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Standards Committees can take a lead from 'notable practice'
14 January 2010
Standards Committees at councils across England are to benefit from a piece of research commissioned by Standards for England (SfE), into effective standards committee work.
The qualitative research work was carried out between January and September 2009. It identified a number of standards committees which had adopted practices which were working well. These practices were then examined in greater detail. The research will now be made available to all committees, many of whom often request guidance from SfE on suggestions for developing their work programmes.
We called the research ‘notable practice’ to highlight the fact that the tips for success are examples of where particular approaches have worked in certain authorities, rather than ‘set-in-stone’ rules of what should be done.
The research, carried out jointly by Hull University and the University of Teesside and finalised in October 2009, identified nine examples of notable practice in nine different authorities. Case studies were then carried out in each authority to examine each example of notable practice further, and to identify learning points.
Topic |
Authority identified |
|---|---|
| Organisational Learning | Bristol City Council |
| Working with town & parish councils | Taunton Deane Borough Council |
| Member development | Surrey Police Authority |
| Working with partnerships | Newark and Sherwood District Council |
| Recruitment and retention | South Cambridgeshire District Council |
| Training and development | Herefordshire County Council |
| Joint standards and audit committees | Runnymede Borough Council |
| High pressure investigations | Greater London Authority |
| Embedding Standards | Newcastle City Council |
Standards committees can now access the research following the link below.
Assessing the Impact of Standards Committees 2009 (PDF file)
Dr Robert Chilton, chair of Standards for England, said: “These authorities clearly demonstrated effective ways of working, which we felt were excellent examples for other authorities.
“This research, along with the recently-released Standards and Ethics shortlist for the LGC Awards 2010, shows that many authorities are doing great work. As part of our regulatory role, we’re committed to sharing good practice and helping to improve standards.”
Notes for editors
1. A podcast featuring Chief Executive of Standards for England, Glenys Stacey and Dr Michael Macaulay of Teeside University will be made available on our website shortly. For more information, please contact the press office as below.
2. The winner of the Standards and Ethics category of the LGC Awards 2010 will be announced at the awards ceremony on 24 March.
For media enquiries, contact the press office on 0161 817 5400 or email press.enquiries@standardsforengland.gov.uk.
