Auditors call for improved member-officer relations at council for second year running

External auditors have told Teignbridge District Council for the second year running that it needs to improve relationships between its members and officers.

In a report providing combined commentary on 2021/22 and 2022/23, Grant Thornton said that measures aimed at improving relations at the council have been log-jammed since 2022.

The report, which was discussed during a full council meeting on Tuesday (24 April), warned that "member behaviour continues, at times, to be poor" and added that member-officer relations "still need to improve".

"This area continues to be one of significant weakness and our previous key recommendation is carried forward," it said.

The previous year's report noted that a revised member and officer protocol had been drafted to tackle the issue.

However, the most recent report stated that, as of December 2023, the protocol had still not been agreed upon.

The council is now seeking external support to resolve the issue.

The report said: "Senior Members need to work with Officers, particularly statutory Officers, in a more collaborative, respectful and supportive manner.

"This includes tackling Member behaviour which falls short of the high standards expected of those in public office."

The report later stated that the discord is "impacting on the ability of Officers to do their work as effectively as possible" and that "too much time is taken up managing relationships and responding to last minute requests or changes of plan".

Speaking at Tuesday's full council meeting, Cllr Phil Bullivant said the need for improved relations has been "detailed for '21, '22, '23" in a series of reports.

He added: "It was the subject of the peer review that took place at the back end of last year, which highlighted all of the same issues, all of the same questions, and therefore, these have been on the table for a considerable amount of time.

"We heard earlier that one of the key things that has been recognised by the officers at the suggestion of the councillors is that we want more contact with officers. But that process has been delayed because we haven't bothered to get together to agree the format that would allow people to have that interchange of opinions and ideas.

"And that theme seems to run through consistently, where our monitoring officers put forward plans to improve governance arrangements that are held up in decision and we're waiting year after year for some action to take place."

The report also considered how code of conduct investigations are conducted at the council. 

It found there is "no evidence of significant or repeated departure from key regulatory and statutory requirements or professional standards".

The report noted that improvements have been made relating to the council's whistleblowing policy.

Grant Thornton meanwhile reported that there were no significant weaknesses at Teignbridge in relation to 'financial sustainability' and 'improving economy, efficiency and effectiveness', but the external auditors did make improvement recommendations against both criteria.

The internal strife at Teignbridge was in the news last year after councillors referred a former monitoring officer to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). The reasoning behind the referral was unknown.

The decision to make the referral came during an extraordinary council meeting, during which councillors considered a Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman report that found failures related to a code of conduct complaint.

The SRA dismissed the referral in August 2023 with no action taken against the monitoring officer.

Adam Carey