A council’s training and development opportunities for staff are not up to scratch, according to the authority’s head of HR.

Southampton City Council’s director of people and organisational culture Kerry Eldridge said changes would be on the way in the coming months.

The senior officer gave the assessment at a governance committee meeting on Monday, February 10.

During discussions on the annual review of the council’s code for governance, Labour member Cllr Gordon Cooper asked officers if they were “content and satisfied” with the level of training available for staff.

He said it was a “very important process” for a local authority that employed a lot of people in different areas.

Ms Eldridge said: “Having been here for three months now, I can tell you no, our current offer is not sufficient and it will be part of a number of changes that are implemented over the coming weeks and months.”

The committee heard that plans were in place for an all colleague engagement process, which would provide updates around new ways of working, including using artificial intelligence (AI) technology if it was appropriate to their work.

Ms Eldridge said a variety of different leadership development offers were also being put together in line with the council’s wide-ranging transformation programme.

Cllr Cooper, who represents the Bitterne Park ward, said pressure would be put on making sure performance and development reviews took place.

The senior officer said it was important managers were doing regular one to ones with staff as well as team meetings.

Cllr Cooper asked if the relevant structures were in place within the council’s human resources to support the changes.

“Not just yet but we are looking at our operation models because we need to ensure that all of our services receive the right level of support,” Ms Eldridge said.

“Learning and development is a key one for us as an organisation and that will be a bit more enhanced in order to make that process much more robust and accessible.

“We know that everybody has slightly different training styles and requirements.

“As we become much more familiar and understand more about neurodiversity, looking at how we change our approach to training, how we change how approach to even recruitment because we know that giving people questions in advance can aid in their ability to perform in an interview and level up that playing field.”