Agenda item

Corporate Whistleblowing Policy - Annual Report

 

The Executive Director Core Services will submit his annual report reviewing the activities and current issues regarding the Council’s Corporate Whistleblowing Policy and supporting procedures.

 

Minutes:

The Executive Director Core Services submitted his annual report reviewing the activities and current issues regarding the Council’s Corporate Whistleblowing policy and supporting procedures.

 

The report, in outlining the background to the development of the policy, reminded the Committee that the policy had undergone a number of reviews and revisions to ensure that it remained fit for purpose and continued to meet best practice and guidance.  The latest revision/refresh had been undertaken at the previous meeting held on the 4th December, 2019 when its name had been changed to the Confidential Reporting (Whistleblowing) Policy.  In addition, a number of other policies, strategies and procedures had also been reviewed at that time and these were to be published more widely.  Such publicity would dovetail into the preparations for the Anti-Fraud week scheduled for May.  Further details of this would be made available in due course.

 

The specific whistleblowing arrangements were, of course, only one means of raising concerns and, therefore, the degree and extent of the use of the policy was not considered significant.  What was important was to ensure that there were a number of clear and understood routes for raising concerns and that there were suitable resources and arrangements in place to ensure that appropriate investigations were undertaken.

 

During the last 12 months there had been 4 referrals, 3 received via email and one through direct contact to one of the Corporate Whistleblowing Officers.  None of these had been raised anonymously which suggested that there was confidence that the Whistleblowing arrangements were implemented correctly and that confidentiality was, where appropriate, maintained.  He also reported that since writing the report a further anonymous referral had been received.  This was currently being investigated

 

Of the 4 cases referred, 2 had been investigated and were now closed and 2 remained the subject of live investigations.  In relation to the closed cases, no significant concerns had been identified and the issues raised generally related to operational matters.  A satisfactory outcome had been achieved with appropriate actions arising from the concerns raised.  In addition, the staff raising those concerns were satisfied that appropriate action had been taken.

 

It was noted that whilst this figure was low, it was nevertheless difficult to speculate what would be an appropriate figure.

 

In the ensuing discussion the following matters were highlighted:

 

·         The difficulties associated with benchmarking Whistleblowing referrals with other authorities was noted

·         There was a discussion of the reasons for the low number of referrals and the reasons for this.  It was felt that one of the reasons could be because staff had confidence in raising issues or concerns via alternative routes such as through their line managers.  It was felt that this demonstrated that the normal management arrangements were working correctly.

·         The fact that staff raising concerns via this policy did not do so anonymously was really encouraging and demonstrated the robustness of and confidence in the arrangements

·         It was noted that in view of the forthcoming retirement of the Executive Director Core Services decisions would have to be taken as to who would take on responsibility of being the designated officer for whistleblowing complaints

 

RESOLVED:

 

(i)            that the report, and the assurances that it provides be noted; and

 

(ii)          that the Committee confirms its commitment to continue to support the Council’s overall counter fraud culture and the work of the Corporate Anti-Fraud Team.

Supporting documents:

 

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