Agenda item

The Committee considered the report of the Monitoring Officer which sought to update Members on the work undertaken by the Working Group to update the arrangements for dealing with Code of Conduct Complaints, the Social Media Protocol for Members and the Member Development Plan.

The Working Group Chair – Councillor L Dales, provided an overview of the work undertaken by the Working Group and commented that excellent work had been undertaken by the Monitoring Officer and colleagues and that all three areas reviewed provided simpler and clear arrangements.

Members discussed the three areas individually.

Code of Conduct Complaints

The Chair sought clarification on what sanctions were in place if Members failed to undertake mandatory training.  The Monitoring Officer confirmed that it was difficult to sanction Members for non-attendance of training, she hoped Members would welcome training.  If there was a data breach or issue, that could lead to wider consequences or sanctions if mandatory training had not been undertaken.  The Chair suggested the repercussions should be made clear regarding certain breaches.

A member asked that it be included in the assessment criteria for investigation that reasonable challenge of officers views should be listed.

Social Media Protocol

The Monitoring Officer thanked the Principal Legal Officer and Communications team for their work on this Protocol. 

A Member commented that the list of examples of social media should include more examples including Whatsapp. A member also recommended that reference should be made to  Two-factor authentication (2FA) in relation to improving safety and security of information.

Member Development Plan

A Member commented that two days allocated for all training in person was a problem and suggested that on-line training be made available.

The Monitoring Officer commented that more than one in-person training session would be offered to Members and confirmed that the in-person training could be recorded for Members to watch at their convenience or online training being made available as suggested.  How training would be made accessible would be addressed by Democratic Services.

A Member commented that Appendix 2 paragraph 15 and 17, should be offered to all Members and not just those with special responsibilities as detailed.  The Monitoring Officer confirmed that amendments to those paragraphs would be made so that a wider group of Members could attend that training.

A Member commented that due to LGR there would not be any future induction training in 2027 and hoped that budget had not been reduced.  The Monitoring Officer confirmed that there would be a budget for training.  A Member suggested that training was an investment and not a cost and that could be addressed at a future meeting.

AGREED     that:

a)           the work undertaken to date by the Working Group be noted;

b)          the changes to the Council’s Arrangements for Dealing with Code of Conduct Complaints at Appendix 1 of the report, subject to the proposed amendments by the Committee;

c)           the Member Development Plan at Appendix 2 of the report, subject to the proposed amendments by the Committee; and

d)          recommend the updated Social Media Protocol for Members at Appendix 3 to the report, subject to the proposed amendments by the Committee, to Full Council for adoption.