To receive and, if so determined, to agree as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 20 March 2023.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 20th March 2023, be approved as an accurate record and signed by the Chair.

To receive a report from the Executive Member for Finance, Change and Governance.

The Chair introduced the report in the absence of the Monitoring Officer. The Chair outlined that there was always room for improvement and provided some comments on the information contained in the report before asking Members if they had any questions.

Councillor Gilbert asked what circumstances the Council paid out for waste collections. The Head of Resources and Waste provided the response after the meeting via email. Each of the cases outlined in the report had been paid out due to repeated failure to collect bins on the scheduled day. 

Mr. R. Brown asked if the report could include what the aggregated pay outs from complaints were. Following the meeting, the Governance Manager confirmed that this could be included if / when this report came to the Committee in the future.

Councillor Eckersley enquired as to what nominal payments meant and whether this could be included in future reports. The Governance Manager confirmed that this could also be included in future reports.

          RESOLVED: That the content of the report be noted.

To consider a report of the Organisational Development and Learning Officer.

The Organisational Development and Learning Officer spoke to the report which had been shared with the agenda. The report and appendices outlined the opportunities for Member development and the training prepared for incoming Councillors and came to the committee on an annual basis. The Officer shared several topics from the report from the past year including an overview of the E-Learning statistics for sitting Councillors, an increased focus on improving the key skills of Councillors in Planning and Licensing, and the future migration to 360 and SharePoint which will see a change to how things were shared with Councillors.

The Organisational Development and Learning Officer informed Members of the plans for induction of newly elected Councillors at the upcoming election. This included continuing processes which worked well last year, such as; a blended approach involving Northwest Employers and the Local Government Association (LGA), a welcome meeting with the Chief Executive of the Council, and inductions with each of the Council’s Directorships as well as One Trafford and L&Q Housing Association. Furthermore, the Officer was monitoring the suite of training available and was looking to create a one stop shop on the Intranet for Councillors, all of which were being done with the Member Development Steering group.

The Chair thanked the officer for bringing this report and remarked that the opportunities were much improved on when he was first elected. The Chair enquired about the buddying system for new Councillors and the Members hub which had been mentioned in the report. The Organisational Development and Learning Officer responded that the hub was available on the learning and development page on the intranet, which involved tiles signposting Members to various areas of training. Regarding the buddying system, the Officer informed that Members this was something that worked well individually within the parties, with a document drafted by the steering group and shared with party leaders to ensure that new members had a buddy system in place.

Councillor Western remarked how fantastic they found the support now and noted how far it had come.

Mr. R. Brown was concerned about the level of Councillors who had completed safeguarding children training (16%). The Organisational Development and Learning Officer responded that the low number was often down to capturing data, with many Councillors completing this training in other walks of life, such as, as a School Governor. Members were encouraged to inform the officer if they complete this elsewhere and it would be added to the total.

Councillor Frass was aware that the Council received Councillors appointment of outside bodies, and thought that this could be used to chase Councillors for the safeguarding training. Councillor Frass also wondered if it would be worth looking at Councillor’s all-time data, so that, although not ideal, the Officer could see whether a Councillor had ever undertaken the training. The Officer responded that this data had been taken over the past 12-months but a look back at all time data could be undertaken. Mr. R. Brown agreed with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.