The pledge

By signing the Pledge, your council is agreeing that the council will treat councillors, clerks, employees, members of the public, and representatives of partner organisations and volunteers with civility and respect in their roles and that it:

• Has put in place a training programme for councillors and staff
• Has signed up to the Code of Conduct for councillors
• Has good governance arrangements in place including staff contracts and a dignity at work policy
• Will seek professional help at the early stages should civility and respect issues arise
• Will commit to calling out bullying and harassment if and when it happens
• Will continue to learn from best practices in the sector and aspire to be a role model/champion council through for example the local Local Council Award Scheme
• Supports the continued lobbying for change in legislation to support the Civility and Respect Pledge including sanctions for elected members where appropriate

Take the pledge

See who has taken the pledge

Resources

Download the Civility and Respect Pledge flyer

Download council meeting agenda example

Watch the #TakeThePledge video

Training

A critical step in creating a safe and inclusive environment for local councils is making all councillors, clerks and council staff aware of the issues, what is — and what is not — acceptable. Knowing how to recognise and address bullying, harassment, discrimination, and inclusion is an essential step in prevention.

Training ensures that councils demonstrate that they do not tolerate these types of behaviour and provide the tools to intervene immediately, consistently, equitably, and appropriately when bullying occurs.

Governance

Bullying can have a detrimental effect on officers and is corrosive to leadership. It could lead to decision-making, not in the public interest and a failure of standards and governance. 

Good governance is one of the building blocks of anti-bullying and harassment and is fundamental to ensuring an effective and well-functioning democracy at all levels. 

Intervention

Sometimes relations in a council deteriorate beyond the ability to be repaired by the implementation of, and adherence to, good governance and comprehensive training of staff and councillors. 

The council may have recognised that it cannot restore effective leadership, functionality and civility without support.

The project team is working on some strategies to support struggling councils.

Legislative

The Committee on Standards in Public Life undertook a review of Local Government Ethical Standards and, in January 2019, produced a report comprising 26 recommendations for legislative changes. The resulting recommendations included:

• The ability for the principal authority to impose sanctions on a parish councillor following a review.
• The ability for a local authority to suspend councillors.
• Mandatory training for clerks. 

The lobbying of the government to implement these, and other recommendations, is ongoing within NALC and SLCC. The project will highlight the continuous action taken to progress these and other legislative changes. 

Collaboration

The project team is working closely with the Local Government Association (LGA), Lawyers in Local Government (LLG) and other associations navigating their way through similar sector issues.  

Enabling

The enabling workstream makes bullying and harassment information and support available to clerks and councils.

Bullying and harassment statement

Local councils may wish to add a statement poster to their websites stating that bullying, harassment and intimidation will not be tolerated.

Download poster

Code of Conduct

One of the critical issues already identified by the project is that the Code of Conduct produced by the Local Government Association (LGA) in 2021 has not been widely adopted. The Civility and Respect project has endorsed the LGA model Code of Conduct and the guidance notes aimed to help understanding and consistency of approach towards the code.

The code is a template for councils to adopt in whole and or with amendments to take into account local circumstances.

The code and guidance have been designed to protect our democratic role, encourage good conduct, and safeguard the public’s trust and confidence in the role of councillor in local government.

While it sets out the minimum standards of behaviour expected, together with the guidance, it is designed to encourage councillors to model the high standards expected, to be mutually respectful even if they have personal or political differences, to provide a personal check and balance, and to set out the type of conduct that could lead to complaints being made of behaviour falling below the standards expected of councillors and in breach of the code. It is also to protect councillors, the public, local authority officers and the reputation of the local government.

Download the Model Code of Conduct and the supporting guidance notes on the LGA website

Civility and Respect Continuum

The Civility and Respect Continuum illustrates how issues escalate over time. Our research has indicated that councils experiencing poor conduct or vexatious demands/complaints often experience problems repeatedly over a significant period of time. The longer an issue is permitted to continue, unaddressed, the more complex, time-consuming, and expensive the resolution becomes. This can eventually result in damage to the reputation of the council and health issues for those involved eventually ending with multiple resignations of both staff and councillors. Councils that have up-to-date policies and procedures, well-trained councillors and employees can often manage and mediate issues with or without advice and support from county associations and/or monitoring officers. Where councils become overwhelmed or fail to draw upon the resources available, matters can escalate and come under significant strain and pressure. In these situations, the solutions are often beyond the existing support offered and invariably best resolved by third parties, a costly and time-consuming challenge.

The project is identifying solutions to support councillors, officers, councils, and county officers at every stage of the civility continuum, however, whilst governance and training solutions may help with minor and moderate issues, the options for support at the major end of the scale become more limited. Support from monitoring officers and county associations may provide resolution in some instances but often issues have become too complex to resolve without costly interventions from specialist third parties. Every attempt should be made to prevent escalation by addressing potential behavioural issues as soon as they arise, calling out bullying and harassment at the earliest opportunity and standing up for civil and respectful behaviour. 

If the issues within a council have escalated to critical, then the options for resolution are still further limited, with costly external resolution and legal support often being required to reach resolutions. Potential action/intervention at this stage is being piloted with a town council struggling with chronic issues. It is being overseen by the joint NALC/SLCC Internal Development Board. If the solution proves successful it may be possible to expand the support programme but much depends on the councils' willingness to make a positive change. Early intervention to head off chronic issues is a far more effective mechanism to handle poor behaviour.  

Dignity at Work policy

The Dignity at Work policy is the first of a series of new or revised governance documents which are being developed by the project team. The documents have been reviewed by a focus group made up of clerks, councillors, monitoring officers, and county associations.

The Dignity at Work policy will replace any previous bullying and harassment policy. It encompasses behaviours beyond bullying and harassment and zero-tolerance to deal with concerns before they escalate. It has been produced with supporting guidance because it is essential that any commitment to the policy is applied in practice. 

The wording has been suggested to demonstrate a council’s commitment to promoting dignity and respect where they have signed up to the Civility and Respect Pledge. Councils who have not signed up for this are requested to consider making this pledge which is based on basic behaviours and expectations of all council representatives to create workplaces that allow people to maintain their dignity at all times.

Download the Dignity at Work policy

The Dignity at Work policy makes reference to an Equality and Diversity policy. To access the template, please log in to the NALC website and visit the templates section.

Early Day Motion for Sanctions

The parliamentary session for this Early Day Motion (EDM) day motion has now expired, but please do continue to use the sample letters as amendable templates to lobby your MPs on civility and respect issues.

An EDM has been registered by an MP calling for the government to establish an appropriate and effective sanctions mechanism to deal with local councillors who have been found guilty of bullying and harassment following an independent investigation. The MP was alerted to the issue when the Association of Local Council Clerks (ALCC)* member contacted him with regards to the behaviour she had suffered.

*ALCC is the independent trade union for clerks

What are EDMs?

EDMs are motions submitted for debate in the House of Commons for which no day has been fixed. Whilst few are debated, many attract a great deal of public interest and media coverage.

They are used to put on record the views of individual MPs or to draw attention to specific events or campaigns. By attracting the signatures of other MPs, they can be used to demonstrate the level of parliamentary support for a particular cause or point of view.

What can you do?

The more MP’s that support this EDM, the more likely it is to get discussed in parliament. Please either table an agenda item to pass a resolution to write to your MP asking that they back this motion and have it discussed in parliament or write to your MP as an individual. The drive to improve standards in our sector is being included as a topic on NALC's Lobby Day on 23 March 2022, so it is a great time to support lobby day with a letter to your MP.

View the EDM

Download the template letter for councils to MP

Download the template letter for clerks to MP

Newsletters

• August 2022
• June 2022
• February 2022
• November 2021

Training programme

One of the project's key aims is to deliver training packages to support councillors, clerks, and employees experiencing difficulties with bullying and harassment.  We have worked with key partners to create a new series of packages covering local council and councillor communications and engagement and are now pleased to share the first range of this training. Cost for attendance will be supplemented by the project, and they are being offered at a 50% discount to the full price until the end of 2022. We will schedule additional dates if we have a high demand for places.

Breakthrough Communications has created a suite of bespoke workshops and resource packs for local council clerks, officers, and councillors as part of the Civility & Respect Project. Each package comprises useful guides, custom-designed toolkits, and access to on-demand and live virtual training events. We have designed separate packages for clerks/officers and councillors, covering the themes of emotional intelligence and resilience, leadership in challenging situations, and how councils and councillors can avoid negative engagement on social media.

Resilience and Emotional Intelligence — What it means in practice for clerks and council officers by Breakthrough Communications
Delegate fee: £30

The learning content, live workshop, and toolkits will enable participants to develop a better understanding of where our behaviour comes from, consider what resilience means for us in the context of our different local council roles and will provide an opportunity to explore role-focused scenarios and how we might respond to those different scenarios. We'll consider strategies to manage and deal with different situations effectively and provide guidelines and suggestions based on worked-through scenarios. We'll also lead the user through a set of exercises, input and self-reflection and a resource pack for building our own resilience and emotional intelligence.

Register your place

Leadership in Challenging Situations — Dealing with challenging situations and working with others effectively by Breakthrough Communications
Delegate fee: £30

The learning content, live workshop, and toolkits will enable participants to deal with various role-focused challenging situations and explore how we can work with others more effectively. We will consider different leadership styles and approaches in the context of your role, exploring which styles we personally ‘default’ to and which styles can work effectively for different situations. We will explore scenarios of challenging situations we might face in our role and discuss how we might deal with these effectively and appropriately. We'll also consider how to build, support and get the most from an effective and motivated team.

Register your place

Respectful Social Media — How to deal with attacks and negative engagement by Breakthrough Communications
Delegate fee: £30

The learning content, live workshop, and toolkits will enable participants to explore different methods and strategies for dealing with negative attacks on social media and ways in which they can keep control of our social media output. We will consider how we come across on social media as councils, as well as individually, what our personal ‘digital tone of voice’ sounds like, as well as considering our use of language and its role in positive two-way communication and explore the type of content we can post on social media, depending on our role. For councillors, we will provide suggested social media do’s and don’ts: how to be effective on social media, whilst bearing in mind issues around the Code of Conduct, for clerks and officers will explore how the council can de-mystify the role of the council and showcase its people to help pre-emptively deal with negative engagement and attacks.

Register your place

Civility and respect — Uncovering the issues for the public sector by Becky Walsh
Delegate fee: £15

Condescending comments, demeaning emails, disrupting meetings, reprimanding someone publicly, talking behind someone’s back, giving someone the silent treatment, not giving credit where credit is due, rolling eyes, and being yelled at, are regular occurrences for many councils. In this webinar, we talk about the issues we face in our council roles. We will then discuss the impact this has on the individuals involved and the organisation. Each webinar will give real situation scenarios and what to do in each of them.

For councillors only session

12 September 2022 — 1.30 pm (60 minutes) — *SOLD OUT*
19 September 2022 — 11 am (60 minutes)

To register a place, please email , copying in your councillor delegate(s). For all other enquiries, please email .

For clerks-only session

8 September 2022 — 11 am (60 minutes) — *SOLD OUT*
10 November 2022 — 2 pm (60 minutes)

Please see the SLCC website.

What makes people become challenging? by Becky Walsh
Delegate fee: £15

In this webinar, we dive into human psychology, neuroscience and power dynamics. What triggers people to behave from the worst of themselves? How, as leaders can we create environments with fewer trigger situations and more safety? We will discuss real-life situations and how to turn them around when they start to get out of hand. Each webinar will give real situation scenarios and what to do in each of them.

For councillors only session

26 September 2022 — 1.30 pm (60 minutes)

To register a place, clerks, please email , copying in your councillor delegate(s). For all other enquiries, please email .

For clerks-only session

22 September 2022 – 11 am (60 minutes) — *SOLD OUT*
29 November 2022 — 2 pm  (60 minutes)

Please see the SLCC website.

Personal resilience and self-protection by Becky Walsh
Delegate fee: £15

Having a good understanding of yourself means you’ll know what to do when someone tries to push your buttons. This webinar discusses emotional resilience and emotional intelligence and how this applies to specific council situations. Each webinar will give real situation scenarios and what to do in each of them.

For councillors only session

3 October 2022 — 1.30 pm (60 minutes) 

To register a place, clerks, please email , copying in your councillor delegate(s). For all other enquiries, please email .

For clerks-only session

6 October 2022 – 11 am (60 minutes)
6 December 2022 — 2 pm (60 minutes)

Please see the SLCC website.

Understanding psychopathic and narcissistic behaviour by Becky Walsh
Delegate fee: £15

Both psychopathic and narcissistic people generally lack empathy and tend to have unrealistically high opinions of themselves. They often exploit and manipulate others and can be hard to spot as they can also be superficially charming. They are also attracted to power roles and are often found in high leadership positions such as company chief executives and political roles. In this webinar, we learn how to spot them and also how to monitor your own behaviour to lessen their impact on you and your organisation. Each webinar will give real situation scenarios and what to do in each of them.

For councillors only session

17 October 2022 — 1.30 pm (60 minutes)

To register a place, clerks, please email , copying in your councillor delegate(s). For all other enquiries, please email .

For clerks-only session

20 October 2022 – 11 am (60 minutes)
13 December 2022 — 2 pm (60 minutes)

Please see the SLCC website.

Code of Conduct by Hoey Ainscough Associates Ltd
Delegate fee: £15

This course is aimed at local councils who have either adopted the new Local Government Association (LGA) Code of Conduct for members, as endorsed by NALC and the SLCC or who are considering adopting it. The course is aimed at both members and officers and will be led by Paul Hoey and Natalie Ainscough of Hoey Ainscough Associates Ltd, the national experts who developed the code for the LGA. The course will look at some of the key aspects of the code, the practical implications of working with the code, and the guidance that sits alongside the code. Attendees will be invited to ask questions about any aspect of the code as the session aims to help people understand how to make the code work most effectively locally.

For councillors only session

19 October 2022 — 7 pm (120 minutes)

To register a place, clerks, please email , copying in your councillor delegate(s). For all other enquiries, please email .

For clerks-only session

28 September 2022 – 10 am (120 minutes) — *SOLD OUT*
23 November 2022 – 1 pm (120 minutes)

Please see the SLCC website.