Agenda item

Members gave consideration to a report which set out the annual review of Whistleblowing incidents.

The Whistle Blowing Policy provided a method for employees to raise concerns about the running of the Council without the risk of victimisation. All employees had access to the policy.

There had been no Whistle Blowing Procedures carried out during 2016/2017. A link had been added to the policy as well as a number of bullet points showing alternative methods for raising concerns currently available, highlighting that whistle blowing was a last resort method. In light that there had been no cases it arguably demonstrated that these other avenues were working.

Members asked about one of the alternative methods to Whistleblowing for raising concerns – namely the Employee Assistance Programme which provided 24-7 advice service for employees if they needed it.

Officers advised that this was a general helpline which allowed employees to raise any issues, whether they were private or work-based. The Council funded this externally provided confidential service. Members enquired whether any feedback was available from this service.

Members further raised the issue of the confidential nature of the service saying that without knowing more about the service provider and having access to the relevant figures relating to the service, it was difficult to scrutinise the service to see if it was providing good value for money and good quality service to assess whether it was worth having.

Officer responded that any information received from this service would be likely to be within the remit of the JSCC or CPR Committees rather than Governance and Audit. Members therefore requested that the appropriate route should be used to assess the service and information gathered to provide assurance that the Authority was getting value for money and assess whether the service was being used. Officers undertook to submit such a report to the JSCC committee in the first instance.

Members further queried whether any of the figures relating to the Alternative methods to Whistleblowing should be included in this report. Following a further discussion of this, it was highlighted that the purpose of this report was to deal with more serious issues rather than daily ‘gripes’ that people have within an organisation which should be managed through team managers and other routes with the Whistleblowing report focusing on unresolved high level or extreme cases.

Officers commented that the issues picked up via the alternative methods were reported via the Joint Staff Consultative and the Policy and Resources Committees as appropriate. Comfort should be had from the fact that there were no whistleblowing cases reported within the year and it should be seen as positive.

Internal auditors pointed out that there was also the avenue to raise issues to the Head of the Internal Audit which provided another alternative to using the management line or the whistleblowing route to report concerns.

On that basis it was:-

                   RESOLVED that:- 

(a) the Committee be assured the Whistleblowing Policy is in place and working effectively; and

(b) Officers be requested to submit a report to JSCC regarding the 24-7 staff service (Employee Assistance Programme) in order to assess whether the service provides value for money.