Meeting documents

Commenced:4.00 pm Time Terminated: 4.40 pm

Present:

Mrs Valerie Bracken (Chair)
Councillors Bell, S Quinn, M Smith, Mrs Barnes and Town Councillor Carter.

In Attendance:

Sandra Stewart (Executive Director Governance / Borough Solicitor), Pam Williams (Executive Director, Finance), Tracy Brennand (Assistant Executive Director, People and Workforce Development) and Julie Hayes (Head of ICT Services).

Apologies for Absence:

Councillor Kitchen and J Lane.

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9. Declarations of Interest

There were no declarations of interest submitted by members of the Standards Committee.

10. Minutes

The Minutes of the proceedings of the Standards Committee held on 24 June 2014 were taken as read and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

Further to Minute 3 – Probity in Planning, the Borough Solicitor advised that the revised Planning Code for Members, setting out how the Council would maintain high standards of probity in its planning function, had been adopted by Full Council at its meeting on 22 July 2014. She added that she intended to produce a booklet containing the Council’s various protocols / guidance for Elected Members for consideration at the next Standards Committee meeting on 17 March 2015. This would be particularly timely in the lead up to the Local and Parliamentary Elections to be held on 7 May 2015.

11. Elected Member Development Annual Update

The Chair welcomed Tracy Brennand, Assistant Executive Director (People and Workforce Development) who presented a report outlining the progress that had been made around Elected Member Development provision and further changes moving forward.

The Elected Member Development report presented to Standards Committee in March 2013 had identified the previous provision and future options for Elected Member Development within the Council. In addition to that report, the Elected Member Development Strategy had also been developed to ensure that Elected Member Development remained important for the Council. The strategy would ensure that Elected Members were given the necessary opportunities, resources and time to continually develop their skills and knowledge accordingly within their roles.

The Member Development Annual Report detailed the achievements made during the last eighteen months following the new approach to the development of Elected Members being established. The report outlined the development courses, events and activities undertaken by elected Members over the course of the year. Reference was made to Ward Walks undertaken by Members supported by senior manager with the aim of working collaboratively in outlining the issues important to Members within their wards and to their constituents. The Council was striving to achieve a second Member Development Charter Level 2 Exemplar in 2015 for its work around Ward Walks and the refreshed Neighbourhood Offer.

It was explained that as part of Elected Member Development within the Council a Forum had been established consisting of eight Elected Members with the Deputy Executive Leader as Chair. This Forum was instrumental in establishing, guiding and evolving the array of learning and development opportunities that were available to Members. The Forum, supported by two officers was essential for the Council maintaining the North West Employers Member Development Charter Award.

In conclusion, the Assistant Executive Director was pleased to advise on the content of a report from the North West Employers Regional Development Committee congratulating and endorsing Tameside Council on achieving the Level 1 Review of the Elected Member Development Charter. Suggestions made by the Assessor which could be considered as part of the strategy review were noted.

Members of the Committee commented favourably on support and training provided to Elected Members that had been formulated to support them in achieving and continuing to develop the skills needed to meet the broad range of responsibilities within their role. They also congratulated both Members and staff involved in achieving the Level 1 Review and thanked them for their hard work and commitment.

Resolved

1. That the Member Development Forum continues in order to provide Elected Members with the opportunity to steer the provision of training and development for Members and achieve good practice.
2. That evaluations for Members and their Personal Development Plans (PDPs) be retained centrally to evaluate and inform future programmes and interventions.
3. That alternatives to E-learning be explored for the learning and development of Elected Members within Tameside Council and opportunities for further development through partner organisations such as North West Employers be further utilised.
4. That the budget for 2014/15 be supported and work to commence on reviewing the strategy for the next two years.
5. That the report from the North West Employers Regional Development Committee congratulating and endorsing Tameside Council achieving the Level 1 Review of Elected Member Development Charter be received and the suggestions which could be considered as part of the strategy review be noted and both Members and staff involving in achieving this award be thanked for their hard work and commitment.

12. Information Governance: Data Loss Prevention and Data Retention

The Chair introduced Julie Hayes, Head of ICT Services, who presented a report covering the approaches to Data Loss Prevention and products that would help to protect data aiming to get the right balance between protecting the organisation and its data, the burden on employees and support staff, and budgetary constraints.

The Data Protection Act states that appropriate technical and organisational measures should be taken against unauthorised or unlawful processing of personal data and against accidental loss, destruction of, or damage to, personal data. In practice this meant the Council must have appropriate technology to prevent the personal data the Council holds being accidentally or deliberately compromised. The report detailed the key risks for the Council based on the non-paper related cases the Information Commissioner’s Office had dealt with nationwide and recommended appropriate investment to mitigate those risks in Tameside. The report also covered the additional controls proposed to be put in place to mitigate those risks explained as follows:

• Encryption of Council-owned desktop computers (laptops were already encrypted);
• Issue specific guidance to staff on protecting Council data on devices not owned by the Council;
• Implement existing technology for data retention;
• Block Dropbox and similar websites for storage of Council data;
• Email deletion protocol;
• File deletion protocol;
• No storage of emails outside the core email / archive system except in relation to specific exceptions agreed by the Borough Solicitor (Monitoring Officer) / Assistant Executive Director (Digital Tameside);
• Prevent the content of emails being included in responses; and
• Prevent the content of emails being forwarded.

In addition, it was proposed that the Council invest in an enforced encryption / secure messaging / secure portal system (Egress Switch) and that the necessary governance processes be followed to facilitate this capital expenditure.

In response to questions regarding protection of data within the Council’s secure network from external threats and vulnerabilities, the Committee was advised that Council managed potential risks by standard security measures such as firewalls, a Security Information and Event Management system and encryption and anti-virus software. Penetration testing was carried out annually by a third party as part of the Council’s compliance obligations. In addition, availability and timely access to data and resources by only authorised members of staff were in place to prevent internal access / misuses of information.

Resolved

1. That the additional controls detailed above be agreed and implemented starting from 1 January 2015 will full implementation subject to exemptions approved by the Borough Solicitor (Monitoring Officer) / Assistant Executive Director (Digital Tameside) by the end of 2015.
2. That the Email and File Deletion protocols be approved and deployed.
3. That the Council’s intention to invest in enforced encryption / secure messaging / secure portal system outlined in the report be noted.

13. Information Governance: Member and Employee Development

Consideration was given to a report of the Borough Solicitor (Monitoring Officer) outlining the training and development programme in place to ensure all employees and Elected Members were appraised of their roles and responsibility in relation to Information Governance.

In 2013, the Council launched the AGMA E-Learning programme and tools via the virtual college, a resource available to all staff within the Council to access e-learning courses available to them. Given the significant importance of Information Governance and the protection of data security, the Council determined that all staff would be required to complete the Data Protection E-Learning course covering the fundamental elements of the Data Protection Act and the responsibilities for the safekeeping, sharing, handling and storage of data. To date, around 1824 employees had successfully completed the course, equating to 91% of the workforce who had access to computers or personal data records. It was expected that all remaining employees would have completed their course by the end of December 2014.

To further enforce the significance and importance of good information management, particularly in service areas with higher risk levels, the Risk Management service developed a bespoke training programme which commenced in September 2014. To date, 92 members of staff had attended a bespoke briefing session in addition to them already completing the E-Learning programme on data protection. Further sessions would be delivered in the next few weeks to ensure that employees identified as a priority attend a session. These additional sessions would cover approximately 250 employees working, in the main, in Adult Services.
A number of sessions had been provided to ensure that Elected Members clearly understood their role and responsibilities in relation to, and in compliance with the:

• Data Protection Act;
• Human Rights Act;
• Common Law Duty of Confidentiality; and
• Code of Conduct for Councillors.

These sessions enabled Elected Members to consider and address specific situational examples that were directly relevant to the nature of their role as an Elected Member and were guided by the Information Commissioners Office Good Practice Advice for both elected and prospective members of local authorities. The briefing sessions had been received very positively by Elected Members and had, for example, enabled them to clarify specific issues such as requesting the permission of a resident if passing on their personal details to a ward colleague.

Two sessions had already been delivered to 16 Elected Members. A further session for 13 Elected Members was planned for 1 December 2014 with an additional one in January 2015 for those who had not been able to attend the earlier sessions. A copy of the presentation was appended to the report for information.

In addition, social media training had been made available to those Members who were interested in learning details of the different platforms available (Twitter and Facebook). Advice and support was also provided to those Members already using these platforms to ensure they kept themselves safe whilst online as well as learning the potential risks and outcomes of comments made on line for both the Council and themselves personally.

The Committee welcomed the E-Learning and bespoke programmes developed to ensure that employees and Elected Member were appropriately skilled and aware of the legal obligations and how to operate within an environment of good information governance.

Resolved
That the content of the report be noted.

14. Register of Interests and Gifts and Hospitality

The Register of Interests and Gifts and Hospitality were made available at the meeting for inspection.

15. Urgent Items

The Chair advised that there were no urgent items for consideration at this meeting.

16. Date of the Next Meeting

It was noted that the next meeting of the Standards Committee would take place on Tuesday 17 March 2015.

Chair