Issue - meetings

To receive the final report and recommendations from the Motion 564 Spotlight Review

The committee had before it a *report from the Scrutiny and Policy Research Officer providing details of the work carried out for the spotlight review for motion 564.

The Scrutiny and Policy Research Officer explained that in February 2021 councillors Lloyd and Norton brought motion 564 to Full Council to encourage discussion on equality and diversity.

The recommendations of the spotlight review were:

1.    That the Council considered ways to better promote the role of a Councillor

2.    That all Chairs of Committees and PDGs be required to attend formal training

3.    That a Councillor is identified to be the equalities and accessibility champion

4.    That the Council develop a mentoring scheme for (new) members of the Council

5.    That the Council supports and facilitates the building of councillor networks, in particular between women councillors and councillors with families or caring responsibilities to grow peer to peer support

6.    That the Council develops a (password protected) private members area on the Council website, in order to create a bank of shared training materials and documents for reference and ongoing learning

7.    That the Council ensures all officer roles are offered flexibly (unless there is a business need) and give consideration to the option and promotion of job shares for officers

8.    That further research is carried out into member experience of equality in the Council

Consideration was given to:

·         The proposer of the original motion who stated that the review had taken over year and had been very comprehensive

·         That the LGA had stated that the report was excellent

·         The motion was about how the Council could be opened up to all people from all walks of life

·         The views of some Members that recommendation 3 should include specific reference to people with disabilities

On such being moved by the Chairman, it was RESOLVED:

Subject to delegated authority being given to Scrutiny Officer and Cllr Mrs Lloyd to be signed off by the Chairman of Committee, to make the amendment necessary to meet the point raised by Cllr Letch so that the reference in recommendation 3 to ‘a councillor being identified to be the equalities and accessibility champion’ also cover disabled persons: The report be passed to full Council in response to its request of the committee.

Note: *report previously circulated and attached to the minutes