The Senior Democratic Services Officer introduced the report which set out the current Members Training and Development programme offered to all Elected Members in order to assist them in their work.

Councillor Snell felt that all Members should attend courses offered through the Members training programme, and although he appreciated some Councillors may struggle with some daytime courses due to work commitments, all courses should be mandatory and a known requirement before Councillors stood for election.

The Committee felt that the Members Training Programme would benefit if there was a form of accreditation Members could achieve through the completion of courses.

The Committee highlighted that resilience was required from all Group Leaders to ensure that Members bought into compulsory courses.

Members felt that it was only right that when they expected officers to be of excellent quality that Councillors should also be of excellent standard and training courses would assist with performance.

Councillor Stewart felt that training should be mandatory for all new Members and suggested that training courses should be split between those for new members and those for existing members so that the content was targeted appropriately. 

Councillor Stewart further observed that Members had a duty of care and as a result suggested that the performance of Councillors should be reviewed every 6 or 12 months.

Councillor Kerin highlighted the fact that he sometimes found it difficult to attend daytime courses due to work commitments, and felt that online training should be further developed to enable Members to complete the required training at home in the evenings or weekends.

The Committee agreed that it was important to improve the accessibility of training and that Members should be held accountable. It was suggested this could be improved through the introduction of webinars, recommended reading lists, Group Meetings and videos.

The Committee agreed to establish a Working Group in order to further identify ways that the Members Training and Development Programme could be improved. The Senior Democratic Services Officer advised that Group Leaders would be approached to seek nominations to the Working Group.

As a result Members agreed to amend the wording of recommendation 1.2 to read as follows:

“That officers to form a working group with Members to identify innovative and accessible ways to enhance the Member Development and Training Programme in Thurrock, such as through the development of a regional Member Development Programme, an Online Training Portal and to identify a list of mandatory training courses for Members.”

RESOLVED:

1.         That the Committee comment upon the quality and breadth of the current Members Training and Development Programme.

2.         That officers to form a working group with Members to identify innovative and accessible ways to enhance the Member Development and Training Programme in Thurrock, such as through the development of a regional Member Development Programme, an Online Training Portal and to identify a list of mandatory training courses for Members.

3.         That each Political Group nominate a “Training Advocate” to act as a lead liaison between Elected Members and Democratic Services in order to help identify which skills Members wish to develop and promote the training courses on offer.