The Policy & Engagement Officer introduced the report which provided an update on the progress of the objectives and actions in the Corporate Plan 2023-2027.

The Chair invited Members to ask questions and make comments and these included:

·         The communications team needed to liaise with local businesses as they wanted to work with the Council;

·         referred to Action 8.5 on page 43 of the report, and said it needed to be actioned as soon as possible and the Council should consider having a Lead Member for Communications;

·         referred to Action 7.4 on page 42 of the report, and was surprised there was an underspend of the Apprenticeship Levy with businesses as was aware there was a market for using them and sought assurance that the Council was liaising with local businesses; local schools; and NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) providers;

·         the Council should do more to encourage work experience placements with parish and town councils;

·         aware that the Faversham Town Council apprenticeship scheme had worked very well and whether that could be shared with other town and council parishes across the borough;

·         how could Actions 2.1, 2.2 and 2.4 on pages 33 and 34 of the report in respect of shared values be progressed?;

·         referred to Action 8.5 on page 43 of the report, and considered it should not be too difficult to factor in the different cultural days, but it needed to be progressed; and

·         referred to Action 2.3 on page 33 of the report, and considered that further training was required on neurodivergence.

In response to Action 7.4 and the underspend of the Apprenticeship Levy, the Chief Executive advised that this was due to restrictions on the levy which could only be used for training, not salaries.  She explained that Members had agreed the Council would pay any apprentices the living wage, which was a positive but the consequence of that meant that the Council’s apprenticeship scheme attracted a lot of graduates so training was not being requested.  The Chief Executive said the Council was exploring how to resolve the issue and whether the levy could be used for the salary of any apprentices as well.  The Council were also liaising with local businesses to see if the underspend could be used to support training for their apprentices.  The Chief Executive reported that officers worked hard to encourage take-up of work experience opportunities at the Council and received many applications. 

The Chief Executive said that with regard to Actions 2.1, 2.2 and 2.4, officers had undertaken work around Member and Officer relations, and meetings were being arranged with Members regarding the joint values.  Once those meetings had taken place, workshops would be set-up to consider them further.

In response to a question from a Member, the Monitoring Officer said the Standards Committee had paused worked on the Council’s arrangements for dealing with standards complaints, due to proposed government changes to the regime.  The Committee had responded to the Government consultation on Standards and feedback from the Government was awaited.

Resolved:

(1)   That the Corporate Plan 2023-2027 update at Appendix I of the report be noted.