Whistleblowing policy

Scope

Statutory requirements for our whistleblowing policy are primarily governed by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA).

You can use our whistleblowing arrangements if you are:

  • a councillor
  • council employee
  • employee of a Local Authority school or a school governor (if the school has adopted our policy)
  • a contractor
  • partner
  • member of the public.

Our policy also applies to agency staff, contractor staff and suppliers providing goods or services to us, or on our behalf.

Our whistleblowing arrangements do not replace the following:

  • child protection safeguarding reporting
  • adult care safeguarding reporting
  • corporate complaints procedure
  • disciplinary policy
  • grievance policy

If you have a concern regarding the safety of child or young person, then you should make immediate contact with the child protection team:

If your concern relates to abuse or neglect of an adult, you should contact the safeguarding adults team:

You should only consider raising concerns through our whistleblowing arrangements if:

  • you have genuine reasons why you cannot use the above policies and procedures
  • you have reason to believe that these policies are failing or are not being properly applied
  • there is an identifiable public interest aspect