Agenda and minutes

At this point in the meeting, members are invited to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have in the business on the Agenda.

Members were invited to declare at this point in the meeting any personal or prejudicial interests they might have in the business on the agenda.  None were declared.

RESOLVED:             That the minutes of the last meeting held on 31 March 2010 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

RESOLVED:             That the minutes of the meeting held on 31 March 2010 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

It is at this point in the meeting that Members of the Public who have registered their wish to speak can do so. The deadline for registering is 5pm on Tuesday 18 May 2010.

It was reported that there had been no registrations to speak under the Council’s public participation scheme.

This report gives members an update on progress with gathering evidence for the Council’s submission towards achieving I&DeA Member Development Charter Status.

Members considered a report which updated them on the progress made with gathering evidence for the Council’s submission towards achieving I&DeA Member Development Charter Status.

Officers outlined the report and advised that since the last report to the Steering Group, a number of milestones had been achieved towards Charter Status and the point of initial assessment had been reached with an assessment due in early June.

Members commented that they would like to have the chance to speak to the I&DeA assessors. Officers advised that Members would get the opportunity in the final stages of assessment to speak to the assessors.

RESOLVED:             That Members noted the current position on where evidence is or will be available for achieving Charter Status and made the comments as detailed above.

REASON:                  In order to comply with the requirements of the I&DeA Charter.

This report gives members the opportunity to feedback any comments received from their political groups as part of the consultation process in establishing a number of profiles for key roles which are held by York’s elected members.

Members considered a report which gave them the opportunity to feedback any comments received from their political groups as part of the consultation process in establishing a number of profiles for key roles which are held by York’s elected members,

At the last meeting of the Member Development Steering Group held in March, Members had considered a report which introduced a range of 7 individual role profiles for Members. Since that meeting, the profiles had been shown to the political groups for comments, and steering group Members reported the following feedback:

• Page 29, under the Opposition Leader role profile -  Members highlighted that the following statement was also relevant to the role profile for the Leader and Deputy Leader  -  ‘To nominate members of his/her group to serve on formal and informal committees, sub groups, and where appropriate, local outside bodies’…
• A Member suggested that the role profile for elected members should refer to the work members do with Officers and Community Members and Consultee’s on the adoption and amendment of policy statement.

Officers clarified that the role profiles are intended to be for guidance only and therefore did not need to go through Council for approval. Officer’s asked Members of the steering group to clarify this with their respective groups.

RESOLVED:             That Members confirmed their support for the introduction of role profiles for Members in York and to re-endorse or amend the profiles as set out in Annex A further to Group consultation.

REASON:                  In order to comply with the requirement of the I&DeA Charter.

Further to the last meeting of the Steering Group in March 2010, this report sets out the final draft of the proposed programme of Member Development events for 2010/2011.

Members considered a report which set out the final draft of the proposed programme of Member Development events for 2010/11.

The final draft programme was tabled at the meeting and Officers informed Members that some revisions had been made following Members comments made at the last meeting of the Steering Group. Members considered the draft final plan and made the following comments and suggestions:

·        It would be useful for all Members to have access to conference handouts/slides. Officers advised they would enquire whether such information is available online and establish if a cost may be involved.

·        Members queried if it would be possible for briefing sessions to be added to the programme to provide Members with information on what each Directorate budget is spent on. In response, Officers advised they would need to look into the best way to go about this, as some information and training is already provided to Members by Finance Officers. In particular, an annual report which is brought to Effective Organisation Scrutiny and it may be that Officers could further develop what they already provide.

·        Members commented that more networking events and regional shared training would be useful.

·        It would be useful to have more in-depth e-learning courses.

·        Members suggested changes to the order which the subjects of the Pre-Council seminars were listed in the draft programme. The Senior Member Support officer advised the changes would be made and the draft programme re-circulated to all Members.

RESOLVED:             That Members approved the final draft Member Development Programme with the suggestions above.¹

REASON:                  To enable arrangements for the delivery of the planned events for 2010/2011 to commence.