Agenda item

Councillor Douris confirmed there is Constitution training planned for Thursday 1^st October starting at 7pm, K Mogan confirmed this should be 6.30pm.

K Mogan said the team are looking at filling some blank dates in the calendar and confirmed we have a couple more mandatory trainings to complete which should hopefully be programmed in for October and November. The team are also asking members if there is other training they would benefit from.

Councillor Douris referred to previous action point:

• Tour around Doris

K Mogan explained there was a previous date for this training that was cancelled due to the pandemic but could look to run this virtually if this was suitable for Members. With it being hard to know when face to face training would resume, Councillor Douris suggested training virtually should be looked at.

Councillor Douris feels there are issues with Doris, Councillor Griffiths agreed, Issues raised were as follows:

• Click through to book and then no training available
• Felt uninspiring and more of an information system.

K Mogan explained that it’s designed as a booking system, dates do not have training available as the dates have not yet been booked. Once they are, Members can book instead of Member support sending emails to offer training and members to respond with interest.

Councillor Griffiths asked, as a portfolio holder, if there are plans for training, as they have changed the way they advertise portfolio decisions, she understood that they could sign electronically, this wasn’t the case, and it would be important for all members to access and understand the process as it’s currently not clear

K Mogan explained that the current process is that we just receive the notice and publish that a decision is due to be made. After the 28 days it gets published in more detail on the website, until that point, the lead officer would hold the information on the decision. Member support only receive the full detailed decision once the statutory comments have been completed.

Councillor Douris felt this was clunky and Members want to access information quickly and simply.

A.P K Mogan to arrange briefing on this process to Members.

Mandatory training -

K Mogan explained that they are all currently listed on Doris however certain training has not been scheduled as yet, and the team have been asked to put on 3 of each session for the mandatory training, feels it’s better to spread them out. Also to ensure if external trainers come in we maximise attendance.

Councillor Griffiths stated she did attend some training and is still showing as non-compliant.

A.P KM will speak to HR about running training with Members for Doris.

Councillor Bhinder asked if officers had any feedback on Doris as they have been using it for some time. He also asked if Doris is a pre-built software that DBC has bought, he understands were not able to make changes, he would like to find out how other councils are getting on.

K Mogan said she thought it was an “off the shelf system” however they are an approachable company, we could ask questions. However the system may not look as it should due to the dates of the training not being inputted as yet.

Councillor Bhinder stated his version of Clunky is the smoothness and speed of the system and not so much the content, this could be more of an issue for the internal IT team.

K Mogan advised HR will be better placed to answer questions on the system.

Councillor Douris feels that the next available training session should be filled with Doris training, and for HR to join the steering group so HR can understand the issues faced.

A.P K Mogan to look at the date to look at available dates.

Councillor Douris asked Councillor Williams for any comment, Councillor Williams stated he hadn’t yet been on and looked at the system.

Councillor Douris advised we haven’t yet populated the members training, K Mogan advised we will add in Doris training and portfolio process training. If anyone has any other ideas they can send them across. We will also research what’s available and what’s out there, we will look at the budgets next to see what’s left.

Councillor Griffiths asked if all of the mandatory training has now been completed, K Mogan replied that there have been 2 sessions of each and we have been asked to provide a 3^rd session of each, some have already have 3 sessions. K Mogan in discussion with finance about Budget training.

Councillor Griffiths would like as part of the Agenda who has and has not completed so we can look at this. It would be interesting to see that we have had 3 sessions and highlight who has not done any.

AP – K Mogan to add to the agenda

Councillor Bhinder asked K Mogan if the external providers have dropped their rates due to these sessions being online. K Mogan advised that these are usually additional costs which will not have to be paid if the training is virtual.