Agenda and minutes

The Chairman wished to pass a vote of thanks and appreciate for the work undertaken to members of this Panel, Councillors Austen, Littleboy and St. John, who were retiring from the Council and not standing in the forthcoming election.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 17^th February, 2011 were agreed as a correct record.

Reference was made to Minute No. 41 (Localism Bill) and the importance of further training once the contents of the Bill were known in more detail.

Councillor Austen suggested that once further detail was known about the Bill that training be arranged and incorporate some information from the four organisations who had been granted Government funding to assess the correlation between the neighbourhood planning aspects with the localism proposals.

The Panel were mindful of the implications of the Localism Bill and requested that they receive an update on a regular basis.

Consideration was given to the successful achievement of the Member Development Charter and attention was drawn to the accompanying report, which presented the Assessment Team’s findings, based on interviews that took place and documentary evidence.

Rotherham achieved the required standard to be re-awarded Charter status and a number of recommendations were offered to provide a degree of future focus for all those involved in and/or with responsibility for member development.

The Panel considered the detail of each of the recommendations and discussion ensued on the reference to reconfiguration of the start time for meetings, use of plain English in reports, the commissioning of a scrutiny review of member development, the training for Councillors elected at by-elections and exit interviews for Councillors.

Agreed:-  That the re-achievement of the Member Development Charter be welcomed.

Consideration was given to the Members’ Induction Programme commencing from Monday, 9^th May, 2011 and the updated version of the programme which was circulated at the meeting.

It was proposed that the newly elected Councillors sign the declaration of acceptance book immediately following the announcement of the result.

It was also suggested that the induction programme should include some elements of safeguarding with incorporation of social care and that Councillor Doyle be asked to be involved.

In addition, when elements related to scrutiny’s role in how the Council works, Councillor Whelbourn, as Chair of the Performance and Scrutiny Overview Committee, be involved.  Within this session reference also needed to be given to the Localism Bill, the self regulation agenda, new arrangements involving the Local Enterprise Partnerships and the Police Reform.

Agreed:-  That the Induction Programme be supported.

Consideration was given to the information that had been circulated with the agenda from Kirklees to ascertain interest with regards to shared delivery of webcasts and webinars for member development sessions.

The use of webcasts by the South Yorkshire Joint Secretariat was noted and it was suggested that a trial or an example of a webcast/webinar be investigated further and relevant information provided to this Panel.

Agreed:-  That the information be noted.

Podcast resource on the LGID website on social enterprise issues. The podcast has been specifically developed for Councillors.

http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=25909583

Consideration was given to the information that had been circulated with the agenda relating to a podcast resource on the LGID website on social enterprise issues specifically developed for Councillors.

Agreed:-  That the information be noted.

Consideration was given to a Personal Safety Guide for Councillors presented by Neil Perry and Marie Swallow.

The purpose of this guide was to set out what personal safety measures could be taken to prevent and deal with those rare circumstances when a Councillor may become anxious for their safety. 

The guide set out the basics for the holding of ward surgeries, ad hoc visits by constituents to the Town Hall/Eric Manns Building, how to deal with emotional constituents, home visits, personal callers, malicious and nuisance telephone callers, mail, car safety and parking, reporting incidents, notification of known violent customers and training.

Discussion ensued on the need to be extra vigilant and on how best to share information about known violent customers within an Elected Member’s own Ward.

Agreed:-  (1)  That the personal safety guide be issues to all Elected Membes.

(2)  That consideration be given to the best means of sharing information about known violent customers.

Consideration was given to the information that had been circulated with the agenda relating to the Regional Member Development Programme and the key achievements to date and funding support, along with details of the final programme of events due to commence from May through to June/July, 2011.

Agreed:-  That the information be noted.

Consideration was given to the information that had been circulated with the agenda relating to forthcoming training events for Elected Members.

Agreed:-  That the information be noted.

Agreed:-  That the next meeting of the Members’ Training and Development Panel take place on Thursday, 23rd June, 2011 at 2.00 p.m.