Meeting documents
Standards Committee
Monday, 25th September 2006
Present
Chair
Cllr Dave Hawkins
Vice-Chair
Cllr Les Rowlands
Councillors
WJ Davies, SR Mountney, Jean Quinn
Deputy
PTC Reisdorf (for Cllr A Bridson)
Co-opted member
Mr J P Haywood
Apologies
Mrs L M Rodgers
Index to Minutes
- Minute 9 - DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
- Minute 10 - MINUTES
- Minute 11 - MATTERS ARISING
- Minute 12 - REPORTS TO THE STANDARDS BOARD
- Minute 13 - LOCAL GOVERNMENT OMBUDSMAN - ANNUAL LETTER 2005/06
- Minute 14 - STANDARDS BOARD FOR ENGLAND - ANNUAL REVIEW 2005/06
- Minute 15 - ROLE OF STANDARDS COMMITTEE & WORKPLAN FOR 2006/07
Minute 9 - DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
Minute Text :
The members of the Committee were invited to consider whether they had a personal or prejudicial interest in connection with any of the items on the agenda and, if so, to declare it and state the nature of such interest. No declarations were made.
Minute 10 - MINUTES
Minute Text :
The minutes of the previous meeting, held on 27 June 2006, had been submitted to the Council meeting on 10 July and accepted without amendment.
Minute Decision :
Resolved - That the minutes be received.
Minute 11 - MATTERS ARISING
Minute Text :
Further to minute 5 (Local Investigation of Standards Complaints), the Head of Legal and Member Services stated that there was nothing further to report.
Further to minute 8 (Independent Member - vacancy), he reported that so far one application had been received. He had been asked by the Liberal Democrats spokesperson whether she could also attend the interview of any candidates. Mr Haywood felt that two members, as previously agreed, would be sufficient for that purpose. Councillor Rowlands believed, however, that having candidates interviewed by all three parties would help to ensure that all members were comfortable with the final choice.
On a motion by the Chair, duly seconded, it was
Minute Decision :
Resolved (6:1) - That the candidate(s) be interviewed by the Chair, Vice-Chair and Liberal Democrat spokesperson, together with the Head of Legal and Member Services.
Minute 12 - REPORTS TO THE STANDARDS BOARD
Minute Text :
The Head of Legal and Member Services reported that he had recently been notified of two decisions from the Standards Board in respect of complaints referred to it. He outlined the circumstances of each case and stated that the Standards Board had concluded that neither merited further investigation.
In response to a query by Mr Haywood, he stated that the Standards Board would continue to receive complaints. However, if a number of complaints were suddenly referred back to the Council for local investigation, there was likely to be a considerable workload involved. It was important, therefore, that the members of the Standards Committee were kept up to date with any necessary training requirements. If necessary, ad hoc training could be provided in the run up to any meeting of the investigation panel.
The Chair asked what action the Council might be able to take in the case of an individual who submitted regular complaints. The Head of Legal and Member Services replied that under the Freedom of Infomation rules there was a procedure under which it was possible to register a person as a vexatious complainant. However, to date, the Council had taken the view that it was important that no one should lose their right to seek information in case any new issues should emerge in relation to a particular complaint.
Minute Decision :
Resolved -
(1) That the report be noted.
(2) That the Head of Legal and Member Services report back on the steps that it would be necessary to take to have an individual registered as a vexatious complainant.
Minute 13 - LOCAL GOVERNMENT OMBUDSMAN - ANNUAL LETTER 2005/06
Minute Text :
The Head of Legal and Member Services submitted and reported upon the Annual Letter of the Local Government Ombudsman and advised on ways in which the Council would seek to improve its performance in relation to the issues contained within the report. He explained that the Ombudsman had received 128 complaints against the Council in the year, which, on the face of it, appeared to be a substantial increase in the figures for the previous three years (which had averaged approximately 80). However, one single issue had accounted for 52 of the total, meaning that the underlying figure was very similar to that of the previous few years, although there had been an increase in complaints about Social Services, from 12 in 2004/05 to 21 in 2005/06.
101 complaints had been decided, of which 41 were closed as premature. Taking account of the large number of complaints from the one issue, the Ombudsman had used 16 as the true figure of cases where the complainants had not been satisfied with the Council responses. That was around 16% of the total against a national figure of 27%. No adverse reports had been issued by the Ombudsman during the year. Eleven complaints had been settled locally, which represented about 20% of the non-premature complaints. Again, the national figure was 27%, and the Ombudsman had pointed out that the Council could take some encouragement from that. The Ombudsman had drawn attention to two cases concerning the actions of the School Admissions Appeals Panel, where a need for training was identified, an issue that had already been addressed.
The Ombudsman had again drawn attention to the time taken to respond to complaints, which, although it had fallen from an average of 41 days in 2004/05 to 36.2 days in 2005/06, was still short of the 28 days the Ombudsman wanted to see councils achieve. Altogether, 46 complaints, in which enquiries were made of the Council, took over 40 days. She was also critical of the fact that the requested 14 days for response to enquiries about school admission appeals had not been achieved in a number of cases and there had, in some cases, been considerable delays. The Ombudsman had reminded the Council of her legal powers to require information in good time and she had identified the delays as a key issue for discussion with the Assistant Ombudsman (she had asked that the Assistant Ombudsman arrange a liaison meeting in the near future, which it was felt would be of great assistance). Despite the problems to be addressed, she had recorded that, at a personal level, the relevant staff of the Authority remained helpful and professional,and the Council remained positive about resolving issues once fault was pointed out.
In response to Councillor Quinn's comment regarding the need for an action plan to counter the various reasons for delays, the Head of Legal and Member Services stated that it was his intention to prepare one and in the first instance, submit it to the Chief Officers' Management Team. The Vice-Chair felt that the limited time allowed for dealing with School Admission Appeals presented difficulty, especially during the summer months and it was important that the Authority was allowed time to prepare a considered response.
Minute Decision :
Resolved -
(1) That the Ombudsman's Annual Letter 2005/06 be noted, together with the proposal to prepare an action plan to address issues such as the time taken to respond to complaints and training for staff.
(2) That the action plan be forwarded to the Ombudsman as soon as it has been finalised.
(3) That the opportunity to meet the Assistant Ombudsman be welcomed and the Head of Legal and Member Services enquire whether it might be possible for members of the committee to sit in on that meeting.
(4) That the Head of Legal and Member Services provide members with a key to the various abbreviations within the Ombudsman's report.
Minute 14 - STANDARDS BOARD FOR ENGLAND - ANNUAL REVIEW 2005/06
Minute Text :
The Head of Legal and Member Services submitted and commented upon the Annual Review 2005/06 prepared by the Standards Board for England. It had been published under the heading "Change and Devolution" and was intended to highlight the Board's commitment to moving to a system of local assessment of complaints and to promote projects to support the changes and ensure that local authorities had the systems and expertise in place to succeed in their changing roles. The other significant development had been the revision of the Code of Conduct, and the Board was currently working with the government to ensure that it was finalised as soon as possible.
He drew the Committee's attention in particular to the statistic that 22% of allegations referred to the Standards Board had subsequently been referred back to the individual authorities for investigation. So far, Wirral had had no such cases.
Minute Decision :
Resolved - That the Annual Report of the Standards Board for England be noted.
Minute 15 - ROLE OF STANDARDS COMMITTEE & WORKPLAN FOR 2006/07
Minute Text :
The Head of Legal and Member Services suggested to the Committee that it should be looking at ways in which it could be more pro-active in promoting higher standards and ethics throughout the Authority and that it should establish a formal workplan for each municipal year. He referred to the fact that governance issues were now being considered by the new Audit and Risk Management Committee and that the Annual Report from the Audit Commission itself had yet to be published; also that the District Auditor had already recognised the higher standards operating within the Authority. He suggested, therefore, that in the first instance members might wish to see what topics were raised at the Annual Assembly in October and report back on them to the next meeting.
The Vice Chair stressed that whatever issues were identified would need to be disseminated to all members of the Council. The Head of Legal and Member Services confirmed that that would be the case, and it was the intention to ensure that they were all given appropriate training in relation to the new Code of Conduct.
Mr Haywood referred to the fact that the Council was represented on a number of partnership organisations, for which it had responsibility, particularly in terms of funding arrangements. He suggested that there needed to be some form of redress in case of misconduct by members of those bodies. The Head of Legal and Member Services replied that that situation was the result of the Government's devolving power which, while welcomed, did create some problems of accountability.
Minute Decision :
Resolved -
(1) That the action proposed by the Head of Legal and Member Services in relation to identifying matters for the Committee's workplan be accepted.
(2) That he report back in relation to the various committees on which the Council serves in partnership with other organisations, identifying where possible what redress currently exists for dealing with misconduct by members of those bodies.
(Minutes Published: 9 October 2006)