The Charter for Elected Member Development
How does the Charter work?
There are five key stages in working towards the Charter.
Stage 1: Signing up to the Charter and an Action Plan.
Local authorities who want to participate are required to sign up to the charter to demonstrate their commitment to improving performance, through the development of their Elected Members. At the point of signing up, a local authority must specify a target date by which they will aim to achieve the Charter. The authority will then undertake a self assessment against the Charter criteria and based on the self assessment will develop an Action Plan. The Action Plan will be sent to SEE.
Stage 2: Improving the development of Elected Members
A local authority will work towards achieving the Charter and meeting the requirements of the Action Plan.
Stage 3: Assessment
When a local authority considers it has everything in place to demonstrate it has achieved the Charter they will inform SEE who will make a judgement whether the authority is ready for assessment. An on-site assessment will be carried out by a (small) trained team of Elected Members/Officers of SEE. A report will be sent to the Council following the assessment visit outlining good practice areas for improvement and whether it has achieved Charter status.
Stage 4: Awarding the Charter
When your authority has been assessed and achieved the Charter, they will receive their certificate/award at an annual celebration event.
Stage 5: Re-assessment
Once awarded, the Charter has a life span of three years after which a local authority will be required to submit details of how it has sustained the standard. This will be judged by a trained team of Elected Members and Officers undertaking a desk top review.
The Charter – what is it and why do we need it?
Charter Milestones
Support and Assistance
Councils already committed to the South East Charter
For further information contact Mark Palmer at mark@seemp.co.uk.