Issue - meetings

The Head of Corporate Services presented the Councillor Learning and Development Policy, for the Group to consider and review before being submitted to Council for adoption.

The Head of Corporate Services confirmed that this was the second time that the Policy had been reviewed and would incorporate any comments made and actions requested by the Group during the meeting.

A member of the Group questioned why in the Policy GDPR training was listed in both mandatory and desirable categories and officers explained that initially face to face sessions had been offered to Councillors; however, as not everyone could attend there were e-learning modules available as well. It was agreed that this was confusing and the Policy would be reflected to amend that.

A member of the Group referred to a recent email received regarding some cybercrime training and asked if this would be happening more frequently. The Head of Corporate Services advised that both officers and Councillors would be undertaking this new training, with the expectation that officers would trial it first, followed by Councillors. Some confusion had occurred as the email had already been sent to Councillors; however, Councillors were not expected to undertake it now, they would be informed about it again later on in the year.

In answer to a question about the training budget, the Head of Corporate Services stated that currently none of the budget had been used for this year and it rarely got fully used, as a great deal of training was run internally.

A member of the Group requested that going forward, if Councillors were being asked to do some training any notification in Councillors’ Connection should be headlined. The Head of Corporate Servicers apologised and stated that there had been a message in Staff Matters and not Councillors’ Connection regarding the cybercrime training, and when the training was rolled out to Councillors, everyone would be sent an email and it would be headlined in Councillors’ Connection.

A member of the Group referred to the Training Request form and asked if that should be publicised more, as she had been unaware of this until recently. The Head of Corporate Services stated that Councillors could use this form and make a request for any training opportunity they saw, and Democratic Services also advertised courses to Councillors. If any cost was involved, then a formal request was required, to ensure that the budget was being managed. Officers agreed to ensure that this was placed in a more prominent place on the Councillors’ Portal and advertised periodically in Councillors’ Connection.

It was RESOLVED that subject to the comments made, the Councillor Learning and Development Policy 2026-2029 be approved and recommended to Council for adoption.