Member stated that Member Development events were promoted at Group meetings and this would continue.

RESOLVED:  That the report be noted.

7 November 2012

RESOLVED:  To note that the next meeting would be held on 7 November 2012.