Tower Hamlets Constitution

This code aims to guide all employees on their conduct inside work and outside work where this has a bearing on their position within the Council. It is the responsibility of all Council employees to read this Code and work in accordance with it. If you are unsure about any aspect, check it with your line manager or Human Resources.

As an employee you should read this Code in conjunction with other relevant parts of the Constitution, Council policies and procedures relevant to your work and more detailed operational guidelines for example in areas such as computer use, The Code, in setting out our values, rules and principles, should not be interpreted as a complete list of what you can and cannot do, but rather to enable you as an employee to understand the ground-rules that all must observe, and the differences in the roles and duties of Members (the Mayor and Councillors) and employees.

Any breach of this Code may lead to disciplinary action and may in some instances constitute gross misconduct.

The public is entitled to demand the highest standards of conduct from all local government employees.

The Council is extremely conscious that public confidence can be damaged where the integrity of a Council employee is called into question and they are suspected of being influenced by improper motives.

Paragraphs 2.1 and 2.2 of the National Joint Council for Local Government Services, National Agreement on Pay and Conditions of the Service states:

• “Employees will maintain conduct of the highest standard such that public confidence in their integrity is sustained

• Local codes of practice will be developed to cover the official conduct and the obligations of employees and employers.”

The Council believes:

1. The public is entitled to demand of a Local Government Officer conduct of the highest standard and public confidence in their integrity would be shaken were the least suspicion to arise that they could in any way be influenced by improper motives.

2. An Officer’s off-duty hours are their personal concern but they should not subordinate their duty to their private interests or put themselves in a position where their duty to their private interests conflict. The employing Authority should not attempt to preclude Officers from undertaking additional employment, but any such employment must not, in the view of the Authority conflict with or react detrimentally to the Authority’s confidence in the conduct of the Authority’s business.

3. The Officer should not be called upon to advise any political group of the employing Authority either as to the work of the group or as to the work of the Authority, neither shall they be required to attend any meeting of any political group.

The Council expects all employees to deal with one another, the public, clients and elected Members in a courteous and civil manner. This may be in the exercise of their duties but can cover other circumstances, e.g. when in the role of Trade Union Representative. Employees should promote equality by not discriminating unlawfully against any person and by treating people with respect regardless of their race, age, religion, gender, sexual orientation or disability.

It is important that there is clarity about the respective roles of elected Members and employees and that the relationship between the two is clearly understood by everyone concerned. To achieve this the Council has adopted the Member/Officer Protocol which applies to all Members (the Mayor and Councillors) and employees and should be read in conjunction with this document.

You must always remember your responsibilities to the community that you serve and ensure courteous, efficient and impartial service delivery to all groups and individuals within that community as defined by the policies of the Council. All employees are required to be familiar with and implement the Council’s policies, particularly those relating to Equalities and the Customer Promise and to ensure that the principles within those policies and other policies are followed.

The Council expects relationships between work colleagues (including those between managers and team members) to be supportive, co-operative and respectful. Employees should behave in a way that enhances the performance and well-being of others and the effectiveness of Council services. Employees should not have managerial responsibility for those with whom they have close private relationships (e.g. partners and family). If such a relationship arises, during the course of your employment, it must be declared to your divisional director or chief officer.

Other organisations and agencies support, assist and partner the Council in the provision of services. Employees must work within the terms of the contracts/agreements made between contractors/suppliers/partners and the Authority

You are responsible for declaring interests which conflict with the impartial performance of your duties or put you under suspicion of improper behaviour. These interests may be financial or personal/social interests (e.g. interests of family and friends, commercial or voluntary associations). The interest may be advantageous or have a detrimental effect on you (an example of a detrimental interest may be a situation where you experience threats or pressure from family or friends to act in a particular way in your official capacity).

You must declare in writing to your director any financial or personal/ social interests that you consider could bring about conflict with the Council’s business or interests. You are reminded in particular that you must comply with Section 117 of the Local Government Act 1972 regarding the disclosure of pecuniary interests in contracts relating to the Council. Orders and contracts must be awarded on merit and no special favour should be shown to businesses in which you have a financial interest or which are run by, for example, friends, partners or relatives. If you have such an interest you must not be involved in any way in the negotiation of agreements or the letting of contracts with these contractors/firms.

Interests, relationships and associations must also be declared when dealing with recruitment, management responsibilities, the allocation of resources and services, the provision of services and access to confidential information. Interests, friendships and associations, which could conflict with your professional roles and responsibilities, must also be declared to your divisional director.

Each directorate maintains a confidential register of declarations which must be in writing, giving information about the nature of the interest and the names of the parties and the functions involved. Chief officers and directors are also required to complete returns to be included in a confidential register maintained by Human Resources. These records may be accessed, on application to the monitoring officer, during the process of an investigation if the conduct of an employee is brought into question.

All employees are bound by a duty of fidelity not to breach confidence and not to participate in competing activities. The Council has the right to take necessary and reasonable steps to protect its legitimate business interests.

The Council can legitimately seek to restrict the work activity of certain ex-employees (for a specified period of time after the end of their employment and within a specified geographical area) where the individuals could use contacts and information derived from the Council to compete with the Council for work. These restrictions would take the form of a loyalty clause (or restrictive covenant) within the employee’s contract of employment.

The Council retains intellectual property rights for work undertaken by employees. Research, reports, designs, drawings, software developments or similar work, when created in the course of an employee’s normal duties, remain the property of the Council. These should not be removed from Council premises or passed on to a third party by any employee acting in a private capacity without the express consent of the Council.

The acceptance of gifts and hospitality, even on a modest scale, may arouse suspicion and must be capable of public justification. A register of gifts and hospitality is therefore kept for each of the Council’s directorates containing the following information:

• The name of the person or body making an offer of a gift or hospitality.

• The name of the employee to whom the offer was made.

• The gift or hospitality offered.

• The circumstances in which the offer was made.

• The action taken by the member of staff concerned.

• The action taken (if any) by the divisional director or chief officer.

Where it is in the Council’s interests to offer hospitality to organisations on Council premises such arrangements must only be made with the express permission of the divisional director or chief officer and be on a scale appropriate to the occasion.

You are strongly advised to refuse or return any gifts, hospitality or other favours from persons inside or outside the Council as any such acceptance could well put you in a compromising position and could render you liable to accusations by other parties who become aware of this. You should bear in mind how the acceptance of a gift or a free meal would look to a third party and how this could appear to compromise your professional judgement even if it is accepted in all innocence. When declining a gift or hospitality you should courteously but firmly inform those making the offer of the procedures and standards operating within the Council.

Under no circumstances should you ask for a reward, tip, gift, “Christmas box” or any other inducement. You should also not put yourself in debt to someone where this would be likely to influence your work.

It is a serious criminal offence for employees of the Council to corruptly receive or give any gift, loan, fee, reward or advantage in order to influence official conduct. If an allegation is made, it is for the employee to demonstrate that any such rewards have not been corruptly obtained. It is also an offence to accept any gift or consideration in the knowledge or belief that it is intended as inducement or reward, whether the employee receiving it is influenced or not.

There may be occasions where refusal of personal hospitality or a small token gift would clearly cause offence or distress if it were refused. The dividing line between what is and what is not acceptable is not a clear one and you should always exercise extreme caution and inform your line manager if it is accepted. This does not need to be recorded in the Gifts and Hospitality Register.

Before accepting a gift or hospitality staff should consider:

• The timing of decisions for letting contracts for which a provider may be bidding (under no circumstances should gifts or hospitality be accepted from a contractor during a tendering period).

• Whether the gift or hospitality is appropriate e.g. an inexpensive promotional pen or diary may be accepted but more expensive items, such as a bottle of whisky, must be declined. Similarly, lunch at on-site cafeterias or invitations to local cultural events as a representative of the Council may be appropriate whereas invitations to prestigious sporting events, theatre tickets or personal invitations where you are not attending in an official capacity are not appropriate.

Where the refusal of an unsolicited gift may cause offence, the gift may be donated to the Speaker of the Council’s official charity and the donor informed accordingly in writing.

You should exercise discretion in offering and accepting hospitality. You should bear in mind how it might affect your relations with the party offering it and how it might be viewed by elected Members, other potential suppliers/contractors, the public and other officers. The criteria which determine whether you should accept hospitality from firms or other organisations include:

• Whether the invitation comes from a firm likely to benefit from the goodwill of the

• Council or from a charity or other organisation which may not have the same kind of vested interest in the outcome;

• Whether the firm is seeking a contract, or one has already been awarded;

• Whether the visit is genuinely instructive or constitutes more of a social function;

• The scale and location of hospitality, and whether it falls in working hours;

• The frequency of the hospitality;

• Whether it is directed just at you or to a group.

With the exception of minor gifts such as inexpensive calendars, pens or small stationery items, or hospitality such as refreshments during a site visit or an inexpensive working lunch, the acceptance of gifts and/or hospitality must be authorised in advance by a director or chief officer and recorded in writing in the directorate register. Offers that are declined must also be recorded in the register. Directors and Chief Officers are also required to complete the register although they are not required to seek prior authority for any action they decide to take.

On occasion members of the public or clients may wish to express their appreciation of Council officers or services of a particular employee by leaving money/gifts in their will. Members of the public should be discouraged from doing this.

Where an employee has notice that they are to be bequeathed money/gifts from a member of the public or client they must report this to their Chief Officer.

Details of the amount involved, the reason for the legacy and the service provided must be forwarded to the chief officer before the employee accepts the legacy.

The Council expects all employees to safeguard confidential information, including when they leave the Council’s service. Information which can be classified as ‘confidential’ can broadly be grouped into the following areas:

• Information of a specific and personal nature about employees, potential employees, service users, customers, individuals and organisations who come into contact with the Council.

• Sensitive organisational information.

• Business/commercial information e.g. pricing, quotes, matters affecting negotiations with suppliers, trade unions etc.

Exempt committee papers (i.e. those on Part II of any Agenda) must not be released to the public or a fellow officer (unless they have a clear right of access) without the consent of the Director of Workforce, OD and Business Support.

You must not use any information obtained in the course of your employment for personal gain or benefit. You must not pass on such information to others who might use it in a similar way. All employees are under an obligation not to access or attempt to access information which they are not authorised to have.

Employees are bound by their contracts of employment to maintain confidentiality. Any deliberate breach of confidentiality, improper disclosure of information or misconduct in relation to official documents will be treated as a serious matter and will lead to disciplinary action.

Employees must comply with Section 107 of the Local Government Act 1972 regarding the non-acceptance of any fees or rewards whatsoever other than their proper remuneration. It is a criminal offence for you corruptly to receive or give any gift, loan, fee, reward or advantage for doing or not doing anything or showing favour or disfavour to any person in your official capacity. If an allegation is made, it is for you to demonstrate that any such rewards have not been obtained corruptly. You must therefore ensure that any reward or fee that you receive from employment outside the Council has been authorised in advance in accordance with this Code.

Any additional work (whether paid or unpaid) you wish to undertake must not conflict with the Council’s interests or in any way weaken public confidence in the Authority. Accordingly, all employees of the Authority are required to obtain consent, in writing (to be retained on their HR file), from their Chief Officer in advance, and on each occasion, if they wish to engage in any other business, take up additional employment or work outside the Authority. This provision also applies to chief officers who will require the prior consent of the Chief Executive should they wish to engage in such activity.

Also you must not undertake any duties/work (whether for payment or otherwise) of a type that you normally undertake for the Council on behalf of:

• Any other Council employee, without the prior written agreement of your chief officer who shall, if agreement is given, notify the Director of Workforce, OD and Business Support; or

• Your Chief Officer, without the prior written agreement of the Chief Executive.

Employees do not need approval to undertake voluntary work or work for trade unions or political parties (subject to the provisions of the 1989 Local Government Housing Act as set out below), provided this work does not conflict with the Council’s interests as specified in paragraph 37.

The Council will generally not give approval for additional or outside work if it:

• Is for anyone who is in a supervisory or managerial relationship with an employee.

• Places the employee in a position where their official duties and private interests may conflict.

• Affects the employee’s health or ability to maintain acceptable standards of work.

• Might weaken public confidence in the conduct of the Council’s business.

• Involves the employee being in direct competition with the Council.

Where approval has been given to undertake additional or outside work, employees must not:

• Use Council accommodation or facilities (vehicles, computing equipment, photocopiers, telephones etc.).

• Submit applications of any description to the Council on behalf of any other person without written permission from their chief officer.

• Use their knowledge of the Council or staff to help secure particular decisions or outcomes.

• Undertake private work in office hours or when they are absent due to ill health.

• Portray themselves as employees or agents of the Council when undertaking additional or outside work.

Outside work should not be undertaken for any person, company or contractor who is known by the employee to have a contractual relationship with the Council, or who is seeking work from the Council.

The Council recruits on merit and requires that its appointments are made without bias, on the basis of clear assessment criteria. If you are responsible for appointing employees, it is unlawful for you to make an appointment other than on the basis of merit. It would be unlawful for you to make an appointment based on anything other than the ability of the candidate to meet the present and future needs of the Council. In order to avoid any possible accusation of bias, you should not be involved in an appointment where you are related to an applicant, or have a close personal relationship outside work. You must not canvas on behalf of any applicant.

Similarly, you must not be involved in decisions relating to discipline, promotion or pay adjustments for another employee who is a relative, partner, close friend, or where you have some other close personal relationship.

As an employee/potential employee you must ensure that you:

• are open and honest at any interview;

• are open and honest on any application form;

• disclose all criminal convictions*;

• disclose any pending criminal charges;

• disclose if you are a friend or relative of (or have other links with) a Member or an employee who may influence your appointment;

• disclose if you are the tenant or landlord of someone who may influence your appointment;

• do nothing to seek undue favour from employees or Members in Council selection procedures.

As a result of provisions introduced under the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 to ensure the political impartiality of local government employees, some employees’ posts are subject to political restriction. This means that the postholders are prohibited from involvement in political activities as these could conflict with the responsibilities at work.

The Local Government and Housing Act 1989 requires that anyone who is employed by a local authority in a politically restricted or sensitive post is disqualified from being elected as a Member in another local authority or as a Member of Parliament or as a Member of the European Parliament. Employees holding politically restricted posts are also unable to undertake certain political activities within the following broad categories:-

• Writing or speaking publicly on politically controversial issues.

• Canvassing at any election on behalf of a political party or at elections for MPs, MEPs, Mayor or Councillors.

• Holding office in any political party.

• Publicly declaring themselves a candidate for Mayor, Councillor, MP or MEP.

The Act requires that employees holding the following posts should be politically restricted:

• Employees giving regular advice to Committees or Sub-Committees.

• Employees who regularly speak to journalists or broadcasters on behalf of the Council.

A list of politically restricted posts is held by the Monitoring Officer. It contains the post designations and the section of the Act relating to their inclusion on the list.

Under the Local Government (Political Restrictions) Regulations 1990, the failure of a postholder holding a politically restricted post to comply with the restriction will result in disciplinary action being taken on the grounds of misconduct.

Employees serve the Authority as a whole. It follows that they must serve all Members (the Mayor and all Councillors, not just those of the ruling political group) and must ensure that the individual rights of all Members are respected treating political groups and individual Members in a fair and even handed manner. Insofar as employees may be required to advise political groups, they must do so in ways that do not compromise their own political neutrality. This subject is covered in detail in the Member/Officer Protocol which governs relations between elected Members and Council officers.

It is important that Members’ enquiries should be dealt with efficiently and effectively within the established policy and procedures for the service area concerned. If employees consider that unreasonable Member pressure is being brought to bear with a particular issue outside of established procedures and policies, the relevant details must be referred to your chief officer. It is the Chief Executive's responsibility to determine whether the incident concerned should be reported to the Group Secretaries.

Lines of communication between Members, employees and members of the public should accord with defined and established management practice, be readily identifiable and respected by all concerned.

Individual employees should not approach elected Members directly on employment matters.

Representations to Members should be made through chief officers or normal Trade Union/Member communication forums.

Employees must not disrupt official meetings of the Council or of its Cabinet, Committees, Sub-Committees, etc.

Employees who are broadcasting on a subject connected with the work of the Council are required to obtain permission from the Chief Executive and their chief officer in advance and to submit where possible a copy of the script of the broadcast or otherwise advise on general subject matter.

Employees should not publish, or authorise without the permission of their chief officer the publication of any book or article by them or with others which indicates that the writer is an employee of or connected with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.

Similarly, employees should not, without permission from the Council, make any communication to a newspaper or other journal in which there is any indication that they are an employee or otherwise connected with the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Employees acting in either a personal capacity or as a spokesperson for outside groups should not bring the Council into disrepute by publicising material adverse to the Council or other employees. This is not intended to preclude Trade Unions from pursuing their legitimate industrial relations activities.

The Council has established a Communications Section, which is responsible for all official press releases and statements. Individuals who are asked by the media to make comments should refer such requests direct to that section.

Employees should consider whether their public statements made about the Council (whether as a spokesperson for an organisation or as an individual) could reflect in some unacceptable way upon the employer-employee relationship.

The Council expects employees who witness, or have their suspicions raised, or are approached to become party to potentially fraudulent, corrupt, dangerous or improper behaviour, to report these incidents or concerns either to their line manager or other council manager or through the agreed whistleblowing procedures. Failure to do so could implicate you in the misconduct.

The Council recognises that the decision to report a concern can be a difficult one to make, not least because of the fear of reprisal from those responsible for the malpractice. The Council will not tolerate harassment or victimisation and will take appropriate action to protect employees who raise a concern in good faith.

Employees who are subject to procedures (such as but not limited to disciplinary or redundancy) will not have those procedures halted as a result of raising concerns under this procedure.

Concerns should normally be raised initially with your line manager or supervisor. However, the most appropriate person to contact will depend on the seriousness and sensitivity of the issues involved and who is suspected of the misconduct/ malpractice. If for any reason you do not feel that it is appropriate to express your concerns in this way, the Council’s whistleblowing policy explains the other routes available to you.

Malicious allegations i.e. deliberately raising false complaints with the intention of harming someone will be regarded as serious misconduct.

Raising concerns through the media is not an appropriate or effective channel and may result in an employee breaching obligations under this Code resulting in disciplinary action. The Council’s whistleblowing policy gives details of how to raise concerns with more appropriate and independent organisations outside the Council.

In addition to this Code of Conduct, the work of Council employees is governed, in most areas, by established policies, procedures and operational guidelines which ensure:(a) that the Council meets its statutory obligations,(b) that service standards are maintained,(c) that staff operate within their approved authority, and(d) that proper monitoring and auditing processes can be applied.

1. that the Council meets its statutory obligations,

2. that service standards are maintained,

3. that staff operate within their approved authority, and

4. that proper monitoring and auditing processes can be applied

Whilst your manager will assist you, employees also have a personal responsibility to ensure that they are familiar with their responsibilities under the Council’s Constitution and work within Council policies, procedures and operating guidelines.

Allegations of any failure to meet the requirements of this Code may be dealt with under the Council’s Disciplinary Procedure.