Lincolnshire

Lincolnshire County Council is a great example of a council that has used ethical good practice as part of a wider programme to build the authority’s reputation and effectiveness.

Back in 2002 a KPMG report referred to a ‘climate of fear, suspicion and mistrust’ at the council, a Corporate Governance inspection in 2005 identified inadequate leadership at all levels, and the council leader was jailed. Following that report, Steven Ratcliffe was appointed to the newly-created post of Head of Corporate Standards, developed specifically to work on improving members’ conduct and also to work on wider governance issues. He explains how the standards committee at Lincolnshire has been instrumental in driving these improvements, focusing on being “robust, responsive and representative”.

“The standards committee itself has become increasingly involved in training the rest of the council – members, but also to a degree, officers – on ethical governance issues,” Steven says.

The council also heavily promotes the standards committee’s work. Apart from its annual report, the committee also takes opportunities to use the council’s newsletter, the local press and events like the Lincolnshire Show. “And not just when it’s recruiting for new members,” reminds Steven – although the council’s last standards committee recruitment drive was a great success with an impressive number of applications. He describes Lincolnshire County Council’s standards committee as “an initiative committee”, which was the driving force behind the establishing of a Lincolnshire Standards Forum, bringing together the county’s standards committees every year, and also a network of standards committee chairs and monitoring officers.

“[The network] is an excellent forum for debating issues of concern generally about standards, sharing good practice and developing a consistent and unified approach to dealing with standards across the county. We have seven or eight districts, plus the police authority, represented on this network.” The network has, Steven says, proved invaluable in “driving forward some of the changes and working closer together. That’s going to be increasingly important over the next couple of years.”

The standards committee has also been proactive in arranging training for members and providing them with the materials they need to help them maintain exemplary standards of conduct. Among other things, it has produced an ethical handbook for members, made up of Standards Board materials like factsheets and guidance, plus a glossary of useful terms and a list of contacts.

“It’s quite a small book that members can carry about with them, and has been the subject of some discussion with other councils, or other standards committees, about whether they could either have a copy or develop their own.

 Back to Standards and ethics award