Agenda item

Cllr Judi Billing, the portfolio holder for Leadership, introduced the item and summarised the key points of the report which updated the board on the current leadership offer and progress on take up. Cllr Billing also reflected on her recent participation in the NGDP and highlighted the fundamental importance of members engaging with council officers, especially graduate trainees, and urged members to do so.

Juliet Whitworth, Research and Information Manager, presented the interim results from a survey of councillors who have taken part in leadership training. The research had been framed in order to try and assess what impact was made and the interim results were largely positive. In depth interviews were to be conducted with a sample of councillors to explore this further.

Board members responded with the following comments:

·         The leadership training statistics show low take up in the North of England. Cllr Billing responded stating that this is a consistent issue which the LGA had sought to address. Other members suggested that distance could be a barrier to take up for some parts of the country;

·         Board members commented that they were pleased to see the gender imbalance in the leadership offer has diminished, and stressed the importance of sharing any learning from areas like Greater London which had seen a higher rate of take up by women councillors.

·         The e-learning resources were commended by board members as an effective mechanism to offer training to councillors who also have full time jobs and therefor little time. It was also mentioned that these courses work best when they are run collaboratively with councils’ own training and e-learning offer.

The Chairman summarised the comments of the board and stated that members’ comments should be reflected upon to shape the leadership offer for the future.

Decision

The Leadership offer continue to be developed in the light of members’ views.