Annual Assembly of Standards Committees

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Annual Assembly of Standards Committees
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Working together

• Vivienne Horton, Director of Risk, Standards for
  England (chair)
• Tim Mumford, Assistant Chief Executive and
  Monitoring Officer,
• Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
• John Williams, Relationship Manager, Standards
  for England

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Monitoring and information

• Online returns
• Supporting standards committees and monitoring
  officers
• Risk management
• Relationship management
• Legal powers

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Sources of information

• Quarterly returns
• Annual returns
• Intelligence gathering
• Internal sources
• External sources

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Quarterly returns

• Huge success
• Almost 100 every quarter
• Accurate basis for working together

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Annual returns

• Narrative, sharing success stories
• Mitigation
• Standards committee forward plans
• Meetings of standards chair, chief executive and
  party leaders
• Training
• May indicate difficulties

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Engagement

• Example
• No independent chair
• Not enough parish members
• Not enough independent members
• No meetings

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Support

• Lever in external support from successful
  authorities
• Derby City Council recruitment pack
• North Tyneside Council Adverts on local radio
• Local fire authority May have suitable
  independent candidates
• County association of town and parish councils

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General support

• Our aim is that standards committees will be self
  supporting
• Standards for England website
• Helplines and advice service
• Guidance
• Toolkits
• Bulletin
• Town and Parish Standard

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General support

• The standards forum
• A secure, online platform for officers and
  committee members to share ideas and experiences

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Tailored support

• A district council
• Standards committee not trained
• Monitoring officer had left suddenly
• Visit from Standards for England

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Legal powers

• More serious failings
• Example
• No independent chair
• Not enough parish members
• Not enough independent members
• No meetings
• Other solutions have not worked

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Legal powers 2007 Act

• Came into force June 2009
• Relate to assessment and review powers
• Section 57A To direct a standards committee
• Section 57D To give a direction to suspend
  powers
• Powers transferred to SfE or another local
  authority
• Where a standards committee invites us to take
  powers (no notice necessary)

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Standards for England and Rotherham MBC
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The headlines
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Background

• Town council
• Use of hall
• Relationship with clerk
• Change in membership following election
• Difficult meetings
• Start of allegations and counter allegations
• Suspension of clerk

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Working with SfE

• Early discussions over volume of allegations
• Agreed direction training governance
  conciliation
• Referral of more serious allegations
• Investigations by Ethical Standards Officer
• Further directions
• Meeting with Ethical Standards Officer

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Current position

• Suspension of chair by case tribunal
• Appointment of new chair
• Settlement of employment tribunal proceedings
• Appointment of new clerk
• Conclusion of outstanding ESO investigations
• Conclusion of conciliation
• Election of two new members
• Further training
• Prospects for future?

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Risk and relationship management
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Looking forward

• Reactive approach proactive approach
• Risk based strategic regulator
• Risk model

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Risk model

• Work in progress
• Model identifies where risks to standards may be
  greatest
• Risk assessment data
• Mitigation
• Likelihood

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Relationship managers

• Allocated to an authority where there appears to
  be risk
• Working with you to understand and mitigate the
  risk
• Compliance
• Escalation

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Working together

• Vivienne Horton, Director of Risk, Standards for
  England (chair)
• Tim Mumford, Assistant Chief Executive and
  Monitoring Officer,
• Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
• John Williams, Relationship Manager, Standards
  for England

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Annual Assembly of Standards Committees