Standards committee

What would you do if you knew something illegal was going on in your place of work? What if there was something dangerous or corrupt taking place, or that vulnerable people were not being cared for properly, or that there were potential environmental dangers?

Would you overlook the problem for fear of harassment or victimization? Or would you have the courage to ‘blow the whistle’? Hull City Council takes pride in its Whistleblowers’ Policy, through which it encourages its employees to feel confident about raising serious concerns - and supports them through the process.

“Any responsible employer would have such a policy, but employees also need to know it exists and they must know how to use it,” says Chris Fenwick, chair of the council’s Standards Committee. The Standards Committee set up a new Whistleblowers’ Policy so that employees could report concerns to an independent person rather than their line manager (who could, in some cases, have a conflict of interest). But that’s just one area of the committee’s work in encouraging transparency, openness and trust at the council.

Another focus of its work is fraud, which, within the public sector, costs the British taxpayer millions of pounds every year. And in any local council there is a risk of malpractice from employees through dubious activities, like making false expense claims, improperly awarding contracts to outside companies, and theft.

But it’s the Standards Committee’s job to make sure this doesn’t happen at Hull City Council.

The Anti-Fraud and Corruption Policy gives guidance to employees on what to do if they suspect these types of activities in the workplace and also from members of the public, for example, through false benefit claims. “It’s the Standards Committee’s job to make sure that people know about these policies and what to do if they have a concern,” says Mr Fenwick.

Aged 63, he’s a retired computer audit manager and the father of two grown-up daughters. A former councillor himself (in the Newland ward around 20 years ago), he has been chair of the committee for the past three years.

Other areas of the committee’s work include promoting and maintaining high standards from councillors through training and advice.

And its biggest achievement is, perhaps, the dramatic reduction of the number of complaints about councillors’ conduct to the Standards Board for England. In fact, last year there were just two complaints, compared to 16 the year before and a total of 58 in the previous two years.

“The drop in complaints is partly because we’ve managed to deal with them internally and encouraged the different political groups to work them out together before they were referred to the Standards Board,” adds Mr Fenwick. “At one point the high number of complaints was reflecting badly on the council. It’s important that the council is seen in a good light by the government and by the rest of the country.

“And it’s more important that the council is seen in a good light by its citizens. “This can only be achieved by everybody within the council working to the highest standards. The role of the Standards Committee is to assist in that process.”