Agenda item

To consider the report and its contents and recommend it for adoption by the Full Council as required.  

To accept the report and agree to make minor amendments for it to be recommended for adoption by the Full Council.

DECISION 

⁠To accept the report and agree to make minor amendments for it to be recommended for adoption by the Full Council.

The report was submitted asking for the Committee to consider the content of the annual report and recommend for it to be adopted by the Full Council. It was explained that the report outlined the Head of Democracy Services' main priorities for the coming year, as well as report on the developments made during the last year. It was explained that the report was slightly different this year and pride was expressed for its content and format.

Attention was drawn to the content of the report and the fields that were prioritised in 2023/24, namely:

·       Safety and Support for Councillors which included the health and well-being element.

·       Training for Councillors and the personal development discussions which were held.

·       Scrutiny Arrangements.

·       Moving towards becoming a paperless Council.

Reference was also made in the report to the number of successes in 2023/24, for example the very positive feedback that the Democracy Team received by Councillors, the number of Committees that had been administered and the full programme of training which was held and developed.

To conclude, the Head of Democracy Services referred to the 2024/25 priorities, which included:

·       Building on safety and support arrangements for Councillors

·       Rationalising the training programme and the briefing programme for Councillors

·       Implementing changes to Scrutiny arrangements to get the best out of them

·       Highlighting the support available to Councillors.

During the discussion the following observations were made:

-        It was believed that the report was very positive and factual, and the format was praised. Some observations were made about the size and colour of the font in some parts of the report, highlighting that it had been difficult to read at times.

-        The Democracy and Language Services Manager, the Democracy Team and Galw Gwynedd were thanked for the specific support following a substantial deterioration in one of the Members' eyesight.

-        The statement that 29 Councillors continued to receive paper copies was questioned under the paperless Council part, expressing that this number seemed to be high.

-        An enquiry was made to how many Councillors had completed the core training.

-        The Scrutiny arrangements were enquired and whether an arrangement would be established to monitor how much difference Scrutiny was practically making in terms of the process of making decisions in the Council. There were concerns that the Scrutiny arrangement was seen as a paper exercise and it was important to show that Scrutiny had a positive impact and was considered at Cabinet level. 

In response to the observations:

-        It was noted that it was possible to amend the font and the colours before submitting the report to the Full Council and the observation was welcomed.

-        It was acknowledged that there was a need to reword the statement on the numbers who received paper copies of Committee agendas as the figure had now reduced further. It was agreed that there was a need to reword to highlight the substantial reduction that had been in these numbers.

-        It was explained that there was a report later in the Committee on training and that report would detail the effort made to increase the numbers who completed the core training.

-        It was reported that an annual Scrutiny report would be presented to the next Full Council and this report would provide detailed information on the impact of Scrutiny and give examples of the impact. It was acknowledged that this report summarised that a review had been undertaken instead of providing detail.