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Quite rightly as a Council we have a duty of care towards our employee. Who has a duty of care of the Councillors? Newer members are having a hard time with pressure from 'senior' Councillors and no one to turn to, there now appears to be underlying Political motives. The Clerk has enough to deal with, he just seems to go along with the loudest. I have just taken sight of the previous posting, maybe this issue is embedded in Parish Councils and a good reason why vacant seats are hard if not impossible to fill.
by (480 points)

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Typically lots of people owe a duty of care to any individual in modern society. But it is hard to see that anyone would owe a duty of care to councillors in the specific way described. The test of whether conduct could be reasonably foreseen to involve harm would be difficult to meet. Usually, the harm is pretty obvious, such as a car that puts its occupants at risk of physical injury.

Having said that, a successful council is likely to encourage all its members, and to particularly aim to assist new members to carry out their responsibilities effectively. Not all councils have problems of this kind. Although there are support organisations such as the National Association of Local Councils, they are typically aimed at supporting the council as a whole, and may not be accessible to individual councils.

The best option may be to encourage sympathetic councillors to provide support and to help new councillors to resist any unreasonable pressure from any source. This site was created in response to the limited opportunities for councillors to find support and to help one another, or to receive helpful advice from clerks offering goodwill.
by (33.1k points)
Unfortunately only employees of the council are owed a duty of care in employment law.
I tend to agree there can be overpowering councillors who try to exert more authority in a bid to get their way, but know your rights that each council member has equal voting rights. Encourage your clerk to circulate the code of conduct and remind councillors that they must be respectful.  Sometimes monitoring officers at the District can be involved but only if the councillor has breached their code of conduct.  Put forwardca motion to have a vote by show of hands when a few try to rule.  The majority vote must stand.

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