If a Council Officer has a complaint made against him/her, he/she has support available from HR (and possibly a Trade Union). If a complaint is made against an elected member, support is available from the Council’s HR team and the legal team. Community Councillors have nothing. No support. No guidance. No backup.
The complaints process is essentially designed for Council Officers. A separate, local process is required for Community Councils.
When a complaint is made, I fully agree that in the first instance it should be between the office bearer the complaint was made to as well as the member in question but at this stage the link officer should be made aware of it as well. This should trigger an impartial support process from someone within SAC who will be completely separate to the complaint investigation no matter the stage it gets to in order to guide and support the member. I fully support the idea that should a complaint be escalated it is reviewed by a panel of other CC members, as ultimately they are in a better position to evaluate than anyone else. I don't agree with the model scheme that SAC should not be involved in a complaints procedure, and if it is going to be changed then there should still be an external and impartial body/partner to deal with complaints.
Costly, time consuming and a huge waste. The model scheme sensibly states that a local authority should not take part in the complaints process and matters should be handled locally.
I remember having a particularly difficult individual on the CC who seemed to be causing division amongst us and denigrating the office bearers when he had not even been in the CC for long. Turned out he was desperate to be first, Secretary, and then, Chair - and then he would not leave his position even when a vote of no confidence in him was taken by members. I went to SAC to the Communities Director at the time, long gone now, and she basically told me that there was nothing she could do. I found that hard to accept but thinking about it now, if I didn't like the CC I guess I should just have given up my voluntary role as Secretary and realised that this is life. Since the new officers have arrived there seems to be an improved way of dealing with difficult situations but my CC has not been through the process so I don't know for sure if the whole thing is fair or not. Does the Model Scheme actually say that? I missed that.
If a Council Officer has a complaint made against him/her, he/she has support available from HR (and possibly a Trade Union). If a complaint is made against an elected member, support is available from the Council’s HR team and the legal team. Community Councillors have nothing. No support. No guidance. No backup.
The complaints process is essentially designed for Council Officers. A separate, local process is required for Community Councils.
When a complaint is made, I fully agree that in the first instance it should be between the office bearer the complaint was made to as well as the member in question but at this stage the link officer should be made aware of it as well. This should trigger an impartial support process from someone within SAC who will be completely separate to the complaint investigation no matter the stage it gets to in order to guide and support the member. I fully support the idea that should a complaint be escalated it is reviewed by a panel of other CC members, as ultimately they are in a better position to evaluate than anyone else. I don't agree with the model scheme that SAC should not be involved in a complaints procedure, and if it is going to be changed then there should still be an external and impartial body/partner to deal with complaints.
Costly, time consuming and a huge waste. The model scheme sensibly states that a local authority should not take part in the complaints process and matters should be handled locally.
I remember having a particularly difficult individual on the CC who seemed to be causing division amongst us and denigrating the office bearers when he had not even been in the CC for long. Turned out he was desperate to be first, Secretary, and then, Chair - and then he would not leave his position even when a vote of no confidence in him was taken by members. I went to SAC to the Communities Director at the time, long gone now, and she basically told me that there was nothing she could do. I found that hard to accept but thinking about it now, if I didn't like the CC I guess I should just have given up my voluntary role as Secretary and realised that this is life. Since the new officers have arrived there seems to be an improved way of dealing with difficult situations but my CC has not been through the process so I don't know for sure if the whole thing is fair or not. Does the Model Scheme actually say that? I missed that.
Adequate as is
This section could be abbreviated.
Looks ok to me.