Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council

At Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council, the standards committee’s forward work plan is informed by comments from people across the council, both officers and members, and also meetings between the chief executive and monitoring officer David Bond, who initiates the plan’s proposed content. David also discusses the plan with the senior legal assistant, who administers the authority’s local assessment arrangements, the cabinet member for standards ethics, and with the council’s political group leaders.

It is an all-inclusive approach that enables the monitoring officer and the standards committee to get different perspectives on ethical issues. The plan is reviewed and revised on a monthly basis. And in keeping with this approach, the standards committee also has a role in reviewing the council’s constitution.

Partnership working is an area to which Stockton-on-Tees has devoted considerable attention and made excellent progress. The council has developed a partnership toolkit to help all those involved set up proper structures to manage their partnerships. The governance arrangements for them are based on the six principles of good governance and the standards expected in public life. The internal audit service reviews these arrangements based on those principles and standards.

Moreover, any partnership of which the council is part has a nominated link officer, whose role includes alerting the council to any potential issues, such as conduct and decision-making. The link officer also undertakes periodic self-assessment ‘health checks’, a sample of which is audited each year to ensure their reliability and which can also pick up any concerns quickly and allow them to be swiftly resolved. Ethically-sound partnerships are considered essential and the council’s commitment in this area continues to grow.

Stockton-on-Tees is proud of its ethical standards and has taken lots of steps to promote the standards framework to its many different audiences, raising its profile as much as possible. Standards committee members have visited town and parish councils as well as full council, planning, licensing and scrutiny meetings in order to meet councillors at all levels. When it comes to the general public, the council has a dedicated set of standards committee pages on its website, highlights the standards committee’s work through the Stockton News, the council’s external newsletter, and displays posters and information in libraries, council buildings and community centres.