Agenda item

RESOLVED: Members of the LDWG noted the work undertaken to date and proposed next steps. They also noted the updated Programme Plan.

RESOLVED: Barrie Neal agreed to provide Cllr Elliott with a timetable for future NCIL funding workshops.

Salena Mulhere introduced the report and the key points to note:

§  Work within each of the eight thematic areas has become more closely aligned, so these thematic areas have now been grouped under the three overarching themes within the Local Democracy Review’s original terms of reference (openness and transparency, public involvement in decisions and effective decision-making)

§  A comprehensive review of the work to deliver the Local Democracy Review’s recommendation will be undertaken and presented to the LDWG in March 2020

§  Officers have taken significant steps to raise the profile of the LDWG’s work, including attending Cabinet Briefing and EMT and delivering a presentation to senior officers at the Council’s Leadership Event. They will also be present at the all-staff event on 13^th January 2020

§  A refreshed programme plan, which outlines the current status of each recommendation via a RAG rating system, has also been developed

§  Theme 1: Openness and transparency – a report outlining options for the introduction of an open data approach will be presented at the next LDWG meeting, work on specific communications-related recommendations is expected to progress more rapidly as the new Communications Strategy and associated resourcing is finalised whilst the new report template has been developed and is currently being tested with officers

§  Theme 2: Public involvement in decisions – work to improve online engagement with young people is underway and the piloting of councillor question time sessions in schools will take place in early 2020. The Appreciative Inquiry undertaken with seldom-heard groups and individuals has also been completed, with the learning expected to inform a wider redesign of the Council’s approach to engagement

§  Theme 3: Effective decision-making – an interim report on the delivery of all Planning-related recommendations will be presented at the next meeting of the LDWG

Cllr Bonavia then invited each LDWG Champion to provide an update on their thematic area. The following points were highlighted in the subsequent discussion:

§  Open data and online communications – Cllr Bonavia advised that, as noted by Salena Mulhere, officers are currently developing options for a Council-wide open data approach whilst webcasting for all Mayor & Cabinet and Full Council meetings has started, with LBL staff being trained to operate the system themselves

§  Language and reporting – Cllr Kelleher advised that the new report template had been developed and the initial feedback from officers was positive. She had also shared the report template with some of her constituents and their feedback was also broadly positive. In addition, work was underway with appropriate officers to develop a specific template for Planning reports whilst an online feedback form for residents had been created on the Council’s website. In the discussion, it was noted that members should challenge officers if they think that the engagement activities outlined in the ‘timeline of engagement and decision-making’ box are not sufficient. There had also been some feedback from officers who had found writing a simple summary of the report to be difficult, but it was expected that this would be easier once they were more familiar with the template/guidance and ‘best practice’ examples were available

§  Councillor roles, responsibilities and relationships – Cllr Best advised that the draft role profiles had been developed (highlighting a potential crossover with the Boundary Review) and that the role of councillor champions would also be looked at, with a view to developing a dedicated role profile (members noted that this profile should be generic as champions approached the role in different ways). As well as being used by councillors, the role profiles would provide more clarity for officers and residents about the range of member positions and the various responsibilities involved. Further consideration was also being given to outside body appointments, particularly the future role of members within organisations that receive funding from the Council

§  Effective engagement (including younger and older people) – Cllr Codd advised that there had been some concerns raised during  the recent ‘Healthier Neighbourhood’ consultation and that this was currently being looked into in more detail as a case study in place based engagement to inform future practice and that this would be reported back to the relevant Executive Director

§  Seldom-heard voices – Cllr Campbell advised that there had been some challenges in delivering work in this area, particularly around identifying the right person or organisation to speak with. The officer supporting this thematic area had visited a number of organisations, but it was important to find the ‘bridge’ i.e. an individual or group working directly with the seldom-heard. She also highlighted the issue that many seldom-heard individuals could be considered as ‘marginalised’, but did not fit into a specific protected characteristic. Key questions for future work included how ‘bridges’ could be identified and how relationships with them could be formalised (as they are likely to have a significant amount of useful insights). Feedback from frontline staff was also important, but there was no clear position at this stage about the form this would take (i.e. individual person/dedicated role or wider mechanism). Members of the LDWG discussed other ideas, such as a resident engagement database, aldermen, inclusion of specific requirements to gather service user views in agreements with the voluntary and community sector and the development of a directory of local organisations for councillors. There was agreement that councillors had an important role to play in ‘reaching out’ to their constituents, particularly those who are ‘seldom-heard’ – other recommendations within the ‘public involvement’ theme focused specifically on this area (e.g. expanding the model of councillor surgeries) and a report would be presented at the next LDWG meeting

§  Place-based engagement – Cllr Elliott advised that the NCIL funding workshops had been paused due to the general election and he was awaiting confirmation of the restart date

RESOLVED: Members of the LDWG noted the work undertaken to date and proposed next steps. They also noted the updated Programme Plan.

RESOLVED: Barrie Neal agreed to provide Cllr Elliott with a timetable for future NCIL funding workshops.