COUNCILLORS in Newport have backed plans to strengthen city council staff’s ability to report wrongdoing within the workplace.

At a standards committee meeting, councillors supported an updated whistleblowing policy.

It aims to enable employees to raise concerns within the council without fear of victimisation, discrimination or disadvantage.

A council report revealed that in 2021/22, three members of the city council’s staff resigned in response to allegations of misconduct.

A total of five whistleblowing notifications were received by the council in that financial year, two of which were not upheld.

There is one outstanding complaint from a former member of staff - involving “potential fraud” in relation to the Covid-19 Test, Trace, Protect service - which is still under investigation by the chief internal auditor.

The council’s report states that the number of complaints demonstrates a “general awareness of the policy” among staff, and their protected rights to make a complaint.

The policy covers complaints in relation to: Criminal offences; failure to comply with duties set out in law; miscarriages of justice; endangering someone’s health and safety; damage to the environment; covering up wrongdoing in any of the above categories.

Gareth Price, the council's head of law and standards, said every public sector body has to have a whistleblowing policy in place.

Committee chairman, independent member Andrew Mitchell, said: “The policy meets what we believe it needs to meet.”

Training on the whistle-blowing policy is now mandatory, according to the council’s report. All employees have been sent a link to an online training module on the NHS eLearning website.