Agenda and minutes

Resolved:-   That Councillor Loades be elected as Chair of the Panel for the ensuing year.

To consider the minutes of the previous meeting of this Working Group held on 4 April, 2012

Resolved:-   That the minutes of the meeting held on 4 April 2012 be agreed as a correct record.

An update will be given on the Briefing Note prepared for Members

Members were updated on the position regarding the Data Protection Act.

A survey had been sent to neighbouring authorities enquiring how they had dealt with the Act in respect of their Members.  A few responses had been received and one authority enforced it as part of being a councillor.

A Briefing Note was handed out at the meeting and this would be sent to all members informing of the methods of registering – either by themselves or through Democratic Services.

Training Sessions on this would be held on a future date.

Councillor Julie Cooper had completed her Information Commissioners Office – Self Assessment and offered her copy to be used as a template, if required, by other Members.

Members asked if the training session on this could be emailed out with a link to the video.  It would be put onto the Members’ website as well as offering the training sessions at the Civic Offices.

Resolved:-   That the information be received.

To be updated on proposals for Members’ ICT Training

A staged Member training plan would be put together by the Council’s ICT Operators and Development Manager and the Member Training and Development Officer.  This would build up into a useful study guide for Members.

Training could also be done at home and through the Staffordshire e-learning portal.  It would cover a wide range of issues including emails, modern.gov, remote access and the Members’ website.

It was hoped that training would commence in July.  Each section of training would come to this Panel prior to being rolled out to Members.

Resolved:-   (a)       That the information be received.

                        (b)       That the training sessions be developed.

A verbal report will be given on costings for remote access

The six Members who had been issued with becrypt sticks had been approached for comments on their usage.

Only one response had been received and it had been fairly negative.  Councillor Loades requested the names of the six Members and he would chase them up.

Security certificates had been tested and had worked with Windows 7 and XP, and androids etc.  The certificate also worked with various browsers.

Smartphones etc could therefore be used with the certificates.  Members agreed this be tested for a period of six months.

Resolved:-   (a)       That the information be received.

                        (b)       That Smartphones be tried and tested over the next six months.

To receive a report on Member Development

Consideration was given to a report updating Members on progress made with Member Development.

Personal Development Plans had been sent out and 30% of responses had come back.

Feedback was awaited on the Chair’s training.

Several external courses had been made available to Members with some take-up.

Resolved:-   That the information be received.

To consider a report on the Members’ Training and Development Programme

There were several dates allocated for training which could have the specified training events slotted in.  However, it was felt that these should be kept free for emerging training requirements.

It was suggested that location training be provided before September.  The Member Training and Development Officer would source some providers with costings etc.

Resolved:-   That the information be received.

To consider any business which is urgent within the meaning of Section 100B(4) of the Local Government Act 1972

Councillor Loades would approach the Chair of the Transformation and Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee to request that Members’ risks be scrutinised.

Resolved:-   That the information be received.