Agenda item
Member Induction Programme 2022
Minutes:
Matthew Mannion, Head of Democratic Services introduced the report and referred the Committee to the draft Member Induction Plan in preparations for the May 2022 elections. Mr Mannion explained that the Plan had incorporated the changes taken on board from feedback and extensive consultation with Officers, Members, CLT directorates, Members Seminars and the Standards Committee. The core elements of the induction plan were noted which included, administrative functions and setup, statutory/corporate duties, introductions and orientation, training and seminars on specific subject areas.
Mr Mannion highlighted that this was the final draft as the overall structure was unlikely to change much, subject to small changes around adding and removing dates amending timings, amalgamating, or dividing some of the seminars and any feedback from the Committee.
The following feedback from the Committee was noted;
- Clarity was sought on the purpose of some of the seminar sessions whether it were to support members with casework, understanding the policy or how to shape and influence policies and it was suggested that it would be useful to distinguish and detail which sessions were workshops, training, or information sharing.
- To prioritise sessions that would immediately impact on Members, such as having the session on ‘what makes a good Members Enquiry’ further up the plan as opposed to the session on ‘corporate parenting and safeguarding’ which could be held slightly later in the plan.
- To explore the option of a weekend session to cover the core elements of the induction and then spacing out the trainings and seminars according to relevance and need.
- That a contact information list including officer details and service areas to be made available to Members at the onset.
- To look at the option of linking Culture and Sport/Leisure Services together with Public and Mental Health.
- Consider moving seminars on Finance up on the induction plan.
- To consider using external facilitators to help facilitate some of the sessions as it would allow Members to get a different perspective and a better context of how the things work across local government as opposed to just Tower Hamlets.
Mr Mannion welcomed the feedback and responded to the following;
- That he would speak to the relevant directorates and would look at the descriptions of the sessions and specify what types of sessions they were.
- Feedback from Member seminars, indicated a strong support to space out the sessions for Members to comprehend learning.
- That an information list with details of key officers and services would be made available to Members and all information would also be available via the Members Hub.
- That various open afternoons/evenings sessions would be held by Democratic Services to help and support Members with questions/queries.
Mr Mannion encouraged Members of the Committee to contact him if they had any further feedback.
It was noted that Members represented the Council at a number of meetings of Outside Bodies and there were no proper channels where the work being carried out could be reported to. The Chair suggested that the Committee look at ways for Members to feedback and report on the work that is being done on outside bodies where Members are representing the Council.
The Committee welcomed the report and noted the good work being undertaken.
Accordingly, the General Purposes Committee;
RESOLVED
1. To note the comments made on the report.
2. Subject to the comments made, the final draft Induction Plan to be agreed.
3. The Committee to receive a further update report at its 22nd March meeting.
Supporting documents:
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Member Induction Programme 2022, item 4.7
PDF 242 KB
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Appendix. 1 for Member Induction Programme 2022, item 4.7
PDF 269 KB