Agenda item

(The Chairman brought forward this agenda item as the lead officer for the scheduled item was running late)

Cllr Chapman introduced the report, and invited the officers to offer any comments on it.  J Doyle noted that Cllr Harden was not yet at the meeting to introduce the item; he also offered his apologies on behalf of Mark Brookes, Solicitor to the Council. He said that he had no comments on the Democratic Services section of the report. B Lisgarten also confirmed that she had no comments on the Legal Governance sector; both officers said that they were happy to take any questions on the report. (Cllr Harden also arrived at 7:35pm)

Cllr Chapman said that he had no questions for either officer, however he noted with some concern point 13 of the report (pg 24 of the agenda pack), regarding the Councillor attendance of in respect of Member Development sessions - specially that 40 Councillors had not attended any sessions, 8 attended one session, and that 3 had attended both sessions. He said a significant amount of time went into organising these sessions for members; he thought that this should be brought to the attention of Councillors, and that they should all make an effort to attending such sessions.

Cllr Taylor thanked the Chairman for these comments; he noted the Modern Slavery session, emphasising its particular importance. He noted that Hertfordshire had its own dedicated Detective Sergeant in charge of Trafficking and Slavery. Cllr Taylor said that he was one of the three individuals that had attended both the member and staff session, and it was just as chilling the second time. He noted point MS01 of pg 26 (which stated ‘No Data’), and said that this data was contained in point 13. He said that as Chairman as Member Development, the group was looking at ways of encouraging greater member attendance at these training programmes. Cllr Taylor said that group had reviewed the Constitution, however this did not allow the mandatory attendance of Councillors to these events. Cllr Taylor noted that there were a number of members on this committee that were also members of the steering group; he invited Cllr Douris to add any comments. Cllr Douris noted that there were some external facilitators that were engaged by DBC to provide member training at some cost. He said that when calculated in terms of the number of people attending training events, the cost per head was not insignificant. He echoed Cllr Taylor’s comments, with the need to engage and encourage members to attend these events.

Cllr Douris referred back to the Modern Slavery Training event. He said that he had been at a meeting that day, where the Chief Inspector of that particular district had produced a very interesting set of information and targets. Cllr Douris said that he would share this information and concept with Cllr Harden, as it would be useful to replicate and bring to the Community Safety partnership. Cllr Taylor asked Cllr Harden if he had seen the documentation that Detective Sergeant Gordon has provided to DBC about trafficking and slavery; Cllr Harden said that he was not aware of this. Cllr Taylor said that he would arrange for a copy to be sent to him.

Outcome: The Chairman noted the recommendation of the report (for members to note its contents), as well as the Committee’s comment in respect of attending training events.