Issue - meetings

(Councillor Lee Waters took the Chair, having arrived at 7.05pm.)

The Executive Director for Governance and Monitoring Officer presented an

overview of the work of the Standards and Personnel Appeals Committee

during 2022/2023 including proposals for the new Workplan for 2023/24.

Members acknowledged that the Work Plan would be almost complete following consideration of the items on the agenda that evening.  In respect of the review of the Nottinghamshire Authorities Protocol with Nottinghamshire

Police, this piece of work would again be rolled forward to the new 2023/24 Work Plan for completion.  Frequent changes in Police personnel, specifically the SPOC Officer (Single Point of Contact) had stalled progression of the review over the previous year but now a new officer was in place, it was intended to commence the review following the District Council Elections in May 2023.

A couple of items had been added as suggested items for the 2023/24 Workplan and these were as follows:

·         evaluation of the Members’ Training and Induction Programme post delivery, including the ongoing development of appropriate training opportunities for Members going forward

·         review of the Members’ Code of Conduct to consider any amendments following its approval in 2021 (taking into account any updates should the LGA also revisit their Model Code of Conduct document content during 2023/24).  

In respect of the review of the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Policy following its introduction in 2019, Members acknowledged that no changes would be required to the content on this occasion.  It was also noted that a single Gifts and Hospitality submission had been received from a Member earlier in the municipal year.

The Scrutiny Research Officer advised Members that following on from the last meeting, no changes had been suggested by Members in respect of the Social Media Policy so the document would go forward for Council approval in May 2023 as per the agreed procedure.

RESOLVED that

a)    progress made in relation to the agreed 2022/23 Work Plan, as presented, be noted;

b)    the suggested Work Plan items for 2023/2024, as outlined in the report, be approved;

c)    the single declaration of Member gifts and hospitality received during 2022/23, be noted;

d)    the outcome of the review of the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Policy to make no changes to the policy at the present time, be noted;

e)    Council be recommended to approve the Members’ Social Media Policy as attached at Appendix 2 to the report;

f)     the number of Member complaints received during 2022/23 to date as summarised in the report and the current outstanding complaints as set out in Appendix 3 to the report, be noted.