The Charter for Elected Member Development
Charter Milestones/Standards
Commitment to Member development
- Top political and managerial leadership commitment to development of Elected Members
- Policy statement
- Equality of opportunity and access to learning and development
- Budget
- Officer resource support
- Dissemination of learning
Strategic approach to Member development
- Member led strategy.
- Linkage to council corporate plan.
- Member roles clearly set out.
- Process for identification of needs at individual and council wide level.
- Structured and timely approach to promoting development opportunities.
- Appropriately learn with external partners.
- Strategy for induction.
- Addresses political leadership and team development.
- Mechanisms for evaluation and informing future plans identified.
Member learning and development plan in place
- Addresses development priorities.
- Identify what development activities should achieve.
- Sets out how, when, where and who is responsible.
- Takes account of access to development opportunities.
- Linkage between individual plans and the council’s corporate and other plans.
- Representative elected Members consulted.
Learning and development is effective in building capacity
- Members learn and develop effectively.
- Learning is shared with other elected Members and where appropriate with officers and stakeholders.
- Investment in learning and development is evaluated in terms of benefits and impact.
- Identifies (and implements) improvements to learning and development activities.
Elected Member development promotes work life balance and citizenship
- Assists those with family responsibilities.
- Reviews how council business is conducted to allow for equality of access to key political decision making mechanisms.
- Holds events for the community to encourage people to become community leaders.
Further information
- The Charter – what is it and why do we need it?
- How does the Charter work?
- Support and Assistance
- Councils already committed to the South East Charter
For further information contact Mark Palmer at mark@seemp.co.uk.