The Audit Manager introduced the report as set out in the agenda pack, which provided an overview of the changes contained in the Swale Borough Council (SBC) Whistleblowing Policy, as set out at Appendix 1 of the report.   

The Chair invited questions from Members, and points raised included:

·         Welcomed the updated policy;

·         referred to the final sentence on page 83 of the report, and considered it needed to be reworded to ensure that anyone that had been bullied or coerced into doing something wrong would be guaranteed immunity;

·         how robust was the policy in terms of protecting the anonymity of the whistleblower?;

·         hard for the Council to guarantee anonymity because if it went to Court it would come out;

·         right that whistleblowing and safeguarding were under the same ‘umbrella’;

·         considered that the Leader should cosign the policy;

·         was the policy being shared with Members and our contractors?;

·         need to put some hard copies of the policy around Swale House;

·         this was a robust and substantial document on whistleblowing;

·         Members were bound by the constitution and a code of conduct which was different from employees and contractors of the Council.  Did not think it appropriate for Members to be included;

·         doubted whether the Council would get more than ten whistle blowing instances, otherwise there was a serious issue;

·         was there an appeals process if the complaint was not upheld?; and

·         the policy was for Members not just staff.

In response, the Head of Internal Audit said that the final sentence on page 83 was referring to anyone that had ‘knowingly’ not done their job properly, so would  not be guaranteed immunity.  She agreed to review the wording, so this was clearer.   She said that if people felt they had been bullied or coerced this would be covered by Human Resources and their Grievance Policies.

With regard to protecting the anonymity of the whistleblower, the Audit Manager explained that this would be considered during the investigation and agreed with the individual.  He agreed to discuss with Strategic Management Team the possibility of the Leader cosigning the policy and ways to promote the policy.  The Director of Resources reported that the procurement process of the Council ensured that contractors had their own whistleblowing policies in place for their staff.

The Head of Internal Audit advised that if there were significant numbers of whistle blowing then she would inform the Committee.  She reported that for SBC she had looked at one incident in three years.  The Head of Internal Audit said it was important that people were aware of the policy and that people felt they could raise concerns if they had them.  The Audit Manager explained that the investigating officer would need to outline the reasons to the complainant why their complaint had not been upheld.  A Member said any complainant not happy with the outcome could also contact external audit.

The Chair thanked officers for the report, and welcomed that it would be updated more regularly.

Councillor Andy Booth proposed the recommendation, which was seconded by Councillor Richard Palmer.

Resolved:

(1)   That the updated Whistleblowing Policy be approved.