BRIDGEND council has published a report highlighting low attendance figures from members at councillor training sessions.
The report which was given at a democratic services committee meeting on showed that as well as low attendance only 10 members had completed training models designed to be taken online.
Elected members are required to take part in such training sessions as part of the council’s constitution with seven of the learning modules, such as data protection, the ICT code of conduct, and safeguarding for children and adults, listed as mandatory.
The report read: “So far 28 members have accessed the learning and development site and commenced their E-learning modules but only 10 members have completed the initial seven mandatory ones as listed above.”
Further data was also contained within the report which noted the attendance of 13 training sessions of which none had an attendance rate above 50% and two only had six members turn up out of a total 51.
Speaking at the meeting Cllr Ian Spiller said there had been some issues with duplication while others cited issues with the “clunky and cumbersome” portal used to carry out the E-modules, which led some to think they had been completed.
However Cllr Martin Hughes said they now needed to concentrate on getting the figures back up. He said: “It is worrying that just over half of members have accessed the learning and only one in five had actually done the mandatory training, so this is an issue, it’s a concern, and we do need to address it.”
Others suggested ways to improve the situation such as setting reminders to show on members’ calendars if they weren’t completed as well as recording training sessions to be watched back.
