A discussion with regard to member engagement in
the Shadow Dorset Council Task and Finish Groups and Workstreams,
with the Lead Member and Officer for Member Engagement.
Minutes:
The
Chairman welcomed the Lead Member and Officer for Member Engagement who had
been invited to the meeting to talk with members about member engagement in the
Shadow Dorset Council task and finish groups and workstreams. The Lead Member, Councillor G Carr-Jones
indicated that he was happy to answer any questions that members had related to
this area.
Members
considered the issues in this area and during discussion the following points
were raised:
·
The group had been set up to look at issues around member engagement in
the Shaping Dorset Council programme and included representatives from each of
the six councils. The decision had been
taken that electronic communications would be used including members receiving
a newsletter by email and a full range of information being included on the Sharepoint site. Use
of Sharepoint by members had been monitored and it
was noted that only 43 members had logged into the site. In addition, monthly briefing sessions for
members had been held. Numbers attending
the briefings appeared to be declining although attempts had been made to hold
sessions at various times, including in the evening
·
A discussion was held in respect of the difference between member
engagement and member involvement. Some
members felt that they were not involved in the Shadow Council arrangements
although it was recognised that it was difficult for everyone to be involved
·
Councillor Carr-Jones noted that he was happy to receive feedback on
ways that the wider councillor membership could be best engaged
·
Consideration was being given to the use of ModGov
for the various meetings being held
·
A point was raised that there were some issues with members not
attending meetings and not sending their apologies in advance, including with
this committee. The Chairman indicated
that she would review the position with members attending meetings of this
committee
·
There needed to be a good system where members were able to self serve
in terms of finding out the information they needed
·
A discussion was held in respect of the arrangements for the member
briefings and in response to a point raised, Councillor Carr-Jones noted that
these needed to continue to be held as sessions for all members as it was not
practical for six separate sovereign sessions to be held. In addition it was seen as useful for members
of the six councils to have opportunities to meet together and hear each others
points
·
A point was raised with regard to the Shadow Council meetings and that
the opportunity to have presentations and discussion at the meetings would be
welcomed
·
In respect of information on people responsible for different areas,
information would be included in the next newsletter
·
A point was raised that some members were not thinking forward to the
new council arrangements and that opportunities were being provided for them to
engage with the process. There was a role
for sovereign members to encourage other members to participate
·
It was noted that there would be some members who did not want to be
part of the new council and therefore they may have chosen not to engage with
the work leading up to it. However a
question was raised as to what information these members were passing on to
their town and parish councils?
·
A point was raised that the workload for members in the new council
would be formed in a large part by the work currently covered by Dorset County
Council and that it would be beneficial for members to attend some county
council meetings now in order to get an overview of the issues. Some members were already doing this
·
Councillor Rickard raised some concerns with regard to members’ ability
to deal with sovereign council issues at the present time where the focus was
now on working towards the arrangements for the new council. He raised concerns with regard to how some
decisions were being taken and without scrutiny in his opinion
·
The point was reiterated that there was a lot of information available
to members electronically. In addition
members had been offered 1-1s with regard to their mobile devices, committee
and working group information was available on ModGov,
information about the Shaping Dorset Council Programme was available on the Sharepoint site and all members received newsletters which
included a question and answer section
·
The Programme Director provided an overview of the current position with
the task and finish groups (now referred to as working groups)
·
A discussion was held in respect of member involvement on the working
groups including members that had been part of working groups that were no
longer in operation. It was noted that
there were some members who were very interested in being part of the work
happening. The Interim Monitoring
Officer noted that this could be reviewed.