Agenda and minutes

To be notified of the appointment of any Substitute Members.

Councillor J O’Shea for Cllr S Graham

You are invited to declare any registerable and/or non-registerable interests in matters appearing on the agenda, and the nature of that interest.

You are also invited to disclose any dispensations in relation to any registerable and/or non-registerable interests that have been granted to you in respect of any matters appearing on the agenda.

Please complete the Declarations of Interests card available at the meeting and return it to the Democratic Services Officer before leaving the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest or dispensations reported.

To confirm the minutes of the Standards Committee meeting held on 11 July 2019.

Resolved:

That the minutes of the previous Standards Committee meeting held on 11 July 2019 be confirmed and signed by the Chair subject to the agreed correction to the attendee list.

To consider a report on Member Development.

The Committee considered the report which advised the committee on the completion of elected member mandatory training.  It was noted that around two thirds of members had completed general mandatory training and most members had completed the training required to sit on regulatory committees where this applies to them.

It was noted that a structured programme of member training for Audit Committee members is in development following a review of the committee’s arrangements.

Members highlighted that some members may not be confident about accessing the e-learning modules and that it might be helpful to offer one-to-one support to complete e-learning modules as appropriate. 

It was suggested that group leaders should be approached to raise the matter with individual members who have not completed the necessary training, with a view to ensuring all members are trained before March 2020.  A further report should be submitted to the Committee after this date.

It was agreed that:

•           Members be offered one-to-one support in relation to e-learning modules as required;

•           Group leaders be contacted and provided with information on individual members with mandatory general or committee training is outstanding and ask that they encourage members to complete all training by the end of February 2020.

•           That a further report be submitted to the Committee after this date.

To consider the Action Plan/Work Programme 2019/20 of the Standards Committee for the year up to 31 March 2020.

The Committee considered the action plan/work programme for the year up to 31 March 2020.

There was some discussion about the action plan item on invited guests.  Members were asked for their view on whether to continue with this programme as part of the action plan.  It was suggested that it would be interesting to hear from Chairs of the regulatory committees, particularly the Planning Committee, following recent changes, including changes to training for members of the Planning Committee.

It was noted that there are plans to arrange a regional meeting and this is being arranged with other monitoring officers across the region.

It was noted that a Code of Conduct training session had been held in October and this had been modified to include an element on Social Media.  Feedback from members who had attended the training had been positive and it was suggested that the information about social media had been a useful addition and should be continued.

It was noted that training for Independent Persons was likely to be arranged on a one-to one basis.

It was agreed that:

The Chair of Planning Committee, Cllr Lott, be invited to provide information to the next meeting of the Committee on ethical governance and ethical standards in relation to the Planning Committee.