East Riding of Yorkshire Council 'hasn't historically recorded bullying stats'
A Councillor says it's 'scary and shameful'
It is scary and shameful that East Riding Council has not historically tracked figures for staff bullying and harassment, a councillor said as new policies are drafted to tackle it.
East Riding Council’s Overview and Management Scrutiny Committee heard data for bullying and harassment cases would now be logged but only from April.
Council Chief Executive Caroline Lacey told councillors officers would have had oversight of cases coming in but a count of the files was never made.
But committee member Cllr Kevin Beaumont said people would be horrified to know no data had ever been collected, adding it showed council managers lacked control of the situation.
It comes as the council is drawing up a new policy for staff as the existing one, adopted in 2019, reaches the end of its life span.
The drafting of the new policy also follows claims bullying was witnessed during visitors’ inspections last year.
A draft Local Government Association (LGA) Peer Challenge Report also claimed unusually controlling behaviour had been seen from some managers.
The final version of the report removed explicit references to bullying but several anonymous council workers told LDRS they had seen or been subjected to it while working there.
Council leader Cllr Jonathan Owen vowed to take bullying allegations extremely seriously earlier this year but later said there had not been a flood of complaints since claims were made.
The draft Bullying and Harassment Policy states the council will take a zero tolerance approach and vows to deal with allegations fairly and sensitively.
It states that all employees have a responsibility to challenge inappropriate behaviour and raise any bullying they see or are subjected to with a manager.
The draft policy proposes that the council’s Peoples Services department will provide impartial advice to all parties during a bullying or harassment investigation.
It states trade unions can give affected staff support independently of the council, along with the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) and the National Bullying Helpline.
The draft policy also states council officers would monitor it if it is adopted, as well as tracking the number and type of incidents raised.
But council People Services Director Lynsey Linton told the committee the authority had not tracked bullying and harassment cases before.
Cllr Beaumont and several others on the committee said that was unacceptable.
He added it was well within the council’s capabilities to gather historic data and the committee called on officers to give them figures for the last five years.
The councillor said: “We have senior officers and directors who have held positions of responsibility here for many years, I think the public would find it horrifying that they have admitted they have not monitored this.
“This council has existed for 25 years and employs 11,000 people, are we saying this has never been monitored?
“If that’s the case I don’t see how we can be classed as a caring council, I’m ashamed we’ve never done this before, it’s scary.
“And if we aren’t counting these cases then how can we see if we’re making any progress?”
Ms Lacey said the data had never been collected because councillors had never asked for it and going through historic records to get it would involve a lot of work.
The chief executive said: “The historic data is there but it’s been recorded manually, going forward it will be put into our system where it can be looked at very easily.
“It’ll be an improvement because the data will all be in one place.”
Councillors also called again for someone independent of the East Riding, trade unions and national employment bodies to be brought in to handle bullying cases.
Ms Linton said research done during the drafting the new policy found handling complaints internally tended to get the best results for all concerned.
But Cllr Lynn Healing said staff who came claiming they had been bullied had laughed when her and other councillors told them to raise it internally.
Councillors called on officers to look into the feasibility of creating a post similar to independent members on its committees for staff who were reluctant to make bullying complaints internally.
Cllr Healing said: “Giving people sat there crying an email address or phone line to ring isn’t going to help because they need the help in that moment.”
“We want someone whose impartial that staff can sit down with and talk to.”
The draft policy is set to go before senior councillors on the East Riding’s cabinet in September.