Paying for an HR consultant to investigate whether councillors have bullied staff

Question

The council have agreed to ask the MO for advice as to whether they can pay an HR company to investigate whether councillors have bullied staff, but it looks like the staffing subcommittee and Mayor are keen to get on and investigate the councillors via an HR consultant. They were pleading ‘duty of care’ to staff and ‘employment law’ and that this trumps Ledbury. Are colleagues aware of a situation in which a council could pay an HR company for an investigation into bullying by councillors on the grounds of ‘duty of care’ and ‘employment law’?

Answer 1

I would have thought that the first port of call is a visit to the councils published grievance procedures where this should all be laid out ( including duty of care specification). Secondly, to pay for things such as you state must at some point have been ratified by council and if not must go before the council for authorising spending.( check that it has or has or has not been delegated to any committee concerned)
If not specified then when placed before council the "duty of care" argument must be specified and presented as a basis for such specified spending to be voted on by council. But of course we all know that such thigs were all allowed for when policies were formed don't we?

Comments

It was put before full council and it was agreed to ask the MO firstly whether complaints about councillors should be investigated by them and not by an HR adviser. They have agreed to do that, but are not convinced, and I want to know in what circumstances can you ignore the Ledbury result and just start investigating bullying without including the MO.

Answer 2

Have they considered the potential outcomes of such an action? If the conclusion is that the staff were bullied, is it their intention to compensate them, as failure to do so may lead to a claim in the Tribunal? Has mediation been considered as the first stage in this process? Does the Council's insurance cover include legal and HR matters? If compensation/tribunal is the outcome, the insurance company must be notified.

What policies and procedures does the Council have and have they been applied and exhausted? Did the situation arise from a staff grievance?

I am not aware of any legal stipulation that would prevent a council from employing an HR consultant, but it does seem like a potential waste of a large sum of public money.

Comments

Excellent input.
The law of unintended consequences has a massive potential to kick the (possibly) well intentioned (but poorly considered) squarely in the back side….

Start at the ‘end’ and work backwards to the beginning.  What are the possible implications of engaging an independent external assessment?
WhT are you going to do with the conclusion?

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Shouldn’t a complaint about a councillor be referred straight to the MO?

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It depends what the nature of the complaint is. If it's a breach of the Council's Code of Conduct, it should go to the MO.

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Councillors have raised concerns about a member of staff (relatively minor matters though also increasing in seriousness as time went on). These were not dealt with by the Staffing Subcommittee and now amount to several months’ worth of emails which are now being looked at by a new Chair of the SSC. We have expressed a lack of confidence in the SSC, and it was an item by the SSC ‘to agree to spend £2000 to look into bullying and harassment’. They stated at the meeting that there were no accusations of bullying presently, but they wanted an HR consultant to look into it. My guess is that an HR consultant would interview all the staff and ask them if they felt bullied and by whom. The thing is, how do they know that there are complaints against them? As far as I am aware, none of our meagre policies and procedures have been used to raise even the earliest of my complaints with the member of staff, and any other dealings with them have been polite and courteous.

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In this case it would be bullying…

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Ah, so we're spending £2,000 to investigate an accusation of bullying that hasn't been made!

Not sure where to start with this. Firstly, the Council appears to have delegated its HR functions to a Staffing Committee (is it a committee or a sub-committee?), in which case, other councillors not on that committee have no role to play in relation to HR matters unless specifically called upon to do so by the members of that committee. If that committee is failing to perform its delegated duties, its membership should be reviewed at the Annual Meeting of the Council.

My advice, in the absence of a complaint from the member of staff concerned, would be to draw a line under everything that has gone before, consign it to history, and sort out your policies and procedures such that from this moment onwards, you become a model of efficient and compliant HR management. Don't poke the hornet's nest. If the staff are not complaining about bullying, why sow the seed in their minds? The model policies and procedures are out there, approved by the NALC and ACAS, adopt them, run a training session for all members on what they say and what they mean, set up the required structures and be confident in your ability to manage your staff professionally.

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Yes and it’s a subcommittee.
The exercise would be a fishing trip and I am sure that they would feel it was worth any amount of public cash to be able to fish out a nice complaint against one of us and shut us up complaining about things and exposing their failings.

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An investigation would inevitably look at all aspects of the matter, including the actions and performance of the members of the committee. They might not wish to publish that part of the findings!

Please consider my comments above about the role of members of the Council who are not members of the staffing committee. Delegation means delegation and interference is never welcome. If you have raised concerns, it is for them to address those concerns in accordance with the council's policies and procedures. They need not discuss the matter further with you. If the policies and procedures aren't good enough, improve them. If the committee isn't good enough, improve it. But as an outsider, you are not part of the process.

A sub-committee is a committee of a committee, so is there a parent committee for your staffing committee? If it was set up by the Council to report directly to the Council it's a committee.

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The sub committee’s committee was disbanded. It produces no formal agenda, summons or gives any notice or clear idea of what it’s discussing. It produces no minutes. The council has no disciplinary, grievance or other HR policies written within the last 10 years and refused to address that when I asked for ‘HR Policies’ to be discussed as an agenda item, it is engaged in a dispute with a local paper about writing more positive stories, without any clear remit for doing this and without telling Full council. It has failed to address my concerns (and others) regarding a member of staff. Now it is turning on me and my colleagues with £2k of tax payers money. It’s a disgraceful way to run a local government body, but of course, they are focussed on shutting down the breaker of the bad news. I think that you’re saying ‘forget it’ and try to get the house in order, well I have tried to do that, but that would only work in a functional, non factional, impartially adminned council, which is what this certainly is not.

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So if the parent committee doesn't exist and the sub-committee reports directly to the full council, the sub-committee becomes a committee and must act in accordance with the council's standing orders regarding committees. These elements of the standing orders are non-negotiable, as they're enshrouded in law. If the staffing committee is producing no minutes of its meetings, the council will get what the council deserves. It's only a matter of time.

Speak calmly and politely to the Clerk and ask him or her to consider bringing forward the NALC model policies and procedures that are available to your council if it is affiliated to your county association. If that doesn't work, contact your internal auditor in April and notify them of the council's shortcomings. If that makes no difference and you have elections scheduled for next May, find half a dozen people willing to stand and campaign for public support for a more efficient and accountable council.

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Colonelmustard - to give you hope and with reference to Dave the clerk's final sentence "If that makes no difference and you have elections scheduled for next May, find half a dozen people willing to stand and campaign for public support for a more efficient and accountable council." This approach does work. after 7 years as a councillor and dealing with a similar PC disregarding the Law, SOs and policies. I now belong to a PC which has gradually changed over the years, to one which has through patience and vision from new and very knowledgeable councillors who have integrity and endeavour to adhere to the Nolan principles. It began by talking to parishioners through facebook by informing people of the positive things which the PC does, gradually a discussion takes place and interested parties can be approached to become councillors. I would recommend talking to a few people as Dave the clerk suggests. It will take time but stick to your principles because the 'old guard' will protest and direct negative action towards you personally, but know your council's SO, policies and the Law. Good luck to you.

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I would hope the MO tells them where to go
If they do go down this path just ignore them
In my case the District Council employed a professional investigator to review the complaints against me and prepare a report which i subsequently deconstructed !

As others have said they have to get agreement to the expenditure first

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Thank you, everyone for taking the time to offer your support. I very much appreciate having colleagues, wherever you may be, who get it, and who are prepared to keep going and encourage me to do the same. Imagine if we could get a support group going and do a zoom call or something…

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The expenditure is agreed and the MO has now said that the council ought to investigate any bullying of staff by councillors which is not reported to them as a code of conduct matter.