Rotherham councillors and staff to undergo training

Stella Manzie said Rotherham Council would prioritise training for councillors and council staff

Councillors and council staff in Rotherham will undergo training and political mentorship as part of a raft of measures to improve performance.

The proposals were revealed in a draft improvement plan drawn up in response to Louise Casey's report, which branded the authority "not fit for purpose".

Other suggestions include using mystery shoppers to test services.

The council accepted previous training had been "a bit stale" with little buy-in from councillors.

The Casey report was commissioned after an earlier inquiry by Professor Alexis Jay revealed that 1,400 children in the Rotherham area were abused by gangs of men, mainly of Pakistani origin, from 1997 to 2013.

'Spread over time'

The improvement plan - which also includes exploring alternative governance models - will be considered by councillors on Friday.

Commissioner Stella Manzie, one of five appointed to run the council, said the authority was "prioritising" training to ensure councillors were "well equipped" to perform their duties and "understand how to scrutinise performance".

The improvement plan also suggests "political mentorship" of cabinet members, the leader of the opposition and leaders of other political groups be introduced by the end of June.

She said training for staff would focus on areas including improving customer service, developing leadership and management skills and understanding how to work with politicians.

One of the proposals is to introduce report writing training for council officers.

'Blatant collective failures'

Mrs Manzie said: "We won't be doing all this training all at once, we will prioritise it and make sure that it is spread over time and make sure that everybody who wants and needs it gets that opportunity."

Prof Jay's report said there had been "blatant" collective failures by the council's leadership.

Council leader Chris Read: "We've always had [training] but, to be honest, it's been a bit stale, there's not really been the buy-in from councillors.

"We accept that we have got to take our share of the responsibility in Rotherham and that means we've got to get much better at being councillors so we're doing this quite intensive training programme."