Council receives Charter status for councillor development
29 July 2009
Harrogate Borough Council has joined a select band of larger metropolitan and unitary authorities to achieve the Charter for Elected Member Development.
It is only the second district council in the Yorkshire and Humber region to attain this standard.
The Charter, and the underpinning good practice guidelines, was developed by the Government's Improvement and Development Agency and the nine regional employers' organisations.
Councillor Mike Gardner, Leader of the Council, says that giving councillors the tools for their elected role is essential if local government is to thrive and prosper. He added:
"We have an excellent record of developing our staff who carry out professional and technical roles and we have recently signed up to Skills Pledge
a national initiative for employers to demonstrate their commitment to developing the skills of their workforce.
"We realised sometime ago that, in the ever changing face of local government, we need to have the same sort of development commitment to councillors.
They have an increasingly important role in the running of the district and deal with a variety of complex issues."
In awarding the Charter, Cllr Mark Crane, Chair of the Local Government Yorkshire and Humber Employers' Committee said that achieving this status involved considerable resource and other investment, particularly in terms of member and officer time, energy and pure hard work.
He offered his congratulations to everyone concerned.
To attain this Charter, the council had to:
- demonstrate being fully committed to developing elected members in order to achieve the council's aims and objectives
- adopt a member-led strategic approach to elected member development
- have a member learning and development plan in place that clearly identifies the difference development activities will make; and
- see that learning and development is effective in building capacity
MEDIA CONTACT:
Councillor Mike Gardner is available for comment on 01423 500600 ext 6299 or via Lynne Mee on 01423 556022 or email
lynne.mee@harrogate.gov.uk