Agenda item - Monitoring Officer's Report

Agenda item

Monitoring Officer's Report

[To receive a report from the Monitoring Officer on matters of relevance to the Committee, and to include the following:

(a)       Member Investigations and Associated Matters;

(b)       Complaints for Local Assessment; and

(c)        Member Training:

(i)         To note Member training relating to ethical governance issues which has been undertaken since the last meeting of the Committee and training which has been arranged for the future;

(ii)        Update on Training Programme for Parish Councils; and

(iii)       Review of the Ethical Framework elements of the Member Development Programme.]

Minutes:

The Committee noted the report of the Monitoring Officer contained in the agenda papers and the following issues were highlighted:

 

Complaints for Local Assessment

 

Regarding the local assessment statistics at Appendix 2 to the report, the Deputy Monitoring Officer advised that the final determination detailed for the period July to September 2008 related to a complaint which had been made under the old regime (as set out in paragraph 3.2 of the report) and not local assessment.

 

Member Training

 

In accordance with Constitutional requirements, all members of the Planning Committee had now received the requisite training in order to carry out their functions on the Committee.  Councillor Miss Campbell had also undertaken a training session with the Monitoring Officer for the Standards Committee and two Members were due to complete Scrutiny training. 

 

The Committee was advised that, at its meeting on 13th October 2008, the Council had approved changes to the existing overview and scrutiny functions.  For a trial period until 30th April 2009, the functions, which had previously been performed by the Scrutiny Steering Board, would be separated and instead an Overview Board and a Scrutiny Board would be created.  Members sitting on the new Boards would receive training on their roles by the end of the current municipal year.

 

General chairmanship training had been arranged for Members on 26th November 2008, which Parish Council chairmen would also be invited to attend.  Separate chairmanship training, specifically tailored to the needs of the Standards Committee's Independent Members, was also to be arranged. 

 

Training for Parish Councils

 

It was agreed that officers would liaise with the parish councils, via both the Worcestershire County Association of Local Councils (CALC) and the Parish Council Forum, over the development a training programme for Parish Councils.  Once views had been obtained as to the preferred nature of such training a final report would be referred to the Committee for consideration. 

 

Review of the Ethical Framework elements of the Member Development Programme

 

The Monitoring Officer referred to the Ethical Governance Health Check Report which had been issued by the Improvement and Development Agency in March 2007, together with the consequential action plan which had been produced to address some of the issues identified in this.  The Council's Improvement Plan had, at the time, included dates for completion of some of the ethical governance issues, with the 2008/09 Improvement Plan setting out the ethical governance issues which needed to be addressed over the following 12 months.

 

Independent Member Vacancy

 

Members were advised that a total of eight applications had been received for the forthcoming Independent Member vacancy, with three candidates due to be interviewed for the position on Monday, 20th October 2008. 

 

Cardiff University Case Study   

 

Following interviews which had recently taken place at the Council House, the latest position in relation to the case study being undertaken by the School for Central and Local Government Research at Cardiff University was queried.  Officers advised that Dr James Downe, who was heading the project, was due to issue a report on his findings.  It was not known, however, when the report would be available and officers agreed to check the position and report back to the Committee accordingly.

 

RESOLVED that the updates provided be noted.

Supporting documents: