Council to improve whistleblowing policy

Councillors have agreed to look at ways of providing more support to whistleblowers who raise concerns at Herefordshire Council.

The local authority’s audit and governance committee was set to approve a new whistleblowing policy yesterday.

However, councillors felt more work could be done to provide more help for people who raise concerns and also make the new policy easier to read.

Councillor John Harrington asked the committee if they would consider amending the policy to reflect the need for an independent person or body to look into complaints.

“In order to have a good whistleblowing policy and practice, there should be an independent person or body (e.g. HR firm) that receives copies of all complaints for logging and also allows direct access for anyone wishing to whistleblow,” he said.

“The council will never have good practice or policy whilst whistleblowing is dealt with through our own organisation only.”

Committee chairman Nigel Shaw agreed that the need for independence was a point well made.

Councillor Peter Jinman agreed and also said the policy needed to be written in plain English.

“I tried to read it form the point of view of a person who wished to raise a concern,” he said.

“And I still did not feel comfortable with it. It may be legally correct but the manner and guise in which it was written left me feeling uncomfortable.

“It seems to me when raising concerns, one of the most important things is to ensure there is a proper system for external involvement.

“When this was put together originally, we only had one member of the standards panel. We’ve now got a group of them who are independent individuals.

“We also have a different set-up externally where people can get advice or engage people externally to be involved.”

He said it might be timely to review how external bodies could help make people comfortable that their concerns would be taken forward.

Councillor Diana Toynbee agreed. She wants to see the support available to those raising concerns made more explicit.

“As elected members we want people to feel supported if they are raising concerns because it’s in the public interest.”

Chairman Shaw proposed setting up a working group to review changes made to the draft policy.

“I think the content and the scope of the report is entirely correct,” he said.

“I think we need the language slightly ‘de-legalese’ in places.

“And we need to think how another organisation can be involved.”