Further to Minute 22 (1/12/08), Liz Temple-Murray, the Audit Manager, and her colleague, David Brown, presented their draft report following their Review of Ethical Governance within the Authority.  She sought the Committee’s agreement to the report and asked that any suggested amendments or additions to the proposed Action Plan be submitted to her by the third week in April.

The main conclusions of the report were:

(i)  that the Council had a good understanding of the key Ethical Governance issues that it faced and the action needed to promote and maintain the standards.  Positive features included -

• the Members’ Code of Conduct was generally operating effectively and the behaviour of members and officers was mostly appropriate;
• members and officers worked well together to achieve the Council’s common goals;
• the Council had a good approach to promoting equality and diversity in its policies and services;
• both the Leader and Chief Executive were considered to be role models in promoting the Ethical Agenda; and
• the Council was taking active steps to encourage good conduct by members and officers and to improve transparency in the way that it carried out its business.

(ii)  that, although the survey findings were encouraging, and in many cases more positive than average, they pinpointed issues where further work and clarity was needed.  In particular, the findings suggested that some members and officers could be helped to develop a better understanding of Ethical Governance, which would be helped by greater communication about the ethical framework.

(iii)  there were other areas for development including –

• raising the profile of the Council’s Standards Committee through pro-active work and ensuring that all members of the Committee had access to the right information to carry out its functions effectively;
• reviewing the level of training for members and officers on the Ethical Agenda;
• creating a culture in which members and officers could make allegations of misconduct by a member or officer without fear of reprisal and be confident in the action that they should take; challenge member recommendations and Council decisions to improve openness and transparency; and be assured that inappropriate behaviour would be suitably dealt with;
• clarifying the use of Council resources for political and non-political purposes;
• raising trust and confidence in Local Government and democracy; and
• increasing awareness of the Whistle-blowing Policy and reinforcing assurances that reporting through that mechanism could be done without fear of reprisal.

The members of the Committee discussed the report and, whilst noting the statistical evidence within it, expressed the view that the inclusion of comments gleaned from the various interviews might better illuminate the Authority’s position.  With regard to the Standards Committee, the Chair reported that he had recently met with the Chief Executive, and both had agreed that the profile of the Standards Committee should be raised.  Members accepted the need for more training, though it was pointed out that generally the level of attendance at training sessions had not been encouraging.

Ms Temple-Murray responded by stating that with regard to bringing forward interviewees’ comments, she would need to check whether or not it was possible to do so without revealing their identities.  However, she felt no purpose would be served by delaying completion of the report by a further three months.  If there were any issues that needed to be acted upon, they could be dealt with separately, albeit within the context of implementation of the Action Plan.  A member suggested that the information sought might be particularly helpful in targeting training.  Other members agreed that anecdotal evidence would assist in the implementation of the Action Plan.  In response, the Director of Law, HR and Asset Management stated that he could report to the next meeting on that basis.

Resolved – That Liz Temple-Murray and David Brown be thanked for their report; the contents be accepted; and, where possible, the Director of Law, HR and Asset Management report back on those comments made by interviewees that would illustrate how the proposed Action Plan might be taken forward.