Member Development

ECC Development Sessions

• You can find details of the 2026 Member Briefing Schedule here. The timetable is subject to change, but an up to date version will always be available on this portal.
• Members are asked to indicate which sessions they will be attending by responding 'going' to the calendar invites which are sent from the Democratic Services account.

Forms and Key Documents

• Read the Member Development Strategy (PDF)
• Member Development Steering Group Terms of Reference
• Complete the Member Development Nomination Form before arranging external conferences, courses or seminars
• Complete the external Member Development Evaluation Form after you have attended a development event.

Development Support

• Mentoring can be made available through your political group or by contacting democratic.services@essex.gov.uk
• Members are asked to complete a Personal Development Plan questionnaire. Skills training will be scheduled following the Personal Development Planning process. If you need help with a skill-based need contact democratic.services@essex.gov.uk
• Some Members who attend training sessions are able to log Continued Professional Development (CPD) points when attending Member Development Sessions for their professional roles outside of the Council.
• Personal Development Planning Questionnaire

Resources

• Local Government Association Guidance and Resources
• The Political Skills Framework - a councillors toolkit
• New Councillor Hub
• Get started with Scrutiny – approaches, structures and resources (CFGS)

E-Learning

To access ECC e learning modules you will need to use an ECC laptop at present:

• Follow this link and click on the link to ‘My Learning’
• Either search for content on any topic in the search box or look at some of the suggested topics (the ‘member development playlist’ is a good starting point)
• For detailed instructions enter ‘introduction to my learning’ in the search box - this will offer a series of instructional videos.

ECC Induction and Briefing Presentations 2026

The recordings can be found under 'Shared' in Teams (you need to be logged in to Microsoft Office with your ECC account to access these) - direct link is here and individual links are below. Slides can be accessed on any device.

Once you have watched a session recording, please click here to record your attendance to be logged on your training record: Attendance Recording Form

If you have any issues accessing any of the above documents, or require additional support in accessing them, please contact the Democracy Team at:

democratic.services@essex.gov.uk