Help
Please read through the topics below for answers to some of the most common questions and problems on this site. After that, if you still can't find what you're looking for, contact us.
Having trouble with documents?
How to use this site
This section describes how to find your way around the site.
NavigationThe navigation bar appears at the top of the screen and contains links to each of the main sections of the site: Guidance, News, Case information & reporting, Resources and About us.
As you move your mouse over each of the main section headings, a drop down menu will appear telling you what’s in that section. You can either click on the main section heading or go straight to any of the links in the drop down menus.
When you have entered a section of the site, for example Guidance, you will also find a guide to what’s in that section on the right hand side of the screen.
You can also use the sitemap to find the page you want. The sitemap is a list of all the pages on the site, and there's a link to it at the bottom of every page.
Site tools
The site tools are the links at the bottom right-hand corner of every page. They enable you to perform a number of functions:
- get help using the site — that's where you are now
- contact us with questions and feedback, and see where our office is
- view the sitemap
- view our privacy policy
The search box is in the top right-hand corner of every page. To use it, type a word or phrase into the box and hit 'enter' or click on 'go'.
The site search looks for any pages that contain all the words you entered and lists as many matches as it finds, with the most relevant page at the top.
However, if you are interested in case summaries, there's a better way to find what you want. See the section on searching case summaries for more information.
Still can't find what you're looking for?If you're struggling to find the information you need, contact us.
Searching case summaries
The case summary section has its own powerful search tools to enable you to find exactly what you're looking for quickly and easily. Choose from standard and advanced search options and authority listings — each described in more details below.
If you are having trouble finding a case summary, read the section Why can't I find the case I'm looking for? below, which explains why a case summary may not be on the site as expected.
Standard search
This is the easiest way to find a specific case if you know some of the details. You have three options:
- Search by case number — this is the reference we give to our investigations. They follow the format: 'SBE12345.05'. You only need to enter the first set of numbers (e.g. 12345).
- Search by member — this is the name of the person who was investigated. For best results, use just a surname.
- Search by authority — the authority of the person who was investigated. You only need to search for the place name, such as 'Leeds' or 'Brighton', to find the related summaries.
Authority listings
These are alphabetic lists of all the authorities for which we currently carry case summaries. If an authority is not listed, it means there are currently no case summaries on our site involving members of that authority.
Click on a letter of the alphabet to display the list of authorities beginning with that letter. London borough councils are listed by borough, such as Islington and Southwark; the Greater London Authority is listed under G.
Click on an authority to display a list of all the case summaries for members of that authority.
Advanced search
The advanced search helps you find all summaries of a particular kind, involving a certain allegation or outcome. You only need to complete one field for the search to work, but can complete several fields to narrow the search down.
You can search by:
- Keyword — this will bring back all case summaries that include the word or words specified. It will only recognise whole words, however, so variations on a word, such as plurals and abbreviations, will not appear in the search results.
- Authority — the authority of the person who was the subject of the investigation. You only need to search for the place name, such as 'Leeds' or 'Brighton', to find the related summaries.
- Allegation — a drop-down box of the main categories covered by the Code of Conduct, plus an option for finding investigations instigated by an ethical standards officer. You can only select one allegation at a time.
- Standards for England outcome — a drop-down box of the possible outcomes for an investigation. In a few instances, an ethical standards officer may reach several outcomes on different aspects of the investigation. Case summaries for these investigations have been categorised under the most serious outcome.
- First-tier Tribunal (Local Government Standards in England) outcome — a drop-down box of outcomes available to the First-tier Tribunal (Local Government Standards in England), including the main sanctions. You can only select one outcome at a time.
- Standards committee outcome — a drop-down box of outcomes available to standards committees, including the main penalties. You can only select one outcome at a time.
- Date completed — when the investigation was concluded; for cases referred the Adjudication Panel or a standards committee, this won't be until after the hearing. Enter the date in the format 'day.month.year' like this: 12.06.04. Include a start and end date to find cases completed during that period or leave blank to find all cases.
Why can't I find the case I'm looking for?
If you expect to find a case summary but can't, it may be to do with one of the following reasons. If not, please contact us and we'll try to help.
- Was the investigation carried out by the local authority rather than the Standards Board?
We only publish summaries of our own investigations. For investigations carried out by local authorities themselves, please contact the authority directly. - Was the allegation passed for investigation?
We do not publish details of allegations which are not referred for investigation. - Is the investigation complete, or was it completed recently?
We only produce case summaries at the end of an investigation or, for cases referred to the Adjudication Panel for England and local standards committees, after the hearing has been held. We try to publish case summaries as close to the completion date as possible, but inevitably there is sometimes a short delay while we prepare the summary. - Was the investigation completed a long time ago?
It is our policy to remove case summaries from our site after a certain length of time which depends on the outcome of the case. - Did you enter the correct information?
The search will not realise if you have spelt a word incorrectly or entered it in the wrong format. The sections above on standard and advanced searching explain what information should be entered in the boxes and in what format.
Having trouble with documents?
A lot of the information on our site is published in portable document format (pdf), including the complaints leaflet and much of the guidance for members. Documents are easy to spot because we put them in boxes.
With pdf files, you can open them to read onscreen or save them to your own computer to print out or read offline.
To open pdf files, you need a free application called Adobe Acrobat Reader. We recommend you use the most recent version of the software. If you have Acrobat Reader, when you click on the link the file will open automatically in a new browser window. If you can't open our documents, you might not have it.
For more information, and to download the application, click on the button below.
Still having problems?
If you are still experiencing problems, try Acrobat Reader online help.
You may need to contact your systems support staff to check if your organisation's firewall allows you to download pdf files.
Accessibility
We are committed to making our site as accessible as possible to all people, regardless of disability, technical skills and other personal circumstances. The site has been designed to meet worldwide accessibility standards: all our pages meet at least level 'AA' of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
Accessibility is a continual process of revision and improvement. If there is something about our site that you find hard to use, we would like to hear from you so that we can try to improve it. Please contact us with your comments.
Reporting faults
If you are experiencing problems with this site, please send an email to website enquiries, including a description of the problem and a link to the page on which the problem occurred.
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