LMDN Notes - 200111 (PDF, 226Kb) - London Councils

London Member Development Network (LMDN)
Notes of Meeting held on 20 January 2011
IN ATTENDANCE
Fiona Jamieson London Borough of Barking & Dagenham
Victoria Blyth London Borough of Barnet
John Murphy London Borough of Barnet
Elly Cook London Borough of Brent
Solomon Agutu London Borough of Croydon
Anita Patel-Keegel London Borough of Harrow
Cllr Gerald McGregor London Borough of Hounslow
John Lynch London Borough of Islington
Robert Sheppard Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea
Adam Walther London Borough of Lambeth
Dave Burn (Chair) London Borough of Lambeth
Paul Bateman London Borough of Merton
Carole Dungate London Borough of Redbridge
Rhonda St Louis London Borough of Southwark
Beverley McKenzie London Borough of Tower Hamlets
Lynn Rackley London Borough of Waltham Forest
Chas Leslie Local Government Improvement & Development
Lai Chong-Siltola London Councils
Doug Flight London Councils
Kris Hibbert London Councils
Debbie Williams London Councils
APOLOGIES
Apologies for absence were received from Rhianna Rees (Camden), Lorraine Brook (City of
London), Paul Jeffries (Ealing), Paul Stanyon and Melanie Harris (Enfield), Suezanne Awotwi and
Greg Lane (Hackney), Nigel Lindsey and Diane McCormack (Haringey), Johanna Michalski
(Hillingdon), Mary-Ann Lord (Kensington & Chelsea), Ola Olaluwaye (Kingston upon Thames),
Cllr Jack Hopkins (Lambeth), Valerie Clark (Richmond), Bridget Harris (Leadership Centre), Alan
Waters (LGIU) and Grace Collins (LGID).
1. BOROUGH UPDATES
Lambeth
• Series of departmental briefing with members on skills e.g. casework. Have used complaints
system to identify key issues.
• Finance scrutiny training for members on 24 January.
• Packages of other training for scrutiny members.
• Community leadership event on the census on 17 February.
• Corporate parenting and on-going community safety
• Chairing skills
• Developing e-learning around planning.
Redbridge
• Member Development Corporate panel from April 2010.
• Series of training sessions ran up to the summer recess.
• Kris Hibbert recently attended a meeting to discuss a member overview – members now
discussing a way forward.
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Barnet
• Created a cohesive training programme – received good feedback from attendees.
• Success with chairmanship training.
• Media Awareness sessions – very popular.
• Planning for next 3-6 months – difficult to plan when conversations are ‘if you’re here/if I’m
here’.
Barking & Dagenham
• Working through PDP’s – very productive process, which has been interesting.
• Ongoing member training – casework, housing etc.
• Paid a lot of attending to scrutiny. Select Committees have scrutinized the budgets for the
first time.
Request from Select Committee Chairs to visit other authorities to see how they operate –
visiting Islington and the Pubic Accounts Committee at the House of Commons in the next
couple of months.
• Stage 2 training underway – looking at bringing in an assessment for planning – if any
colleagues have any examples of doing this can you please contact Fiona Jamieson.
• Putting out tenders for public speaking. Talking to providers about possible joint training with
Southwark.
Islington
• Annual Member survey – positive and constructive feedback.
• Induction sessions went very well.
• Specific briefings organised e.g. voluntary sector, partners etc.
• Casework up and running.
• Briefing on the census.
• Session on presentation and public speaking.
• Majority group training to involve back-benchers to share their experiences.
Southwark
• Training was reviewed in October by internal steering group, which helped to identify where
the gaps are.
• PDP’s – looked at key training needs from the findings – courses to be run before April 2011.
• Have run lots of conferences and short courses since October 2010.
Harrow
• Set aside one day a month till 2012 – dedicated to member training days – all members are
aware of the dates.
• Split adult and children’s safeguarding training in to separate sessions to make them more
manageable.
• Working with scrutiny as too many clashes with training events.
• Finance and community engagement sessions coming up with scrutiny.
• Members asked for assertiveness training.
• 1:1 sessions with newly elected members to see how they are settling in.
• Changed timings of training courses from 6.30pm to 7pm start.
Tower Hamlets
• Not gone as quickly as usual – everyone’s focus has shifted to what is going to happen now
around governance and what the dynamic will be with an Independent elected mayor and
Labour Cabinet..
• Running media training courses.
• Couple of members LGID’s Academy training
• Not sue what the budget cuts are going to be.
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Kensington & Chelsea
• Ran a full induction programme up until September 2010 – 14-15 new councillors.
• Survey on training needs to happen soon.
• Pursuing re-accreditation with LMDC.
• Member training steering group working very well – 6 members, meet 5-6 times a year.
• Director of Finance ran two sessions on the financial settlement for members. Video
produced for those members who could not attend.
• Joint visit with Hammersmith & Fulham and Westminster to House of Commons to watch a
Select Committee in action.
Waltham Forest
• Initial inductions taken place.
• Re-writing and re-evaluating the training programme due to budget cuts. About to send out a
revised programme and questionnaire to members. Lots of new members – concentrating on
getting them to attend the Leadership Academy.
• Number of training sessions happening with Directorates – e.g. finance, scrutiny.
• New community engagement structure in place. Making members have ward forums.
• Pan-London census briefing on the 8 th February – colleagues from other London boroughs
are welcome to attend.
• Casework systems – if anyone has nay information can they please share with Lynn Rackley.
Hounslow
• Have 15 new councillors – 12 of them didn’t expect to be elected.
• Successful member induction training – also been open to heritage (councillors who have
been councillors before), councillors to attend.
• Finance training – run by Finance Director.
• Internal dynamics around corporate parenting.
• Personal skills – chairmanship training, licensing training. Lost there dedicated Member
Training Officer in 2010 – this is now being coordinated by HR.
• Having a major reorganization as part of budgetary reductions.
Brent
• 30 new councillors out of 63 elected – all keen on training.
• Induction process has been very positive.
• PDP’s have been carried out – next quarterly programme organised on training needs
identified from these.
• Looking at joint training with LB Harrow.
• Awarded the London Member Development Charter.
Croydon
• Planned induction around the annual council meeting but this was brought forward so any
training has been shifted around this.
• Due to the election result (petition), it has been difficult to engage all the members around
training as the outcome culd have changed the administration of the council.
• Two days a month have been highlighted in diaries as training days but will possibly be used
for planning.
• Scrutiny conference in May 2010 which highlighted what specific training members would like
around scrutiny. Courses not being ‘emphasised’ just at scrutiny members. Hoping to run
this conference again.
• Media training skills attended by Cabinet Members.
• Would like to find out from colleagues if they have a members’ room and how they use it.
Contact: Solomon Agutu
• Member training became HR and Democratic services – HR have been restructured so
members training suffered a bit.
• Use a members portal to advertise training or see handouts/materials from training sessions.
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Merton
• Of 60 members 19 were new with no experience.
• Induction started with a fresher’s’ fair.
• Lots of training for members following on from PDP’s.
• Community training.
• 9 th December – general planning programme, which was provided by Trevor Roberts
Associates. Running a more detailed session on 1 March for members.
• Departments getting involved with there own inductions for members.
• Member services will take a low profile in the future.
City of London (not in attendance)
Have recently circulated training and learning needs questionnaire to all 125 Members and
responses are slowly being received. We're hoping to review all returned questionnaires over the
coming weeks and thereafter develop a longer term member training programme which can be
endorsed by the Member Development Steering Group before the recess. This will enable us to
then roll out a clear programme as of September. In respect of other training activities, we're still
looking to arrange at least one Chairing Skills training session for Members - approx. 35
members (old and newer) have expressed an interest in this. Possible training providers include
RADA, Gateway Training and Midas Training Solutions. If anyone has any feedback on these
providers, it would be gratefully received – contact mailto:lorraine.brook@cityoflondon.gov.uk.
Ideally, this will take place over the next 6 weeks.
2. POTENTIAL IMPACT OF BUDGET SAVINGS ON MEMBER DEVELOPMENT –
Dave Burns, Lambeth
All those in attendance at the last meeting of the Member Development network agreed that a
small working meet to have a broader debate around member training. The first meeting of the
group took place on the 10 th December 2010 to try and flesh out the potential of some joint
working. Dave feedback the following:
• Commissioning was identified as an area where it would apply to all.
• Future relationship with London Councils as they have been hit by the cuts.
• How we, as a group, support each other e.g. running sessions, offering spaces on training
courses to neighboring boroughs.
• Supporting each other through these challenging times.
• Providers and the issue of equality. The need to be more forceful in how we deal with
providers to drive costs down.
• Possibility of establishing mentoring and development clubs – we have the where with all to
manage. Good to share these skills within London.
• How to capture information and exploit with ADSO site.
Key conclusions:
• Commissioning – looking at 2011-12 onwards.
Geographically not that easy but in terms of commissioning a provider it is worth trying to get
a reduction in price. As a group we need to find a way of creating a way to communicate
better.
• Mentoring and development clubs – need to think about this.
Agreed to discuss at the next network meeting on 17 th March, the potential budget implications,
as budgets should be known by then.
3. MEMBER DEVELOPMENT DISSERTATION UPDATE – Adam Walther, Lambeth
Adam gave a presentation on his member development dissertation.
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The presentation covered the following:
• Member development – an investigation
• Member conflict
• Professionalization
• Time
• The four P’s of pressure
• How to improve member development
• Member development programmes are strongly supported.
• Recommendations
Adam’s slides are attached.
Microsoft PowerPoint
Presentation
If colleagues would like a copy of Adam’s dissertation or have a chat about his findings please
contact him at mailto:awalther@lambeth.gov.uk or mailto:adamwalther@gmail.com
4. EXPERIENCE OF BEING VIRTUAL MAYOR – Cllr Jack Hopkins, Lambeth
Unfortunately, Cllr Hopkins was unable to attend this meeting but provided the following:
The Virtual Mayor post was something which I was excited about but I think fair to say that I did
not use to the full. I wrote a number of pieces initially about general topics which I thought would
be of interest to other councillors from across London, and across the political spectrum.
My goal was to encourage user generated content but I didn’t even manage this with my own
councillors, many of whom read the links to my pieces but did not comment. I would be interested
to know how many people did come and visit the site.
If I were to go back and do it again I think there has to be some way to send out an update to
group whips or perhaps through member support services in each authority. In this way
interesting comment pieces could be posted; experiences of individual councillors or authorities
on specific topics, etc. As it is, I am uncertain how traffic is generated.
In terms of content this does require a level of commitment which I had initially hoped to be able
to fulfil. The virtual mayor would benefit from being a councillor already in the habit of writing
blogging pieces and therefore perhaps doing a weekly update on the local government world. I
think they would probably benefit from having some guidance early on about sifting through the
week’s stories by way of an update, being clear from the start.
How are Councillors contacted and what updates do they get that make it through the spam filter?
There is little time to do council business vs. numerous emails so more thought needs to go into
how to catch attention and provide relevant content. Case studies of complex, multi agency
casework might be useful which could be requested from all over London.
Therefore the following steps are worth considering for future virtual mayors:
• Clarity on how traffic gets generated to the forum’s or blogs
• Link councillors to ensure content shared in respective authorities
• Clarity on what needs to be communicated to
• Greater content which can be downloaded from the site on common and relevant
challenges
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In outlining my difficulties and suggestions for improvement, I would say that I still think this is a
good idea – If there were a library of case studies or FAQ’s / Podcasts for councillors then
Councillors would get in the habit of reading through any virtual mayor update and posting on the
forum sites.
In a multi website and social media world, the Virtual Mayor needs to get some sort of competitive
advantage.
5. WARD WALKS – John Lynch, Islington
As part of the planning for the 2010 local elections, Members were asked what type of information
they would want to receive once elected. Detailed information on the ward was high on their list.
A wealth of information was available across the council but it was not readily available in one
document or necessarily broken down on a ward basis.
John therefore pulled together all this information into ward information packs for each of the 16
wards.
To complement this, officers also offered councillors ward walks whereby Senior Officers would
take councillors on a walk around the ward to highlight important issues and give an opportunity
for both members and officers to build up good working relationships with each other.
Four Ward walks have been place, which have all received positive feedback. More walks to be
planned in the future. Also found that these walks were good for relationship building between
officers and members.
There is also a member portal of this information electronically.
A copy of a Ward information pack and map are attached for information.
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6. UPDATES
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Apologies were received from Bridget Harris, Leadership Centre and Alan Waters, LGIU.
Local Government Improvement and Development (LGID) - Chas Leslie
As with everyone else, the Local Government group is going through changes but member
development is still very much a priority.
The following programmes are being delivered:
Programme 115 takes place at Warwick Conference Centre, Coventry
Module 1: 5-6 February 2011
Module 2: 12-13 March 2011
Module 3: 9-10 April 2011
2011/2011 Leadership Academy programmes would not be starting until approximately late July.
Leadership Academy Focussed programmes.
Still have some places available on the following:
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Leadership Academy Climate Change Prog 6 - 8-9 March 2011 – Warwick Conference Centre,
Coventry
Fee: The course is offered free to charge to senior elected members as part of the LGID’s
programme on climate change. This covers accommodation, meals, course material and tuition.
Leadership Academy Your Place: Making the Vision a Reality Prog 4 - 15-16 March 2011 –
Warwick Conference Centre, Coventry
Fee: (Free) The £500 fee is fully subsidized by funding from the LGID’s Planning Advisory
Service. This covers accommodation, meals, course material and tuition.
Also following the success of our pilot Leadership Academy Ageing Well Prog 2 more
programme dates have been added.
Leadership Academy Ageing Well Prog 2
19-20 February 2011 – Warwick Conference Centre, Coventry
Leadership Academy Ageing Well Prog 3
22-23 March 2011 – Copthorne Hotel, Newcastle
Fee: The course is offered free of charge to senior elected members as part of the LGID’s
programme on ageing well. This covers accommodation, meals, course material and tuition.
For more information on the above programmes, please click on the link below or contact Grace
Collins at grace.collins@local.gov.uk or 020 7296 6563.
Link: http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=1700429
Workbooks on Stress and Personal Development for Councillors – these have been recently
updated. The workbooks provide a series of distance learning materials aimed at helping all
councillors in their ward roles of community leaders and advocates. They cover a broad range of
generic skills as well as specific issues and service and or policy areas and their impact at ward
level.
Recently held a BME weekend – was very successful and attended mainly by London boroughs.
Developed two podcasts on aspects of the ‘Big Society’ – these will be on the website by end of
February 2011.
Association of Democratic Services Officers (ADSO) – John Lynch, LB Islington
The ADSO covers all those who work in Democratic services. To date there are over 700
members – London membership is the largest. Joining fee is £45.
• Membership now up to 850. The web forum has got a good and interesting exchange of
information.
• ADSO Conference held on 15 & 16 November 2010 went very well. A good range of
speakers and workshops covering civic officers, mayors, democratic services, and the like.
• Workshop organised on the Localism Bill and its implications.
Further information on ADSO training and events, link to:
http://www.asdso.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=24&Itemid=29
For other general ADSO information at: http://www.asdso.co.uk/
Capital Ambition Update – Kris Hibbert
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Kris highlighted the following:
Member Development
Member Development now rests with the Policy & Public Affairs (PAPA) Directorate of London
Councils and will be part of the work of Doug Flight. However, Kris will continue to support the
remaining network meetings (2 x LMDN – today and 17 March, 1 x LSN – 23 February) and the
events which have been arranged so far.
London Councillors Website – decisions re activities/decision making re
promotion/content/continuation beyond April 2011 to be led by PAPA. Reports and slides from
previous events for members are posted there and links sent to encourage logging on. There has
been low usage to date despite numerous attempts to promote it.
London Member Development Charter - Various options exist for continued provision of the
Charter, both from within London Councils or through other arrangements (including through
LGID or another regional organisation such as South East Employers). Kris will see through
Islington’s assessment. This takes place on 27 January.
Events
Information on up and coming events can be found on the attached.
Microsoft Word
Document
7. ANY OTHER BUSINESS
It was Anita’s last meeting. The Chair thanked her for her contribution to the Network nd wished
her well in the future on behalf of everyone.
8. DATE OF NEXT MEETING
17 March 2011, 10am-12.30pm at London Councils offices
Agenda items so far:
• Local arrangements for mentoring and how they can work across London
• The impact of budget cuts on member development and possible ways to mitigate
difficulties
Further suggestions to: debbie.williams@londoncouncils.gov.uk
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