Standards Board | Local assessment

11 December 2007

Checklist for local authorities in the run up to Local assessment

This article offers a ‘checklist’ for local authorities of things to consider in the run-up to the implementation of the locally managed framework.

Please note that, in some cases, it is subject to Communities and Local Government making appropriate regulations.

1) Size of standards committee

Standards committees must have a minimum of:

Three members (two elected members and one independent member).
25% as independent lay members if the committee is more than three people.
An independent chair (from April 2008).
One parish or town council member if the authority has responsibilities for those councils.

Effective practice - the Standards Board recommends:

At least six people as a minimum (three elected members and three independent members).
Two, or possibly three, parish or town council members if the authority has responsibilities for those councils.
Consideration of whether more members are required to ensure cover in the event of conflicts of interest, holidays or sickness.

2) Structure of standards committees

In addition to their role as champion and guardian of the authority’s ethical standards, standards committees will now have three distinct roles in relation to complaints about member conduct:

Receiving and assessing complaints.
Reviewing local assessment decisions.
Conducting hearings following investigation.

To avoid perceptions of bias or predetermination, members who carry out a local assessment decision should not be involved in a review of the same decision, should one be requested.

Effective practice – the Standards Board recommends:

A structure of sub-committees or the standards committee acting as a pool of members to deal with the different roles.
As a minimum, two separate subcommittees, one for taking initial assessment decisions and one for taking decisions on reviews.
Subject to regulations, any subcommittee should also have an independent chair.
A member who was involved in an initial assessment decision, or following referral of a complaint back to the standards committee from the monitoring officer or Standards Board for another assessment decision, can be a member of the committee that hears and determines the complaint. This is because an assessment decision only relates to whether a complaint discloses something that needs to be investigated. It does not require deliberation of whether the conduct did or did not take place and so no conflict of interest will arise in hearing and determining the complaint.

3) Training

Effective practice – the Standards Board recommends:

Standards committees are fully trained on the Code of Conduct.
Standards committees are offered other training to equip them with necessary skills, for example in conducting a hearing.
Independent chairs and vice-chairs are trained in chairing meetings.
Any newly-appointed standards committee members receive a comprehensive induction to the role and appropriate training.

4) Local assessment criteria

Guidance will be available from the Standards Board on developing criteria and the types of issues to be considered when assessing complaints.
Standards committees will need to develop their own criteria, that reflect local circumstances and priorities, and which are simple, clear, open and ensure fairness.
Monitoring officers will be able to acquire additional factual information which is readily available about allegations before the assessment process begins. This could be from minutes or the register of interests, for example, if such information about a complaint would assist decision-making. It should not include interviews or investigation.
A complainant has a right to appeal if a complaint is rejected, so standards committees will be able to invite complainants to submit further information in support of the complaint at the appeal stage in the process.

5) Role of the monitoring officer in the new framework

Effective practice – the Standards Board recommends:

A pre-meeting with the independent chair.
Preparing a summary of the allegation for the standards committee.
Highlighting what the potential Code breaches are which underlie an allegation to the standards committee.
Allowing case reading time for the monitoring officer and the standards committee.

6) Completing existing investigations

Many authorities will have outstanding investigations and the Standards Board encourages authorities to clear such investigations – particularly long-standing cases – before the new framework comes into effect.

Any authority experiencing difficulties in completing an investigation should seek advice and support from the Standards Board. Please call us on 0161 817 5300 and ask to speak to the Investigations Department.

7) Local assessment and the corporate complaints process

Effective practice – consider:

How will the public be informed of the new arrangements?
Who will receive and log an allegation?
The production of an individual information leaflet for the local assessment process, possibly combined with the corporate complaints process.

8) Future monitoring by the Standards Board

The Standards Board is consulting a sample of authorities involved in a pilot study on proposals for an online information return system, which will allow authorities to tell us about how local arrangements are working.

This system is being designed based on what standards committees need locally, and to enable authorities to provide information to the Standards Board as simply as possible.

Authorities will be able to use the system locally for their own records, to keep standards committees informed of their authority’s ethical activities.

Proposals for the system include quarterly online returns on cases, which will be simple and quick to use, and nil returns if there is no activity to report.

9) Local assessment guidance

We will help standards committees by providing guidance in 2008 on all aspects of the local assessment process, subject to the passage of the relevant regulations, with a toolkit to include:

Template notices for publicising the authority’s Code of Conduct complaint process.
Complaint assessment flowcharts.
A standard complaint form.
Template letters for each stage in the process.
Template referral and non-referral decision notices.Guidance to assist with drafting criteria and for the authority to define its threshold for referral.
Template terms of reference for assessment and review committees.

Ends.

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