Birmingham City Council will next week launch a new whistleblower hotline after the Trojan Horse inquiry found that the authority has a habit of sweeping issues under the carpet.
Alongside this measure is a new policy drawn up in response to the damning Kerslake report into the council’s governance and the Clarke and Kershaw probes into Trojan Horse.
The Trojan Horse inquiries found that the council staff ignored complaints over the infiltration of schools by hardline Muslims for fear of being branded racist.
But now a policy has been drawn up inviting staff, residents and service users, in complete confidence, to raise concerns over council and other public services.
A key issue with Trojan Horse was that many of the schools, having become academies, are not under council control and therefore when staff made complaints about undue interference from governors, council officials dismissed it as not their concern.
Now the policy says that any such complaints will be referred to the relevant authority, such as the Department for Education.
Council deputy leader Ian Ward said: “We have welcomed the advice and recommendations put forward by Sir Bob Kerslake, Ian Kershaw and Peter Clarke and have developed a thorough and robust policy on whistleblowing.
“This will help to ensure that we comply with the highest standards of openness, honesty and accountability.
“Staff, citizens and any other concerned parties or individuals can now be assured that if they have worries about potential serious wrongdoing, they will be listened to and their concerns dealt with quickly and confidentially.”
The reviews recommended a single policy and line of reporting covering the whole council with agreed time scales for action on complaints and all of this is covered in the policy. Callers are also guaranteed protection.
* The hotline number, 0121 303 7602, goes live from Monday. Complaints can also be emailed to whistleblowing@birmingham.gov.uk
