Dubbo City Council, located in central New South Wales, recently ran Council wide education and awareness programs to raise the understanding of responsibilities under the Dubbo City Council Code of Conduct.
The Department of Local Government drafted a Model Code of Conduct that all NSW Councils are required to adopt as the minimum standard. Councils can use the model as it is or make variations by adding to it.
Council implemented the Dubbo City Council Code of Conduct based on the Model earlier this year.
Barry Smith, a trainer from Sydney based Central Human Resources, conducted the in house training sessions. Dubbo’s Human Resource Manager, Carol Logan, said that the awareness raising sessions were segmented into groups with relevant roles.
“Councillors and General Managers obviously had a different focus from that of general staff members and the sessions reflected this,” she said. “Each session focused more strongly on certain issues depending on the priorities and certain areas of work of participants.”
Each session was four hours in duration and highlighted staff responsibilities under the code.
The Local Government and Shires Association of New South Wales recently staged Model Code of Conduct training for facilitators. Held in Dubbo on 23 August, the workshops introduced staff from a range of Councils to an education package enabling them to present training sessions for Councillors or staff in the future.
“These sessions were essentially to ‘train the trainer’,” Carol Logan said. “Council facilitators were given skills to equip them to deliver training on the Model Code of Conduct and the legislation relating to what constitutes misbehaviour in their own Councils.”
For further information contact Carol Logan, Human Resources Manager, on (02) 6801 4000.
