Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

An apology for absence was received on behalf of Councillor Douris.

Members are asked to agree the minutes of the meeting held on 1 October 2015.

The minutes of the meeting held on 1 October 2015 were agreed by the Members present and then signed by the Chairman.

Training pledge is an alternative to Member Charter Accreditation and therefore Members are asked to approve the pledge

M Anderson explained that she had come across other authorities that had a Training Pledge in place and she felt it would be a good idea for Dacorum to adopt in place of the Member Charter Accreditation which expired a few years ago. She said the Pledge would need to be signed by the Group Leaders, announced at Full Council and then framed and put on the wall outside the Council Chamber.

Councillor Adshead referred to the third column and sought clarification as to whether it should say ‘Members are expected to, or encouraged to.’ M Anderson said she was going to ask members to decide whether it should say expected or encouraged. Following a short discussion on the matter members decided it should say expected’.

The committee felt it was a good idea and fully supported the new Training Pledge.

Members to consider the feedback from recent training sessions

T Coston said she was really pleased with the turnout at James Deane’s Budget Setting Process training but she did have to do a lot of chasing to achieve this. She felt it was a really important course with the budget scrutiny meetings approaching so she was pleased to have 25 members attend. She said that the Development Control Committee training was also well attended but unfortunately the numbers dropped again for the Evidence Based Decision Making session. She hoped the attendance levels would improve in the New Year.

Members to note the budget update

M Anderson advised that there had been no change to the budget since the last meeting so there was nothing to update members on.

Members to note the training programme

T Coston advised that there were no training sessions until 7 January 2016.

Councillor Adshead asked what WRAP stood for. M Anderson said she would have to check and let members know. 

Councillor Banks asked if the Mental Health First Aid training had been rescheduled yet. M Anderson advised they were waiting for HR to advise of a suitable date.

T Coston advised that a session had been booked for ‘Understanding Risk Register Reports’ as requested by the Strategic Planning and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday 20 April 2016 at 6-7pm prior to Full Council.

Actions:

·         Member support to advise what WRAP stands for.

Members to offer suggestions for items to add to the work programme for 2015/16

There were no changes to the work programme.

The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday 2 March 2016

The next meeting will be held on Wednesday 2 March 2016.

Full details in Part 2 Minutes.