Local Assessment: sharing lessons learnt

One of the breakout sessions at our Annual Assembly in October was entitled Local Assessment, sharing lessons learnt. This session took the form of a discussion forum giving delegates the opportunity to share their experiences of the local assessment process since its introduction in May 2008.

Sessions were held in tandem for monitoring officers and standards committee members respectively. This gave each group the opportunity to share with their peers the challenges that had arisen in their authority and the solutions they had developed to meet these challenges. In addition, delegates suggested a number of changes to the local standards framework. We value these suggestions but, clearly, many need further evaluation before a decision could be taken whether to make any changes.

A full breakdown of feedback from the sessions can be found on our dedicated Assembly website, but we thought you might be interested in hearing what some of the main issues discussed were.

Top five issues discussed:

1. Vexatious or Persistent Complainants

This topic was raised in all four sessions that took place. Potential solutions suggested by delegates included:

• asking for further Standards for England guidance on the definition of what a vexatious complaint is
• change legislation to allow monitoring officers to filter out such complaints and allow committees to refuse complaints from vexatious complainants
• having robust assessment criteria to filter out such complaints at assessment
• to write warning letters to complainants deemed vexatious by the council procedures
• to deliver targeted training
• to publish the average cost of assessing and investigating a complaint.

We are aware that persistent vexatious complainants are causing problems for a number of authorities. This is one area where we intend to provide further guidance for standards committees early in 2010, although we recognise that guidance alone is unlikely to solve this issue.

2. The role of the monitoring officer

Delegates questioned what role, if any, a monitoring officer should have in filtering out complaints before formal assessment by the standards committee. A variety of suggestions were made including that:

• Standards for England should produce further guidance on what steps monitoring officers can take before assessment
• monitoring officers should be given the power to filter complaints before assessment in consultation with the standards committee chair
• monitoring officers should make the initial assessment decision with any review undertaken by the assessment sub-committee
• monitoring officers should make the initial assessment decision for parish complaints
• there should be discretion to halt the formal process if a local solution is reached.

3. Informing the subject member that a complaint has been made

Currently monitoring officers can take the administrative step of informing a member that a complaint has been made about them. However, the current regulations do not allow them to disclose any details of the complaint. Many delegates felt that this puts monitoring officers in a difficult position, especially in circumstances where the complainant has spoken to the press.

Delegates suggested a number of solutions and changes that they would like to see including:

• asking members in advance whether they would like to be told if a complaint is made about them, and make them aware they cannot be told any details until after the assessment
• giving monitoring officers the discretion to reveal some details of a complaint to the subject member depending on the circumstances, in consultation with the standards committee chair
• requesting guidance from Standards for England on what the subject member should be told prior to assessment
• requesting guidance from Standards for England on what the subject member should be told prior to an investigation.

4. Resources

A number of delegates highlighted problems with finding resources to deal with processing complaints. There were some suggestions that monitoring officers could use the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 to ensure they had adequate resources to perform their functions.

Another suggestion was that parishes should either be asked to contribute or alternatively they should be charged for processing complaints about parish members. Currently parish councils cannot be charged for any costs incurred during the assessment or investigation of a complaint about a parish member.

5. Quality of complaint information

Delegates stated that poorly written complaints and lack of information from the complainant could make it difficult to make an assessment decision.

Delegates suggested that:

• a model complaint form from Standards for England would be helpful (we have already published a complaints form – click here to download).
• complainants should be encouraged to use, or that it should be mandatory to complete, an official form
• monitoring officers should request further information from the complainant if there is insufficient information to make an assessment decision
• the complainant should be asked what they would like the outcome of the process to be.

We are currently undertaking a review of the local standards framework and information gathered from the sessions will feed into this review process. However, some of the changes to the standards framework suggested would be difficult to implement as they would require primary legislation to be amended.

A number of requests were made during the sessions for further guidance from Standards for England. We will consider these requests and use the feedback to inform future guidance updates.

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