To seek approval of Member training and briefings for 2023/24 and proposed training activities for 2024/25.

The Director of Strategy, Insight and Governance introduced the report and thanked Members for their feedback for supporting new Councillors, which resulted in the following actions:

• The induction would be split over two sessions rather than one as feedback indicated this was too much information for one session. These would be hosted in the evening to allow Councillors with daytime commitments to attend;
  
  
• Councillors would have access to an ‘officer buddy’ from the Wider Leadership Team to assist and direct their concerns and queries;
  
  
• Various training sessions would be held throughout the year and repeated to allow flexibility featuring successful courses from last year including Chairman’s training, Carbon Literacy and Nolan Principles, which were well received, and the regular courses such as Overview and Scrutiny skills, how to use the Constitution appropriately, Planning and Licensing;
  
  
• There were plans for the Communications team to make a video identifying Council officers and various sites in the Borough;
  
  
• There would be appropriate support for Cabinet Members relating to their portfolios; and
  
  
• Introducing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training for Members, which is already in place for officers and should be easy to adapt.

Councillors were pleased with the content of the report and made the following suggestions:

• It was raised that there is a budget available for Councillors that could make use of outside organisations to pursue training of their choosing. It was requested that new Councillors were made aware of this fact;
  
  
• Concerns were raised that the Chairing training sessions were scheduled for later than the first meetings of the municipal year. It was clarified that the first meetings would only involve electing Chairmen, and that the second part of the induction training would include basic instruction and could be amended to include points on Chairing; and
  
  
• That training sessions on the content of the constitution would be useful, both for new and existing Councillors.

RESOLVED: That the approach to Member training for 2024/25 be noted and any additional training requested be agreed.