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The decisions as the council's minutes record them. A plain-language summary follows once it has been written.
Resolved that: The New Dispute Resolution Policy to be referred to Full Council so that it can formally be added to the Councils constitution.
No apologies for absence were received as all members were in attendance.
No declarations of interest were received.
The minutes of the previous meeting held on Friday 07 February 2025 were shared with members of the Standards Committee to determine accuracy. The Chair then went through the Minutes for information and Standards Committee approval. It was agreed that the Minutes of the meeting held on Friday 07 February 2025 are a true record and be received for information. The Chair provided the Committee with an update regarding training on the constitution and asked if Councils Solicitor would be willing to provide a follow up session for the members who were unable to attend last weeks session. An update was also provided on the cross-border training and the Chair confirmed that he had been in contact with a training provider and a further update should be available over the coming weeks.
Decision as recorded
Resolved that: The New Dispute Resolution Policy to be referred to Full Council so that it can formally be added to the Councils constitution.
The Monitoring Officer introduced the report and provided the committee with an overview of the process taken in updating the Dispute Resolution Procedure and the reason the update was required. The Monitoring Officer then led the committee through the proposed ‘New’ Dispute Resolution Policy and highlighted in detail the proposed changes. The Monitoring Officer confirmed that the Mayor had always been included in the informal resolution section of the policy but will be monitored due to the concerns regarding the Mayoral role becoming politicised over the past few years. Concerns were raised by the committee as there is now the possibility of the Chair becoming pre-determined if the Monitoring Officer discussed a case with the Chair prior to the outcome being accepted. The Monitoring Officer reassured the committee that this is unlikely to happen as the Chair / Vice Chair would only be included in a discussion once the monitoring officer is clear that the complainant is happy with the local resolution, and it is unlikely to be escalated to the Ombudsman. A requested was made to introduce a formal way of recording and monitoring referrals to the Committee to allow them to identify any patterns and be able to track the number of referrals at stage one and stage two. It was noted that Section 4.2 paragraph 1 and Section 5 paragraph 1 still refer to the Stage Three process, the Monitoring officer confirmed that this would be amended prior to the document being published. Councillor L Mytton gave her apologies and left the meeting. Resolved that: The New Dispute Resolution Policy to be referred to Full Council so that it can formally be added to the Councils constitution.
The Chair agreed that this item be discussed as Item 4 as the Councils Solicitor was required in court as soon as the item has been concluded. Simon Jones introduced the report and outlined the complaints procedure and how the team deal with complaints. The Complaints Officer addressed the committee in relation to the work that is carried out to resolve complaints before they get to stage two of the complaints process and confirmed that 97% of Corporate Complaints get resolved at stage one. Questions were raised by the committee and the Solicitor and Complaints Officer responded to the matters raised in detail confirming that there are processes in place to be able to refer issues to the Standards Committee when required. It was also confirmed that lessons learned session are held with Managers to mitigate the chance of receiving the same or similar complaint in the future and to make any necessary changes to procedures. A detailed response was provided in relation to dealing with education complaints and why the Council had to be involved in the few cases that were mentioned. It was confirmed that the cases are few and far between and an example used was where there would be a cross over between education and social services then the Council would need to be involved in the complaints process. A brief outline of the three cases that were upheld by the ombudsman were provided to the committee. The Chair thanked the officers for their report and attendance and they left the meeting.
The Monitoring Officer provided a verbal update relating to the Leaders Duty to Promote Compliance and outlined the reasons for the delay in publishing the report and submitting it to the Ombudsman. The Monitoring Officer confirmed that the Democratic Services Team have spoken with the Leaders of the political parties regarding the completion of these reports. The Chair also confirmed that he has spoken to Democratic Services and made himself available to assist the leaders with any issues they may have when completing their reports. The Monitoring Officer confirmed what constitutes a Political Group and the process that must be adhered to when registering a political group at Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council.
The date of the next meeting was agreed by the committee and will be held on Friday 25th July 2025.
The Chair confirmed that he had now received a copy of the minutes from the meeting of the National Forum and if any member of this committee wished to receive a copy, they can be requested via the Monitoring Officer. On request the Chair outlined the terms of reference for the National Forum. The Chair confirmed that this would be the Monitoring Officers last meeting of Standards as after 36 years of service she has decided to retire. The Chair thanked the Monitoring Officer for her support on a personal level and on behalf of the Standards Committee and wished her a long and happy retirement. The Chair thanked everyone for their attendance and closed the meeting.
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