| 24 | Further to the last meeting (Minute 17), the Committee considered comments received on the draft Protocol on Member/Officer Relations from the Group Leader of the Residents' Associations and GMB (circulated with the Agenda); Unison and the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (circulated at the meeting) and the Executive (reported at the meeting).
A draft document, detailing comments from Unison was used as the basis of discussion at the meeting although all other comments were taken into account.
It was noted that Officers would in time have their own Protocol on conduct and were not expected to comply with the existing Members' Code of Conduct. Officers were currently bound by statutory and contractual restrictions/obligations. The Committee therefore agreed that to cover this point paragraph 1 should be suitably amended by the addition of "and statutory provisions". Paragraph 5 should also be amended to make reference to Officers' terms and conditions of service. Unison's comment in paragraph 8 was accepted.
Unison had suggested that the draft Protocol should be amended to make it clear that Officers were responsible to the Head of Paid Service (as the Employer) and not the Council. The Monitoring Officer reported that this amendment was not appropriate. The Head of Paid Service was not the "Employer" and under the Constitution (Terms of Reference; Functions and Responsibilities; and Employment Committee Procedure Rules) it was clear this was the Council. The Head of Paid Service was a separate statutory appointment.
For paragraph 14, the Committee agreed that the word "Opposition" should be deleted from the heading and the preamble amended to make reference (in relation to Members) to "others not covered in paragraphs 12 and 13".
With regard to paragraph 15 and 16, there had been consistent comment from a number of consultees that mutual Officer/Member expectations/obligations under the Protocol should be drawn together, leaving others, where appropriate, to be attributed to either Members or Officers. The Committee reviewed paragraphs 15 and 16 on this basis and agreed a reordered draft. In doing this certain wording was amended to reflect comments made and to ensure consistency. In addition, the Committee agreed that the final five paragraphs to paragraph 15 should be moved forward to before the bullet points. Reference to Best Value should be retained (as it had a measurable meaning) but under paragraph 15 (first line) the word "specifically" should be inserted between "are" and "employed". The word "Officers" should replace "Employees" throughout the document.
Under paragraph 20 reference to the Data Protection Act was not necessary, neither was it considered appropriate/necessary to define precisely what information Members could access. It was considered that being prescriptive could lead to difficulties.
Paragraph 20 was amended to read as follow:
"… should be impartial, constructive and well founded and delivered in appropriate, reasoned words, language and tone. Whilst robust questioning is permissible, personal attacks are totally unacceptable".
Further suggested amendments to this paragraph by Unison were not considered necessary as they were covered in the section "When Things Go Wrong".
It was agreed that the word "or" in paragraph 26 (first line) should be retained but in the third line "only who" should be replaced with "those".
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