Agenda item

To update the Standards Committee, as part of its agreed work programme, on the current position of mandatory training for Members (and named substitute members) of the Council’s Audit, Licensing & Registration, Planning and Standards Committees.

There was submitted a report (A.1) by the Monitoring Officer which sought to update the Committee, as part of its agreed work programme, on the current position of mandatory training for Members and named substitute Members of the Council’s Audit, Licensing & Registration, Planning and Standards Committees.

The report reiterated the Council’s decision and constitutional requirement to make relevant training mandatory for Members, and their named substitutes, in respect of their membership on those committees which provided regulatory type functions. The report also detailed training undertaken and attendance to date.

Appendix A to the report provided details of those Members who had attended Licensing Refresher Training in October 2020

Members were made aware that members of the Planning Committee had been invited to a session on Section 1 of the Local Plan following receipt of the Planning Inspector’s letter confirming soundness.

It was reported that one Member also received training for the Planning Committee during 2020.

It was also reported that a Member Training Session on Planning Appeals had been held on 20 April 2021, where with the exception of one member, the Planning Committee members all attended together with a number of other interested members.

It was noted that due to the current COVID-19 Pandemic Members had received training to enable them to continue conducting Committee meetings remotely using Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams and there had also been regular All Member Briefings throughout the year.

The mandatory training referenced in this report also formed part of the overall training provision for all Councillors within the framework established by the Council’s “Councillor Development Statement” as reported to this Committee on 2 October 2019 (Minute 14 referred).  It was clear that the development of that overall training provision as envisaged in the Statement had been adversely impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.  However, other training had been enhanced to address, for instance, use of IT for remote meetings and undertaking scrutiny in a remote meeting setting.  

In relation to the general position on training for Councillors, Council on 16 March 2021 had endorsed the following as part of its consideration of the report of the Monitoring Officer on the outcome of the latest review of the Constitution:

“that the views and wishes expressed by the Review of the Constitution Portfolio Holder Working Party in relation to Members’ training and development be endorsed and that the Head of Democratic Services & Elections be requested to take all necessary action to implement those wishes as soon as possible.”

The specific views expressed by the Review of the Constitution Portfolio Holder Working Party, included:

“There was support from Members for E-learning and a webinar based approach especially an E-learning modular approach whereby participants had to answer Questions to a high enough success rate in order to be deemed to have sufficient knowledge of that topic and be Passed;

Essex County Council be put forward as an approach to emulate; and

Officers investigate a suitable mechanism for regular Member input going forward such as a cross-party Member Working Group.”

It was intended to take the above forward following the elections on 6 May 2021 in view of restricted capacity among Officers and Councillors prior to that.

Members asked questions of the Monitoring Officer specifically in relation to the continuation of remote meetings and the Monitoring Officer confirmed that the legislation that allowed remote meetings to take place during the COVID-19 Pandemic was due to end on 7^th May 2021 and that the Government had not renewed the legislation.  This would mean that after that date meetings would have to be held in person.

The suggestion of the Constitution Review Working Party to have regular Member input in the form of a cross-party Member Working Group in relation to E-Learning was discussed and Councillor Turner expressed a willingness to be the Committee’s representative on such Working Group.  All the Members of the Committee agreed with the suggestion.

It was moved by Councillor Land, seconded by Councillor Steady and:-

RESOLVED that the Committee -

(a)   notes the contents of the report and its Appendix;

(b)   continues to encourage Members of the Planning, Licensing and Registration and Audit Committees to attend organised mandatory training events in order to comply with the requirements of the Council’s Constitution and;

(c)   To appoint a member of the Standards Committee on the Cross-Party Member Working Party and at the current time the representative would be Councillor Turner.