Issue - meetings

That the Committee agrees a rota of attendance at Committee Meetings and the guidelines for how they should be undertaken.

That the list of meetings be circulated to invite participants to select two meetings each, in order to agree the rota of attendance and guidelines for how visits should be undertaken.

The Monitoring Officer presented a report to agree the process for Independent Members of the Committee attending and observing meetings of Council, Cabinet and Committees at the County Council in the same way that they had attended Town and Community Council meetings.  The last series of visits took place during 2021 and it was agreed at the previous meeting that a report be considered on arrangements to set up a second round of visits.

During discussion, the Monitoring Officer clarified the following:

·           One visit by one Independent Member to each of the 12 Committees, with the option for two people to attend County Council if needed.

·           Participants may wish to join remotely to replicate members of the public.

·           Where an agenda includes a confidential item and depending on the topic, the Chair of that Committee would be asked to consider allowing the Independent Member to remain in the meeting if appropriate.  The Independent Member allocated to that meeting to be notified of that decision in advance of attending.

·           The Democratic Services team to inform each Committee Chair which Independent Member would be attending to observe their meeting.

·           Feedback from the visits to be reported to the Standards Committee in the same way as visits made to Town and Community Councils.

·           Committee Chairs would be aware that feedback was being reported to the Standards Committee as a links to agendas were shared with all elected Members.

·           The feedback would also be shared with Group Leaders.

·           The Independent Members to be given a brief statement on the purpose of the visits to be read out at meetings, should they be asked to do so.

It was agreed that the Democratic Services team would circulate the list of meetings to invite the five Independent Members and Town/Community Council representative to select two meetings each, to finalise the rota.

On that basis, the recommendation was moved by Mark Morgan and seconded by Gill Murgatroyd.

RESOLVED:

That the list of meetings be circulated to invite participants to select two meetings each, in order to agree the rota of attendance and guidelines for how visits should be undertaken.