function council

Dear Mr Hardwicke Carruthers

Freedom of Information request - function council

I refer to your above request seeking information about Vale of White
Horse District Council and can confirm as follows:-

1.         Time Spent on Elected Duties

Question:

I would like to know the average proportion of time the elected
representatives of your authority spend as part of their duties for
2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08 on their main activities. The activities that
form their duties (employment) as an elected representative are:

1.         Directly resolving complaints against the executive
(Council Staff) of the Council by residents;

2.         Sitting on committee's;

3.         acting for the political parties that they represent
and/or ceremonial duties (i.e. all time not spent on sitting on
            a Committee or resolving a complaint against the
executive);

The total time spent by an elected representative for a Council on these
three activities should be 100 per cent of the time they spend 'working
for a Council' as an elected representative.

Answer:

I confirm that the Executive is made up of elected Councillors, and not
Council staff (Officers) and that elected Councillors are not directly
employed by the Council but receive an allowance for the work that they
undertake for the Council.

The Council has an Independent Remuneration Panel which regularly looks at
the work that Councillors undertake and also makes recommendations on the
level of allowances payable.

The Council's Independent Remuneration Panel determined that Councillors
spent approximately 8 hours per week on Council Business.

For the purposes of calculating this Council's Members Allowances Scheme,
the Independent Remuneration Panel determined that Council business which
formed their duties were:

Attendance at meetings

Preparation for meetings

Constituency business

Representation on outside bodies

Political group meetings

We therefore do not consider that "directly resolving complaints against
the Executive of the Council" forms part of their duties as an elected
representative.

2.         Allowances Paid

Question:-

I would additionally like to know how much in total was paid to local
councillors to meet all their duties (including expenses) for 2005/06,
2006/07 and 2007/08 by your authority, and how many elected
representatives are (and were) represented on your authority for these
years.

Answer:-

Please see the attached links to the Council's website detailing the
allowances paid to Councillors for the respective years:-

2005/06  -
[1]http://www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/About_you...

2006/07 -
[2]http://www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/About_you...

2007/08 -
[3]http://www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/About_you...

The level of allowances to Councillors paid depends upon their level of
responsibility within the Council e.g Committee Chair or member of the
Executive will receive more allowance than a back bencher.

This Council has 51 elected Councillors.

3.         Number of Complaints

Question:

I would also like to know how many complaints in total were submitted to
your Council in 2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08 for each year. I would
further like to know how many of these complaints were formally considered
by an elected representative for each of these years.

Answer:-

This Council has a formal Comments and Complaints Procedure and an Annual
report is prepared each year providing details of the number of complaints
made against the Council. Please see the attached links to these Annual
Reports.

2005/06 - See link to Comments and Complaints Annual report to the
Executive on 6^th October 2006 - Item 20 deals with this:

[4]http://whitehorsedc.moderngov.co.uk/Publ...

2006/07 - See link to Comments and Complaints Annual report to the
Executive on 5^th October 2007 - Item 21 deals with this:

[5]http://whitehorsedc.moderngov.co.uk/Publ...

2007/08 - See link to Comments and Complaints Annual report to the
Executive on the 1^st August 2008 - Item 17 deals with this:

[6]http://whitehorsedc.moderngov.co.uk/Publ...

I would also advise that complaints are not handled by Councillors but are
dealt with by Council officers.  There is one exception to this. 
Councillors consider complaints against Parish Councillors and further to
the provisions of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health
Act 2007, complaints against Councillors of this Authority. The number of
complaints heard by Committee referred to above therefore relates to the
total number of complaints received against Parish Councillors

2005/06                       0

2006/07                       1

2007/08                       0

4.         Complaints - Maladministration 

Question:-

I would further like to know how many complaints against the Executive
(Council staff) led to the elected representatives formally identifying
that the Executive had acted wrongly for the years 2005/06, 2006/07 and
2007/08, and how many of these formal determinations by the elected
representatives identify that there was no wrong-doing by the Executive.

How many staff employed by your authority in 2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08
ceased to be employed by your authority as a direct result of a complaint
against the Executive, and the Councillors identifying this to be the
case.

Answer:-

I am unsure as to exactly what information you are seeking in this
question and require further clarification before I would be in a position
to answer further.

As explained earlier the Executive comprises of elected Councillors and
not council Officers.

I am not aware of any staff ceasing to be employed by the Council as a
direct result of any complaint received.

5.         Payments made to Complainants - No Intervention

Question:-

I would further like to know how much money the Council has paid to a
complainant (i.e. victim of a Council's wrongdoing) through its own
complaints system (i.e. excluding any intervention by the Local Government
Ombudsman, Valuation Tribunal or similar body) in the specified years.

Answer:-

2005/06                       No payments were made

2006/07                       1 payment of £132 was
made

2007/08                       7 payments totalling
£610.69 were made.

6.         Payments made to Complainants - Intervention by
Ombudsman

Question:-

I would like to know how much money either in the form of local settlement
or additional formal finding of maladministration causing injustice the
Local Government Ombudsman has recommended that your Council pay in the
specified years.

Answer:-

2005/06                       No payments were made

2006/07                       No payments were made

2007/08                       1 payment of £500 was
made

7.         Ombudsman's Recommendations

Question:-

I would like to know if the Local Government Ombudsman's recommendations
have been met in full (including any non-financial recommendations for
each year). Please detail any recommendation that has not been met in full
and provide a copy of the Elected representative's decision.

Answer:-

I am not aware of any recommendations made by the Ombudsman that have not
been met in full.  Decisions regarding complaints are dealt with by
Council officers and not by elected Councillors.

8.         Complaint Costs

Question:-

Please additionally identify if these costs were met directly by Council
Tax Payers or the Council's insurers (excluding self insurance by a
Council)

Answer:-

These costs were met from the Council's existing budgets and not covered
by our insurers.

9.         Costs of Administering Complaints System

Question:-

Finally, please provide details of the financial cost of administering all
your complaints systems (including FoI and DP) by the Executive for
2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08 and the number of staff employed in
administering complaints and resolving these (full time equivalent
staffing levels).

Answer:-

There is no separate complaints response structure in the Council which
can be costed. The response to complaints and queries forms an integral
part of all jobs with overall responsibility resting with the Senior
Management Team. For the purpose of providing any cost data we have
assumed that this responsibility forms a part of the total cost of the
corporate core and the central administration staff costs. Over the past
3 years there have been considerable changes to the structure of these two
groups of staff and the figures reflect those changes.

To summarise:-

2005/06 2006/07 2007/08
FTE Salary FTE Salary FTE Salary
Democratic Admin 6.19 130,003 6.4 139,015 0 0
Corporate Admin 3.95 156,098 3.85 91,995 8.45 203,956
Corporate Core 12.69 588,979 8.34 485,586 7.54 489,704
Total 22.83 875,080 18.59 716,596 15.99 693,660
Average Salary £38,330 £38,547 £43,380

NB.  These staff costs cover much more than complaints handling (which
accounts for less than 5% of their time).

This does make sense overall in that the management team was reduced in
2006/07 which reduced the real cost of the management team and the admin
team was reduced in 2007/08 which increased the average salary cost.

It is very difficult to provide an exact figure for the number of people
involved in dealing with complaints as the Council's management team and
admin teams have both reduced considerably over the past few years and the
number of people involved in complaints varies considerably.

10.       Administrative Costs

Question:-

Please also provide details of your total administrative costs for
2005/06, 2006/07 and 2007/08 and the total number of staff employed by
your authority

Answer:-

Please see table above. As at September 2008, 295 staff are employed by
this Council.

11.       Chief Executive

Question:-

Please provide details of any pay increase (including increments) made to
the Council's Chief Executive (Head of Paid Service) in pounds sterling
for each of these years.

Please additionally identify if the Chief Executive's wages included
performance related payments.

Answer:

This information is exempt under Section 40 of the Data Protection Act. We
can only provide percentage increases and salary ranges:-

2005/06  pay increase 2.95%; salary range £90k - 100k

2006/07  pay increase 2.95%; salary range £100k - 110k

2007/08  pay increase 2.475%; salary range £100k - 110k

There were no performance-related payments.

12.       Complaints System

Question:-

If you do not have this reasonably basic management information related to
complaints and/or identify that the costs of accessing the information
requested will be more than £450 please state this and identify that your
Authority does not have either a functioning or accountable complaints
system, and does not maintain any basic management information related to
this issue.

Answer:-

Given that all FOI requests are actioned, the Council believes it does
have an effective fit-for-purpose complaints handling system.

13.       Complaints System

Question:-

If you have a complaints system not fit for purpose please identify which
political party currently controls your Council, and if this political
party has appointed the current Electoral Registration and Returning
Officer through its control of the Council (with date of their formal
appointment). Please name the current Electoral Registration and Returning
Officer, and identify if they are also Head of Paid Service, and Clerk to
your Authority. Please additionally provide any documentation maintained
by your Local Authorities Head of Paid Service identifying that they
personally do not believe it to be appropriate for your Council to have a
complaints system that is fit for purpose. This documentation should be in
existence due to the provisions of s4 of the Local Government Act 1989.

Answer:-

The Council does have an effective Comments and Complaints Procedure which
ensure that complaints are dealt with promptly with the majority of
complaints being resolved at the first stage of the procedure.

I trust you are satisfied with the above information provided in respect
of your enquiry.  However, if you are dissatisfied with my response, you
have a right to a review by the Council.  If you wish to request a
review, please write to

David Buckle

Chief Executive

Vale of White Horse District Council

Abbey House

Abingdon

Oxfordshire

OX14 3JE

Alternatively, any person may apply to the Information Commissioner under
section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act 1990 for a decision whether,
in any specified respect, a request for information made to a public
authority has been dealt with in accordance with the requirements of Part
1 of the Act. 

The Commissioner can be contacted by telephone on the ICO Helpline, 08456
30 60 60.

The address of the Information Commissioner's Office is :-

Wycliffe House,

Water Lane,

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

or visit [7]www.ico.gsi.gov.uk

Nicky Davis

PA to Steve Bishop

Strategic Director

Vale of White Horse District Council

(Tel: 01235 540313)

show quoted sections

References

Visible links
1. http://www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/About_you...
2. http://www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/About_you...
3. http://www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/About_you...
4. http://whitehorsedc.moderngov.co.uk/Publ...
5. http://whitehorsedc.moderngov.co.uk/Publ...
6. http://whitehorsedc.moderngov.co.uk/Publ...
7. http://www.ico.gsi.gov.uk/