Moving On
The North West Charter has been an important part of our regional strategy to raise the profile of Elected Member development in the region, but we continually review our activities to ensure that the North West continues to be at the leading edge.
The Regional Development Committee has set 3 key priorities this year, one of which will be to support and encourage the remaining local authority organisations that have signed up to the Charter to move towards its achievement.
The intention of the Charter was not just about raising the profile of Elected Member development, but also to provide a focus for sharing good practice and learning. It would have been easy to just award the Charter and do no more, but we wanted to support authorities in continually improving their approach to Member development. All the authorities that have had the Charter awarded have the offer of a review, providing an opportunity to take stock and reflect upon what's gone well and not so well.
The Charter provides a road map to get authorities to a certain point, but to maintain and improve the provision and enthusiasm is an even harder feat. The review process will be a discussion, which will hopefully be useful to the authorities and may provide some common themes that can be addressed regionally.
Another key priority will be to work closely with the organisations that have already had the Charter awarded to discuss ways of using the Charter to focus on continuous improvement. During 2005 the review process built into the Charter was reshaped.
Our third priority will be to work with authorities to develop an evaluation framework for Member development, which will be focused on the impact of the development activities on Elected Members and their authorities.
As we move into the sixth year since the Charter was born, it is an ideal opportunity to take stock and it is clear that much has been achieved. It is a real compliment that other regions are now following our lead, but for the North West the real challenge has now begun.