Agenda and minutes
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Contact: Debbie Parker-Jones Karen Firth
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Apologies for absence Minutes: Apologies for absence were received from Mrs. N. E. Trigg (Independent Member - Chairman) and Councillor E. C. Tibby.
Mr. S. Malek (non-voting Deputy Parish Councils' Representative and Councillor R. D. Smith (Portfolio Holder), both of whom were due to observe the meeting, also tendered their apologies. |
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Declarations of Interest Minutes: No declarations of interest were received. |
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Minutes: The minutes of the meeting of the Standards Committee held on 14th August 2008 were submitted.
RESOLVED that the minutes be approved as a correct record. |
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Monitoring Officer's Report [To receive a report from the Monitoring Officer on matters of relevance to the Committee, and to include the following: (a) Member Investigations and Associated Matters; (b) Complaints for Local Assessment; and (c) Member Training: (i) To note Member training relating to ethical governance issues which has been undertaken since the last meeting of the Committee and training which has been arranged for the future; (ii) Update on Training Programme for Parish Councils; and (iii) Review of the Ethical Framework elements of the Member Development Programme.] Additional documents:
Minutes: The Committee noted the report of the Monitoring Officer contained in the agenda papers and the following issues were highlighted:
Complaints for Local Assessment
Regarding the local assessment statistics at Appendix 2 to the report, the Deputy Monitoring Officer advised that the final determination detailed for the period July to September 2008 related to a complaint which had been made under the old regime (as set out in paragraph 3.2 of the report) and not local assessment.
Member Training
In accordance with Constitutional requirements, all members of the Planning Committee had now received the requisite training in order to carry out their functions on the Committee. Councillor Miss Campbell had also undertaken a training session with the Monitoring Officer for the Standards Committee and two Members were due to complete Scrutiny training.
The Committee was advised that, at its meeting on 13th October 2008, the Council had approved changes to the existing overview and scrutiny functions. For a trial period until 30th April 2009, the functions, which had previously been performed by the Scrutiny Steering Board, would be separated and instead an Overview Board and a Scrutiny Board would be created. Members sitting on the new Boards would receive training on their roles by the end of the current municipal year.
General chairmanship training had been arranged for Members on 26th November 2008, which Parish Council chairmen would also be invited to attend. Separate chairmanship training, specifically tailored to the needs of the Standards Committee's Independent Members, was also to be arranged.
Training for Parish Councils
It was agreed that officers would liaise with the parish councils, via both the Worcestershire County Association of Local Councils (CALC) and the Parish Council Forum, over the development a training programme for Parish Councils. Once views had been obtained as to the preferred nature of such training a final report would be referred to the Committee for consideration.
Review of the Ethical Framework elements of the Member Development Programme
The Monitoring Officer referred to the Ethical Governance Health Check Report which had been issued by the Improvement and Development Agency in March 2007, together with the consequential action plan which had been produced to address some of the issues identified in this. The Council's Improvement Plan had, at the time, included dates for completion of some of the ethical governance issues, with the 2008/09 Improvement Plan setting out the ethical governance issues which needed to be addressed over the following 12 months.
Independent Member Vacancy
Members were advised that a total of eight applications had been received for the forthcoming Independent Member vacancy, with three candidates due to be interviewed for the position on Monday, 20th October 2008.
Cardiff University Case Study
Following interviews which had recently taken place at the Council House, the latest position in relation to the case study being undertaken by the School for Central and Local Government Research at Cardiff University was queried. Officers advised that Dr James Downe, who was heading the project, was due to issue ... view the full minutes text for item 33. |
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Parish Councils' Representatives' Update Report [To receive an oral update from the Parish Councils' Representatives on matters of relevance to the Committee.] Minutes: Mr. Cypher advised the Committee of issues which he had raised at the last meeting of the Bromsgrove Area Committee of the Worcestershire County Association of Local Councils (CALC), which had included: · the Deputy Monitoring Officer's previous request for each of the Parish Councils to provide the District Council with a copy of their Code of Conduct; · Parish Councils looking at publicity of their Code of Conduct in order to raise public awareness of this; · Members' completion of Register of Interests forms; and · co-opted members of certain Parish Council Committees and application of the Code of Conduct.
RESOLVED that the position be noted. |
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Issues arising from Standards Board for England Bulletin 40 [To consider two issues arising from the Standards Board for England (SBE) Bulletin 40 relating to adjournment of local assessment decisions and joint Ombudsman/SBE investigations.] Minutes: Members considered a report on two issues arising from the Standards Board for England (SBE) Bulletin 40, relating to adjournment of local assessment decisions and joint Ombudsman/SBE investigations.
In relation to adjournment of local assessment decisions, whilst appreciating and seeing the benefits of resolving matters as quickly as possible, and without the need of proceeding to a full investigation, concerns were expressed by both the Committee and the Monitoring Officer that: i) the proposal would suggest that the role of the assessment sub-committee would move away from merely determining whether there was a prima facie case to answer, to effectively determining whether a complaint was justified and how the complaint should be dealt with, which would be in conflict with the terms of reference of the sub-committee; and
ii) whilst it was felt appropriate for the Monitoring Officer to act as a 'post box' to ask specified questions of the subject member and to relay the subject member's responses back to the sub-committee, it would be inappropriate for the Monitoring Officer to raise any further questions on the back of the subject member's responses as this would effectively be tantamount to starting a mini investigation.
Regarding Standards Board and Ombudsman joint investigations, it was noted that there could be some difficulties with this proposal, as in many cases the issues would be slightly different. The ability to request the Standards Board to investigate such a matter would also depend upon the order in which the various complaints were received. There were also some issues of confidentiality which would need to be considered in each case.
RESOLVED: a) that the report be noted; and b) that officers formulate a response to the SBE, in the terms outlined in the preamble above, on the issue of adjourning local assessment decisions. |
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Review of the Council's Confidential Reporting Code [To undertake a review the Council's Confidential Reporting Code.]
Additional documents: Minutes: In accordance with the requirements set out in the Council's Articles of Constitution, the Committee reviewed, for the first time, the Confidential Reporting Code.
Members noted that, whilst it was the role of the Standards Committee to monitor and review the Code, paragraph 7.1 of the Code anticipated that the operation of the Code should be reported to the Audit Board. Members were, therefore, asked to consider making a recommendation to the Council that the Articles of Constitution be revised to transfer responsibility for monitoring and reviewing the Code to the Audit Board.
RECOMMENDED that the Articles of Constitution be amended to transfer responsibility for reviewing and monitoring the Confidential Reporting Code to the Audit Board. |
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Consultation Paper on new Codes of Conduct for Local Authority Members and Employees [To consider the Department of Communities and Local Government consultation paper entitled "Communities in Control: Real people, real power - Codes of conduct for local authority members and employees" and to make recommendations to Council on the Council's response.] Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee considered a report on a Consultation Paper issued by the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) on changes to the Code of Conduct for local authority members and on a proposed new Code of Conduct for local government employees.
At its meeting on 21st October 2008, the Corporate Management Team (CMT) would consider the Consultation Paper insofar as it related to the Employees' Code. The comments and recommendations of the CMT would then be included in a report to full Council on 12th November 2008, with the DCLG's deadline for submission of responses being 24th December 2008.
RECOMMENDED that the Council note the following responses from the Standards Committee on the questions raised in the Department of Communities and Local Government Consultation Paper on changes to the Code of Conduct for local authority members and on a proposed new Code of Conduct for local government employees:
Chapter 2: Code of conduct for local authority members
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Annual Ombudsman Statistics [To provide the Committee with information regarding the Council's Annual Letter from the Local Government Ombudsman's office as to complaints recorded against the Council during the 12 month period ending 31st March 2008, together with information regarding the Council's performance compared with other districts in Worcestershire.] Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee considered a report which provided Members with final information regarding the Council's Annual Letter from the Local Government Ombudsman office as to complaints recorded against the Council during the 12 month period ending 31st March 2008, and information regarding the performance of Bromsgrove District Council compared with that of the other districts within Worcestershire.
RESOLVED that the report be noted. |
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[To consider the Work Programme for the Committee.] Minutes: Consideration was given to the Committee's Work Programme.
Officers advised that changes would likely be made to the future reporting of the Ombudsman statistics in order to avoid referring separate reports on initial (provisional) and then final statistics. Details of any new reporting dates would appear in the Work Programme for the Committee's December meeting.
RESOLVED that, subject to any amendment to the reporting dates of the Ombudsman Complaint Statistics, the Work Programme be approved. |
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Mr. S. E. Allard - Independent Member Minutes: Thanks were expressed by the members of the Committee and the Monitoring Officer to Mr. S. E. Allard, Independent Member, for his work on the Committee since his appointment in November 2002. Mr. Allard's second term of office was due to expire on 31st October 2008 and his successor was to be appointed by the Council at its meeting on 12th November 2008. |