Agenda item

8.Code of Conduct and General Member Training Update (Pages 17 - 22)

 

The Democratic and Electoral Manager presented the report to the Committee.

 

?? It was the responsibility of the Standards Committee to ensure high standards

and ensure Members have access to training and development regarding the

Members Code of Conduct.

 

?? Ensuring that members have access to a reasonable level of training and

development. falls under the remit of the Cabinet Member for Education and

Early Years, and the Democratic Services Committee.

 

?? The draft Induction Curriculum set by the WLGA to support Members

following the May 2022 local elections was considered by the Democratic

Services Committee in 2021: a final draft for members at Newport City

Council was shared in February 2022.

 

?? Key principles were focused on such as less is more, as a lot of new

members were elected, and they had to receive a lot of information in a short

time. Training opportunities were centred on Members with training being

made interactive so Members could ask questions.

 

?? Wherever possible members should be provided with learning opportunities at

their convenience, at a time when it is needed and relevant and in a

medium that is appropriate for the topic and activity.

 

?? Other facilitators with a specific expertise were sought to ensure the best

quality knowledge and experience was provided.

 

?? The agreed framework was also designed to be flexible, allowing for changes

as and when required to meet changing requirements.

 

?? There was a tight turnaround with 8 working days last year from the last

election count until the first Council AGM with Hybrid meetings being

introduced for the first time.

 

?? The curriculum then moved to focus on key legislation and preparing

Members for their relevant committees as appropriate, with bespoke sessions

for quasi-judicial committees such as Planning and Licensing.

 

?? In the Summer and Autumn, Councillors were introduced or refreshed on

other key legislation and policy supporting their decision making, such as the

Equalities Act and Safeguarding.

 

?? Councillors were also supported by Heads of Service, who introduced their

services and key policies in areas such as Environment, Public Protection,

and Housing.

 

?? In preparation for the budget setting process, a session on Finance and

Treasury Management was arranged for December.

 

?? Sessions arranged and provided by Newport City Council were augmented by

webinars provided.

 

?? by the Local Government Association on Supporting Councillors with Abuse

and Intimidation, and Personal Safety. There were also short online

cybersecurity courses were sent directly to email accounts covering password

security and phishing activity.

 

?? A table was provided highlighting the Summary of Training by Quarter and the

chart showed that Code of Conduct training attendance was 100%.

 

?? Where possible the sessions were recorded with a mixture of workshops

being hybrid and slides and recordings from the training were provided to

Members.

 

?? A survey will be sent to Members to see what has worked well and what

hasn’t.

 

?? This was a continuous development approach with training being followed.

 

Questions:

 

Gill Nurton noted that Equality & Diversity Training take up is just above 50% and

asked would there be any other sessions.

 

The Democratic and Electoral Services Manager confirmed that there was a lot of

key training on the list to be revisited as well as Planning and Licensing training as it

was recognised that more training will be completed to see if there were any gaps in

knowledge.

 

Gill Nurton commented on Member Training Records of attendance and whether

they were uploaded to the Members Central Personal Development Record, and if

that is the case can these be published on the Member Profiles

 

The Democratic and Electoral Services Manager stated that there had been

interesting discussions with regional groups regarding budgets and how they are

managed in terms of member support. This would be provided in the future to

Committee.

 

Gill Nurton commented on the quasi-judicial Committees mandatory training take up

which was as follows: Licensing Committee 54% & Planning Committee 72% and

was this correct.

 

The Head of Law and Standards stated that this would be picked up with those new

members to make sure all the mandatory training was completed.

 

Councillor Cockeram stated that they were disappointed with the safeguarding

training attendance as safeguarding was such an important issue.

 

The Chair stated that a number of things could be linked to standards, and it was

acknowledged by Councillor Cockeram that some training was more important than

other training.

 

John Davies commented on amendments and whether there was a letter sent that

they signed for.

 

The Democratic and Electoral Services Manager stated that some training is a yearby-year refresher and if there was a big change it was a seminar. There was also a record kept of all members to see who has attended training.

Councillor Cockeram asked about Planning changes as whether the Planning

Committee member received training themselves on an ongoing basis or was this for

all Members and it was confirmed that Planning Committee members received

training on an ongoing basis when Planning changes occurred.

 

Councillor Morris stated that there had been no training previously for Licensing.

However, this was amended as committee members needed to understand the

licensing rules and how they used their power to make decisions in Committee.

 

The Head of Law and Standards confirmed that a Legal adviser attends Planning

and Licensing Committees to make sure that the Committees ran smoothly.

 

The Democratic and Electoral Services Manager explained that another option that

was discussed that was not delivered yet was an E-Learning module, and this can

be checked for attendance and whether members understood the key parts of the

training.

 

The Head of Law and Standards confirmed that 3 sessions had been provided for

the Code of Conduct which explained why the attendance was so good.

 

Gill Nurton stated that it was a shame that formal feedback on the Code of Conduct

Training was not undertaken as it would have been useful information for the

Committee.

 

The Democratic and Electoral Services Manager stated that they were conscious of

survey fatigue so Members could be asked about this through an end of year survey.