Issue - meetings

Purpose: To agree the proposed Four-Year Plan for Member Development and the Member Development Programme for 2025/26. Both of these were considered by the Member Development Group at their meetings on 24 October 2024 and 21 January 2025 and have been recommended to be approved by Council.

Council considered a report (Agenda Item 13) concerning the Member Development Programme (MDP).

MOTION: Proposed by Councillor Vicky Poole and seconded by Councillor Jeff Brooks:

“That Council:

A)    Approve the proposed Four-Year Plan for Member Development.

B)    Approve the proposed Member Development Programme 2025/26.

C)   Authorise the Service Lead - Legal & Democratic to regularly review and amend these documents where necessary throughout the Municipal Year to ensure it remains relevant and fit for purpose.

D)   Encourage the Group Leaders to use all reasonable endeavours to secure attendance by Members at all relevant training as detailed within the Programme.

Councillor Poole introduced the report and highlighted that the MDP was traditionally an annual item, but that the current report had taken a broader scope than usual. Council was presented with the expected Member Development Plan across a typical four-year Council term. The contributions of the cross-party Member Development Group were also noted, as they had helped develop the new format, scope, and sessions proposed.

Each session in the plan was reviewed in order to ensure that it was providing sufficient value at the time it was being scheduled during the four-year Council term.

Council noted that the primary change in the MDP was the focus on including virtual training. Although in-person training was still a feature, as many sessions as possible would be provided through a new learning portal which would allow Members to complete sessions in their own time. Members also highlighted recommendation D and encouraged Group Leaders to promote attendance and completion of training sessions.

Some Members noted that a contact list of key Officers would be very valuable for handling casework and would ensure that questions went to the correct person. In addition, a session on engaging with technology was also proposed as this would assist those Members who were not as familiar with using the current suite of Council technologies.

Overall, as Council were satisfied with the report and with the recommended approach to Member Development, they agreed to approve both the Four-Year Plan for Member Development and the Member Development Programme for 2025/26.

The Motion was put to the meeting and duly RESOLVED.