Clerk code of conduct

Question

Is there a code of conduct for Town Clerks? Or a code of professional ethics or standards that a clerk should adhere to?

Answer 1

You should have a detailed job description, contract of employment, disciplinary and grievance policies as a minimum. Ideally your Clerk should have undertaken training appropriate to their role, although this is often not the case. For a Town, I suggest that a professional qualification should be an essential requirement.

Beyond the above, it is for the employer to produce whatever framework they require of their employees, for example an employee handbook covering specific details. There should also be consideration of the extension of some member policies to employees, such as social media etc.

Comments

What do you mean?  What has (allegedly) been predetermined?  What are the circumstances?

Answer 2

you may have a local authority support group a bit like NALC that can provide some guidance on this ,i have to say its a damn mine field . some clerks rule the roost and go of at a tangent believeing they have always done it this way so it must be right a bit like practice does not make perfect but makes permanent
having a good understanding of your standing orders especuially the manadatory ones would be a good start
a good clerk is brilliant and can save a great deal of time and trouble a bad clerk can be highly destrcutive so select with care and dont rush if up to me i would pay more than the guide lines for the right person that helps the community

Comments

Totally agree but really the behaviour of the Clerk just like in any other occupation should be governed by their managers but we all know this quite often doesn’t happen
I know one case where the Clerk is doing everything possible to remove a recently elected Chair no doubt based on the fact they’ve succeeded in the past