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 that there were no Reserve Members in attendance.

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 interests made by Members.

That the minutes of the meeting held on 5 February 2013 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 5 February 2013 be taken as read and signed as a correct record.

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, petitions or deputations were received at this meeting.

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

The Panel received a report of the Divisional Director Human Resources and Development and Shared Services, which provided an update on the Member Development Programme of events that had taken place since the last meeting of the Panel.  The report also sought Members’ views on next steps for achievement of the Member Development Charter and on plans for the Member Development Programme for 2013/14.

The Divisional Director made the following points about Members’ attendance and feedback regarding recent Member Development training events:

·                    most training sessions had been reasonably well attended, however, attendance at one of the Council Tax briefing sessions had been poor;

·                    feedback provided on the evaluation forms for these sessions had been largely positive, and Members had requested further training on most of the topics covered.  However, one Member, who had attended the Personnel Appeals Panel training had indicated that the training session had not been useful;

·                    the EqIA refresher training for Cabinet Members had been well attended and received positive feedback;

·                    the February Quarterly Briefing had been postponed to 2 May 2013 and the March training session had been postponed to 25 July 2013.  It was envisaged that this latter training session would be a launch event for the 2013/14 Member Development programme.

Members asked the following questions and made the following comments:

·                    Members had been given a briefing about Council Tax at Group meetings earlier in the year and the 18 February Council Tax training session had taken place during the week of a By-Election, both of which could account for the poor attendance at both Council Tax training sessions;

·                    a Member who had attended the CIPFA training for GARM Members had in his evaluation questionnaire asked for further information about the ‘Fraud Red Book’, and this information should be forwarded to the relevant Member and Panel Members as soon as possible.

London Boroughs Charter for Elected Member Development: Update on Progress

The Divisional Director stated that the deadline set for submission of additional evidence was the end of May 2013.  He added that taking into consideration the statistics in recent Member Development Panel reports, in his view, Harrow could not currently demonstrate the required levels of Member engagement and commitment as set out in the Charter Assessors’ report.  He proposed that the Panel and Groups should encourage and facilitate increased Member participation in training over the coming year and Harrow could re-apply for the Charter standard at a later date, once it could demonstrate the required level of improved Member engagement with training.

Members made the following comments:

·                    it would be preferable to re-launch the Member Development programme at the launch event in July 2013 and work to incentivise and motivate increased Member engagement with training and development;

·                    the Labour Group was in the process of implementing a contract with its Members, and it was envisaged that attendance at training would be an integral aspect this;

·                    accreditation of Members’ learning and development should be further explored and reported at the next meeting of the Panel.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 72.

1 October 2013.

1 October 2013.