Agenda item

6.1

Gillian Duckworth, Director of Legal and Governance attended the meeting to present the report.

6.2

The purpose of the report was to provide the committee with an amended Code of Conduct and Councillor Complaints Procedure taking into account recommendations from the Audit and Standards Committee on 24^th October 2019 arising from the ethical standards workshop held with the Committee Members on the 26^th September 2019 which considered the report by the Committee on Standards in Public Life dated January 2019 and to consider whether the committee should provide a response to the LGA consultation on the Code of Conduct.

6.3

Gillian Duckworth apologised for the delay with this report which had been postponed due to a heavy agenda in January and also the delays caused by Covid.

6.4

The report included the amended Code of Conduct and Complaints Procedure following the ethical standards workshop which considered 15 areas of best practice against the current practice of the Council.

6.5

Following the workshop the best practices/current practices were put into a traffic light system so that it was clear where the Council needed to improve.

6.6

Taking this into account changes were made to the Code of Conduct as outlined in appendix A the report.  Revisions were also made to the complaints procedure in line with the best practice recommendations; this was outlined in appendix B to the report.

6.7

The Committee also considered the LGA consultation.  The LGA have committed to reviewing the current model member code of conduct, as recommended by the Committee on Standards in Public Life’s report into Ethical Standards.  It is the intention that the LGA would create additional guidance, working examples and explanatory text alongside the draft model code of conduct and they were asking for comments on the consultation draft.

6.8

A link to the LGA consultation pages had been sent to all Members and the Council’s Monitoring Officer (Director of Legal and Governance) wished to provide a response to the consultation in consultation with the chair of the Audit and Standards Committee in order to reflect the views of the committee.

6.9

Councillor Simon Clement-Jones asked if all Parish Councils had been invited to the workshop and whether they had contributed to the comments.

6.10

Gillian Duckworth confirmed that all Parish Councils were invited to attend the workshop.  Ecclesfield Parish Council contributed to the comments and get training from the City Council.  Stocksbridge and Bradfield Parish Councils use the Association of Parish Councils for their training.

6.11

Councillor Angela Argenzio asked how the Council ensures that new Councillors receive the appropriate training.

6.12

Gillian Duckworth advised that all Councillors are notified of training, the group whips are also made aware of any training needs.  It was also advised that cross-party training would be useful.

6.13

Councillor Mohammed Mahroof commented that members needed support for social media and asked what was available in terms of training.

6.14

Gillian Duckworth confirmed that the Council provided social media training and information governance training and if members had any particular needs or requests for training then they should contact Democratic Services.

6.15

The Committee were advised that Democratic Services would look to ensure that all mandatory training is offered to members.  Members are also encouraged to complete the LGA training modules and also to interact with officers around their individual personal development.

6.16

Councillor Sioned-Mair Richards requested that the response submitted to the LGA Consultation should be a cross party response

6.17

RESOLVED: that (1) the Committee accepts the proposed changes to the Code of Conduct and the Procedure for Dealing with Complaints regarding City, Parish and Town Councillors and Co-Opted Members for approval and forward to full Council for adoption and:-

(2) the Monitoring Officer submits a response to the LGA Consultation, in consultation with the Chair Councillor Sioned-Mair Richards, Deputy Chair Councillor Simon Clement-Jones and Councillor Angela Argenzio to ensure a cross party response.