Issue - meetings

Provisional member induction and training programme

Purpose:

To update the Committee on Member Learning and Development Activities in 2025/26 and provide feedback on the proposed Member Induction Programme for 2026/27.

Recommendations:

That the Audit and Governance Committee resolves to:

1. Note the report;

2. Provide feedback on the Member Induction Programme 2025/26 and how the Council may better engage Members in Member learning and development opportunities.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Ana Prelici, Senior Democratic Services Officer, presented the item the purpose of which was to update the Audit and Governance Committee on member learning and development activities in 2025/26 and provide feedback on the proposed member induction programme for 2026/27.

In the presentation the Senior Democratic Services Officer made the following points:

As part of this committee’s responsibility for promoting standards, it had a responsibility to secure adequate training for members.
Following the last update of this sort in March 2025, the report presented a yearly update on member learning and development activities that had taken place and those that were planned for 2025/26.
The presentation of the report was also an opportunity for members to give feedback.

Overall attendance for learning and development sessions had been reasonable.
The highest member attendance at a development session was twenty-eight.
Briefing attendance had generally been good, with forty members attending in the past year.
Attendance for both briefings and development/learning sessions had decreased after the summer. To explore this, Democratic Services had sought feedback from members via the member development and training survey which is in annex A. The feedback on the topics was generally positive, however page 179 of the pack showed that the best date for members was quite split. The frequency of briefings and learning sessions had also increased, so it could be due to diary conflicts and “briefing fatigue”.
Members suggested topics for briefings within the survey, and these had been included in the briefing and development plan at annex C. Since the publication, a cyber-security briefing had also been scheduled for 17 September 2026.
The full draft schedule of training and development was at annex C of the report, and officers would welcome any feedback on this, as well as training and development generally.

In the discussion the following points were raised:

The difference between learning and development opportunities, training and briefings was discussed. Officers suggested that briefings tended to be around key projects, whereas training was to provide members with knowledge required to sit on specific committees.
Members suggested that it would be useful to be given further information on how to access training and allow them to check what had been completed. Officers advised the Democratic Services maintained a list of member training attendance.
It was suggested that the planning training should not be provided straight after Annual Council as had been done previously. Officers would take this view into account for the next session.
The ability to access the ModGov software was discussed.
Members generally praised the training provision and encouraged officers to continue to promote the online on-demand offering.

Councillor Carl Rylett, Chair of the Audit and Governance Committee, proposed the recommendations of the report. This proposal was seconded by Councillor Sandra Simpson.

The Audit and Governance Committee resolved to:

Note the report;
Provide feedback on the Member Induction Programme 2025/26 and how the Council may better engage Members in Member learning and development opportunities.

Issue - meetings

Provisional member induction and training programme

Meeting: 19/03/2026 - Audit and Governance Committee (Item 120)

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