Agenda and minutes

No members of the public present.

The Group to be notified of any substitute members.

Councillor Jean Taylor substituted for Councillor Ray Auger and Councillor Ray Wootten substituted for Councillor Nick Robbins for this meeting only.

Members are asked to disclose any interests in matters for consideration at the meeting.

None disclosed.

(Enclosure)

The notes from the meeting held on 30th November were agreed as a correct record of the decisions taken.

The Group were informed that the dog fouling issue was being looked into by the Environmental Health Team and an update would be given at a future meeting.

A Member referred to the ICT provision which was discussed at the last meeting. The Chief Executive said that the paper had been brought to the PDG as a mid-term information paper which highlighted issues that the IT team were looking at with regard to technology and to get Member feedback on their usage of their laptops.  Work was still being done on the pros and cons, especially as technology moved on daily, however, the role out of any new equipment would not be until after the elections in 2015.

A further question was asked about whether the early closure of the offices at Christmas had any effects.  The Chief Executive replied that she had not been made aware of anything and although the offices were closed, certain sections were still on call to reply to urgent requests.

Service Manager - Human Resources and Organisational Development to update Members.

(Papers to follow)

Members had been circulated with report HR&OD115 from the Service Manager Human Resources and Organisational Development (HR&OD), Mrs Joyce Slater, which addressed issues raised by Members at the last meeting of the Group. 

-                  Training for Parish Councils on the Code of Conduct 

There was no single code for Parish Councils with each Parish adopting a code to suit their needs (National Association of Local Councils [NALC] SKDC, or variations on these codes) The variety of codes adopted would make any generic training unsuitable.   However, the District Council was willing to support the Parishes where they could, but it was difficult to understand the scale of demand, especially as not all Parishes had informed the Council what Code they had adopted.

-                  A list of those Members who had attended training since election

Appendix 1 to the report circulated showed a list of how many Members attended particular training.  Some training was better supported then others due to other commitments that Members had.  Where a Member had not attended training which was required, such as quasi judicial training one to one training was arranged. 

-                  A list of training available to Members, itemising core elements

Appendix 2 to the report showed the core training elements in line with the Constitution together other suggested training Members would find useful.  A County wide initiative had been put in place for Members to attend training at other locations; however, the geography of these locations could have influenced attendance. 

-                  Notification of Training

It had been hoped that further county wide training would be available but this had not been the case so the Council was taking its own approach to further training identifying where more training was needed.  Mrs Slater referred to a link on the Local Government Association website:

http://www.local.gov.uk/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=0847a1ac-3eb6-43ad-ab1a-858b28e31cc4&groupId=10171

which was a self assessment toolkit that Members could assess.  This would help Members feedback any further training needs they had.

A discussion then followed about Member training with questions being asked about compulsory training for experienced Councillors and the three Councillors who had not attended training: were they experienced Members?    Mrs Slater replied that the three were experienced Members.   The Constitution required new Members to attend core training and from the feedback received, new Members had found it beneficial to hear the contributions made by the experienced Members, the sharing of information and experiences.  Also those Members who had been re-elected had found it a refresher for their knowledge base.    One Member said that rather than put training on and have poor attendance and associated costs, wait until Members ask to have help with topics.  Mrs Slater replied that often the costs involved were officer time as the majority of the core training had been done in house, it was only the specialist training for the quasi judicial committees that external trainers had been used.  As it had been unknown as to the number of new Members the training programme had been put together in order to give  ...  view the full minutes text for item 101.

Service Manager - Reputation, Communication & Consultation to present draft document.

(Enclosure)

The Reputation, Communication & Consultation Service Manager, Mr Geoff O’Neill gave a presentation to the Group on the draft Communications Strategy which had been circulated with the agenda.  The draft document had been compiled using a very broad brush and it needed comments from Members and the Management Team.   The document was for councillors, partners and staff to ensure that everyone knew how to communicate openly and clearly, that people knew what we were doing and why we were doing it.  Mr O’Neill then spoke about the massive changes that had taken place within the communication industry with the introduction of the internet and social media such as Twitter and Facebook growing daily.  The new strategy would acknowledge this role and how it can be used to influence people.  He referred to the Gravity Fields Festival and how the use of Twitter had generated publicity for the event widely making it the most talked about science festival.  The use of social media had the potential to have a massive impact on major projects such as Grantham Growth and Destination SK and the beauty of it was that it was free.  Mr O’Neill then referred to the short films that had been made showing the Olympic Torch run through the District and the Gravity Fields Festival. The films had been played at the Grantham Arts Centre and the Stamford Arts Centre and sports centres in the District which enabled people who were there to re live their experiences but also gave those who had not attended an insight into what had gone on.  The popularity of the films had meant that people had bought copies with the proceeds going towards the Mayors charities.  The Heritage Lottery had been approached with regard to funding for the Gravity Fields Festival but had been turned down, since the festival had taken place and the film made a further bid had been put in for 2014 and this was being considered which showed the impact pictures and films had.

He then spoke about the local newspapers within the district and the changes that they had made which now included more use of their websites to inform the public of breaking news stories.  The use of newspapers as a communication tool used to be a strong one; however, with the introduction of the internet and social media it was now a dwindling communication tool and this was something that the communications strategy was taking into account.  Newspapers tended to be looked at by older generations with younger generations listening to the radio or using the social media network and all these factors were being taken into account in the communications strategy.

The use of hoardings was also another good way of communicating with a large number of people.  He then referred to the Parish Newsletter, SK Today and Skyline which were all documents sent out by the Council to communicate with various sectors of the district.  All the documents now went through the Communication Team so that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 102.

Copy of motion withdrawn by Councillor Paul Wood

(Enclosure)

Members briefly discussed the motion that had been referred to the PDG and what they wished to do with it. The Chairman asked for the views of the Group. Some Members agreed with the motion referring to Nottinghamshire County Councils return to a committee system whilst others preferred the current governance arrangements.  The Chairman said that more research and information was needed for the Group to discuss the subject more fully.  Although no resource had been allocated to look at the issue the PDG could incorporate it into its work plan.  The issue was one where all parties should have the opportunity to put their views forward and therefore it was suggested that a joint PDG working group look at the issue to include both the Communities and Resources PDG.

Members were given the opportunity to input whether they were for or against the issue.

One Member said that maybe this was something that the people of South Kesteven should have a say in.  The Leader and Cabinet model that had been adopted at Council relatively recently had been consulted on with the public via SK Today and the website although the feedback could have been better.

It was indicated that any new committee system would not be the same as the previous system with everything having to be ratified by the Council; anomalies within that system would need to be addressed. It was agreed that more investigation into the process was required.

>Action Note

Investigation into the Committee system process and research was required before further work could be undertaken by the Group.

(Enclosure)

Members noted the work programme. 

The meeting closed at 12.06pm.