An apology for absence was received from Cllr Hills, with Cllr D Ashenden as substitute.

An apology for absence was also received from Cllr Bungar.

The minutes of the Overview Scrutiny Committee held on Thursday 19 September 2024 were agreed and signed by the Chair subject to amendments to the date listed as March 2025 on the previous set of minutes.

The Chair raised that there were a number of points within the minutes of the previous meeting that needed to be actioned.

Following the meeting, the Committee Services Officer contacted the Lead Officer and was advised that the requested information had already been circulated to the Committee following the meeting on 19 September 2024. The Committee Services Officer recirculated the information.

No declarations of interest were made.

The Committee Services Officer introduced Members to the report and advised that it detailed the feedback received on the Member Training Plan 2024-25 so far and presented the draft training plans for 2025-26 and 2026-27. In total, nine sessions had been held, with four sessions remaining.

The attendance details for each individual session were outlined in section 2.3 of the report and within appendix one. The overall percentage of attendance was 47%.

Feedback for the Member Training Plan 2024-25 was detailed in appendix two and three, and it was felt that this was positive, however it was noted that comments had been received in relation to accessing the Members portal – further steps had been taken to increase awareness.

Appendix four presented the draft plans for 2025-26 and 2026-27. Development/approval of a two-year plan would allow the necessary resources and arrangements to be booked in advance and for the sessions to be scheduled alongside the Committee Timetable. It was suggested that the ten-Member minimum requirement for a session to proceed continues throughout 2025-27. It was noted that to date, no sessions had been cancelled.

The Committee Service Team would continue to upload training materials to the Members portal, and, outside of the training plan, Members would continue to have access to e-learning materials and would be provided with LGA recommendations.

Following questions and comments from Members, the Committee Services Officer explained that:

• On the subject of repetitive sessions, Members were advised that if they felt certain sessions were repeating content, to contact the Committee Services Officer. This could then be relayed to the Lead Officer, and requests can be made that they look back at previous sessions and identify gaps in the content and then focus the next session on those areas that haven’t yet been covered.
• For LGA e-learning materials, Members were asked to notify the Committee Services Officer when they had signed up/attended training so that their individual training record could be updated. For other external training, such as the recent climate change training, the attendance records had been retained and individual records updated accordingly
• The Committee Services Officer advised that they would seek to look at neighbouring local authorities to compare training topics.
• If Members were interested in accessing the Member training budget for external training, they should email the Committee Services Officer in the first instance. The Committee Services Officer advised they would seek to find out the route to access this funding and share it with the Committee.
• Prior to a session, Members were not initially contacted to ask what they would like to see included. However, the feedback forms asked Members what they would like to see included within future sessions. In regard to the overall feedback form, which is sent annually to Members, a similar question is asked. Four responses were received with no further topics being suggested. However, Members were welcome to submit feedback/future topics at any time which would then be considered when preparing future sessions/plans.
• Members noted that the delivery  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.