Agenda and minutes
Venue: Siambr Hywel Dda, Council Offices, Caernarfon, Gwynedd, LL55 1SH
Contact: Sion Owen 01286 679665
No. | Item |
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ELECTION OF VICE-CHAIRMAN To elect a Vice-Chairman for this committee for the remainder of 2018-19. Minutes: RESOLVED:
To elect Councillor Anne Lloyd Jones as Vice-chair of this Committee. |
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DECLARATION OF PERSONAL INTEREST To receive any declarations of personal interest. Minutes: No declarations of personal interest were received. |
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The Chairman shall propose that the minutes of the meeting held on 25 October 2018 be signed as a true record. Minutes: The Chair signed
the minutes of the previous meeting of this committee held on 25 October, 2018 as a true record. |
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LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT PROVISION FOR MEMBERS PDF 156 KB To give an overview of the Learning and Development provision for Members and highlight successes, challenges and developments. Minutes: Submitted - the report of the Learning and
Organisational Development Manager providing an overview of the learning and
development provision for members and noting the successes and the challenges
they had experienced. He noted the following points: - That
the provision had received very positive feedback - That
the learning and development programme was continuing to evolve, including
items that had been proposed by members. - There
was an opportunity to hold personal development conversations to discuss their
needs, and a mentoring scheme was available. - Attendance
had been inconsistent at the sessions and the service was trying to be flexible
in terms of the location and times of sessions and was experimenting with
technology. Observations from the discussion: - That
holding most of the sessions in Caernarfon had proven to be an obstacle for the
Meirionnydd members and a wish was noted for more
learning and development sessions to be held at Council offices in Dwyfor and
Meirionnydd. - There
was a need for the mentoring scheme to be available to newly elected members. - Had
any members who had been identified and qualified as mentors
had the opportunity to mentor? - That
the personal development conversations had been appreciated. - Were
there plans to expand the e-learning provision? - That
it was common amongst new members to be uncertain which officers should be contacted in relation to ward matters, and that
specific training should be held on Council structures. - Whilst
the importance of learning and development had been acknowledged, that the fact
that the sessions were not mandatory meant that members did not prioritise
them. Was there any suggestion that the training sessions could become
mandatory in future? - The
sessions held at the end of 2018 and the beginning of 2019 to discuss the
2019-20 budget had been held in an effective manner,
and a request was made to hold similar sessions regularly. - The
officers were thanked for their work and support. In response the Learning and Organisational
Development Manager noted the Committee's observations and added that he was
aware that a mentoring relationship had been established between some members,
and that the service's direction in future was to hold more learning and
development opportunities through digital methods. The Democratic Services Manager noted that a
number of new members had made the same comment regarding confusion in trying
to refer ward matters to the appropriate officers, and that this would need to be addressed when inducting new members. He suggested it would be beneficial for
Members who had received good learning and development experiences to mention
it to other members and to spread the message.
He added that making members' training mandatory had
been mentioned in consultation documents in local government work, but
there was no assurance as to which requirements would be included in the final
legislation. |
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ELECTED MEMBERS' ANNUAL REPORTS PDF 64 KB Consider any amendments to the reports and the arrangements for producing them. Additional documents: Minutes: The Democratic Services Manager presented
her report and stated whilst there was a statutory requirement for the Council
to enable members to publish annual reports, there was no requirement for any
individual member to do so. The Committee was invited to
offer its observations on the reports and the process for creating them. Observations from the discussion: - That
removing attendance statistics and the details of committees' work from the
report and including them in a link was a step backwards. - It
was welcomed that the content of the report focused on
the members' work in their wards, as this was important to the electors. - There
was a need to make the link to the reports more visible. - There
was no need to produce annual reports as the electors
of conscientious members would already be aware that their members were serving
them tirelessly. - How many of the public read the reports? - Would
it be possible to include links to the members' local newsletters? - Were
there any additional costs to generating the reports? In response, the Democratic Services Manager
noted that the emphasis had changed to ward work as the latest details of
members' attendance etc. were published on the
Council's website. She added that the
use of the web page that included the annual reports increased substantially as
an election approached. She confirmed that there were no costs beyond staff
members' time to produce the reports, and while she would look into sharing
ward newsletters, any material would have to go through the Council's editorial
processes before being published on the corporate
website. The Head of Democratic Services added that
the annual reports were one of many methods of communicating with electors, and
that individual electors received information in many different ways. |
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DEMOCRATIC SERVICES COMMITTEE MEETINGS PDF 63 KB To consider the number of general Committee meetings held during the municipal year. Minutes: Submitted - the report of the Democratic
Services Manager noting that the committee's workload followed a cycle that
reached its peak around election time. In the time between elections, the
workload was less and this was also in the workload of
democratic services committees of other councils. She noted that there was a
statutory requirement for the Committee to convene a minimum of once a year,
however no maximum had been noted and there was a need
to structure the years' meetings to meet Gwynedd's needs. Discussions regarding
rationalising meetings had also been held at other committees.
Observations from the discussion: - That three formal meetings
a year was sensible in the middle of an election term. - That
the meetings needed to be timed so they were held at
the right times for the Committee to fulfil its purpose. - There
was a need to revisit the work of promoting diversity in democracy. - It
was anticipated that the Committee's workload would
increase when the Welsh Government's next local government legislation would be
published. - There
was a need to evaluate the number of members on all Council committees,
especially given it was likely that the number of Gwynedd Council members would
fall following the next election. In response, the Head of Democratic Services
noted that members were welcome to propose items of the Committee, especially
if there was a link to services for members. There would also be an opportunity
for the diversity sub-group to work with the project group that was working on
achieving the 'Women in Leadership' priority which had
been proposed in the Council Plan for the 2019 review. The Democratic Services manager noted that
reducing the number of the Committee's formal meetings would lead to having
more time available to drive forward the work of the Committee's sub-groups.
Shee added that it would be possible to call an additional meeting of the
Committee should the workload merit this. It was proposed and seconded to hold three
formal meetings a year from 2019-20 onwards RESOLVED: To change the scheduled meetings
of the Democratic Services Committee from 4 meetings a
year to 3. |
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2019-20 COUNCIL MEETINGS CALENDAR PDF 36 KB To consider the Council’s committes calendar for 2019-20 Additional documents: Minutes: Submitted - the report of the Head of
Democratic Services presented by the Democratic Services Manager submitting the
draft version of the calendar of Council meetings for 2019-20. She noted there would
be a need to reorganise the dates of the meetings of this committee in light of
their previous decision. She added that
discussions had been held with other committees to
rationalise the number of meetings, and whilst the Standards Committee had agreed
to rationalise, the discussions of other committees were not mature enough to
be able to reach a decision for the 2019-20 calendar. A committee member noted that the date of
the Aberdyfi Harbour Committee had been set too soon in the autumn and should be moved to a later date to give officers the time to
produce a more comprehensive report on the activities of the holiday season. |