Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

a)  To agree the Minutes of the previous meeting held on 30 September, 2021

b)  Any matters arising

The Minutes of the meeting held on 30 September, 2021 were agreed and signed as a true record.

There were no matters arising.

Report of the Chief Executive

The Committee considered a report of the Chief Executive which indicated that the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) is the final stage for complaints about councils, all adult social care providers (including care homes and home care agencies) and some other organisations providing local public services. It is a free service that investigate complaints in a fair and independent way; and provides a means of redress to individuals for injustice caused by unfair treatment or service failure.

Coventry City Council’s complaints policy sets out how individual members of the public can complain to the Council, as well as how the Council handle compliments, comments and complaints. The Council informs individuals of their rights to contact the LGSCO if they are not happy with the Council’s decision after they have exhausted the Council’s own complaints process.

Every year, the LGSCO issues an annual letter to the Leader and Chief Executive of every Council, summarising the number and trends of complaints dealt with in each Council that year. The latest letter, issued 21 July 2021, covers complaints to Coventry City Council between April 2020 and March 2021 (2020/21). Mid-March 2020 saw an abrupt pause to the Ombudsman’s casework in response to the exceptional operational challenges local authorities and care providers faced because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Ombudsman resumed some casework at the end of May and started taking new complaints again at the end of June 2020, after a three month pause.

The report set out the number, trends and outcomes of complaints to the LGSCO relating to Coventry City Council in 2020/21. In particular, it focused on upheld complaints, service areas with a high number of complaints, compliance with Ombudsman’s recommendations, learning from complaints, and how the Council compare to previous years and other local authorities.

The report had also been considered by the Cabinet Member for Policy and Leadership and would be considered by the Audit and Procurement Committee

RESOLVED that the Ethics Committee:-

1)  Notes the Council’s performance in relation to complaints to the LGSCO

2)  Notes the Council’s complaints process and guidance

Report of the Director of Law and Governance

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Law and Governance which indicated that the Local Government Association (LGA) has been coordinating a programme of work entitled ‘Civility in Public Life’, primarily aimed at:

·  articulating good standards for anyone engaging in public and political discourse

·  understanding the scale and impact of intimidation and abusive behaviour on membership organisations, and developing recommendations for achieving positive debate and public decision-making on a local level

·  supporting LGA members and all democratically elected local representatives in addressing intimidation and abuse, so they deliver the best on behalf of their communities

The report detailed the following updates in respect of the Civility in Public Life work:-

a)  The LGA has re-confirmed its commitment to promoting civility in public life and supporting the well-being of elected members, stating that the recent tragic death of Sir David Amess MP has brought this issue into marked focus. Everyone in public life should be able to go about their daily business without fear of attack and the LGA has also stated that it is a challenge that they are determined to meet.

  To support this programme the LGA has issued a “Call for evidence of abuse and intimidation of councillors” consultation.  A copy of the questions asked were appended to the report.  The call for evidence is intended to capture elected members' experiences and emerging trends around abuse and intimidation from the public.  It is anticipated that the evidence collected will help the LGA to develop a body of evidence to support its calls for legislative and systemic change and develop support for elected members.

b)  In July 2021 the LGA published supporting guidance on its Model Councillor Code of Conduct, which aims to help understanding of and allow for consistency of approach towards the Model Code.

Improving Digital Citizenship has always been a key element of the LGA’s Civility in Public Life work and is becoming increasingly important as our daily interactions continue to take place online and new technologies of information are constantly used to facilitate communication with citizens, officers and councillors. Online abuse and intimidation of local councillors and supporting officers working with them is a major challenge to local democracy and to the diversity of our local representatives.

The LGA’s work in respect of Digital Citizenship is ongoing but the following have been published to date:

a)  Rules of Engagement Info Graphic – the info graphic produced by LGA can be pinned to a member’s social media profile to outline the ways in which they intend to engage with people online. These rules are designed to give all users a clear ‘code’ by which they should operate, with a clear statement that users can be blocked, or posts deleted, if they fail to participate in a civil manner. Based on this infographic, Coventry specific ones have been created for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the consideration of the Ethics Committee and were appended to the report.

b)  Signpost to further resources – in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

Report of the Director of Law and Governance

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Law and Governance which indicated that the Committee on Standards in Public Life (the CSPL) was set up in 1994. It monitors, reports and makes recommendations on all issues relating to standards in public life. This includes not only the standards of conduct of holders of public office, but all those involved in the delivery of public services. Its purpose is to help promote and maintain ethical standards in public life and thereby to protect the public interest through:

·  monitoring standards issues and risks across the United Kingdom (by invitation in the devolvedareas);

·  conducting inquiries and reviews and making practical and proportional recommendations that are generallyimplemented;

·  researching public perceptions on standards issues relating to specific areas of concern, and also overtime.

Its terms of reference make it clear that it encompasses all involved in the delivery of public services, not solely those appointed or elected to public office.Whilst it is a national body, having an overarching concern about public standards, its views and recommendations can be taken in account by local government and other organisations delivering public services when designing, implementing and monitoring their own ethical standards regime.

The report provided a brief overview of the following main areas of work of the CSPL over the last 12months:-

·  Regulation of Election Finance

·  Standards Landscape (Standards Matter 2)

·  Local Government Ethical Standards – follow up

·  Artificial Intelligence and Public Standards – follow up

·  Intimidation in Public Life – follow up

·  Parliament: bullying and harassment – watching brief

·  Impact of Covid 19 on Standards in Public life

·  Future work

RESOLVED that the Ethics Committee:-

1)  Notes the content of the report

2)  Requests the Monitoring Officer to continue to monitor the national picture as regards standards and report back on any issue which may be of relevance to the Council on a locallevel.

Report of the Director of Law and Governance

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Law and Governance which indicated that since being issued by the Local Government Association (LGA) in December 2020, the Model Code of Conduct (Model Code) has been amended by the LGA twice on 27 January 2021 and 17 May 2021.  Changes made in January 2021 have been incorporated into Coventry City Council’s revised version of the Model Code (Revised Code) in March, 2021, but changes from May 2021 remain outstanding.

A further version of the amendments made in May 2021 with tracked changes was published by the LGA in September 2021. Most of the amendments are technical in nature and can be amended by the Monitoring Officer using her delegated authority and in respect of minor amendments, the Monitoring Officer can make these changes following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Policing and Equalities. Appendices to the report detailed the LGA’s amendments, together with the proposed corresponding changes to the Council’s Code of Conduct.

In addition, in July 2021, the LGA published Guidance for the Model Code.

RESOLVED that the Ethics Committee:-

1)  Notes the amendments to the Code of Conduct detailed in the appendix to the report which will be dealt with under delegated authority

2)  Requests that the Monitoring Officer includes the amendments on the Members’ webpages and informs all elected Members of the amendments via the Members’ weekly newsletter

3)  Notes the Guidance for the Model Code published by the LGA in July 2021

4)  Requests that this item remains on the Work Programme of the Ethics Committee for continued review

Report of the Director of Law and Governance

Further to Minute 30/18, the Committee considered a report of the Director of Law and Governance which outlined work undertaken on revisions to the online FAQs on the Registration of Interests and on a step by Step-by-Step Guide to the Declaration of Members’ Interests as requested by the Committee.

The work has now been undertaken in light of the new guidance issued by LGA in July 2021, details of which were outlined in the report.

The proposed guidance for Members was appended to the report and the Committee noted that it was intended that the new guidance would  be available for the start of the 2022/23 municipal year and would be incorporated into training provided for newly elected Members and existing Councillors in the new Municipal year.

RESOLVED that the Ethics Committee:-

1)  Approves the “Declaration of Interests – A Quick Guide for Elected Members” as appended to the report

2)  Requests that the Monitoring Officer includes the guidance  

  on the Members’ webpages and draws Members’ attention to the document via the Members weekly newsletter 

Report of the Director of Law and Governance

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Law and Governance which provided an update on national issues in relation to the ethcial behaviour of elected Members and the local position in Coventry with regard to the Code of Conduct.

RESOLVED  that the Ethics Committee:-

a)  Notes the position with regard to matters concerning local authorities nationally; and

b)   Notes the local position relating to the operation of the Council’s Code of Conduct and delegates any actions arising from these to the City Solicitor and Monitoring Officer, following consultation with the Chair of the Ethics Committee

Report of the Director of Law and Governance

The Committee received and noted a report of the Director of Law and Governance which detailed a proposed Work Programme for the Committee for 2021/22.

There were no other items of urgent public business.