Issue - meetings

Issue - meetings

Social Media Guidance for Councillors

Meeting: 25/02/2019 - Standards Committee (Item 18)

18 Social media protocol for councillors pdf icon PDF 124 KB

Report of:     Anita Bradley, Monitoring Officer

 

Purpose:       To agree a social media protocol for councillors.

 

Recommendation:

That the Standards Committee resolves to:

a)    Approve the social media protocol for councillors as set out in Appendix 1.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Monitoring Officer presented the report which proposed a draft social media protocol for councillors.  The protocol had been developed in response to the recommendation of an external investigator, agreed by Council, that the authority should adopt a social media policy that will offer additional guidance to members on the use of social media. The document would be known as a “protocol” rather than a policy in order to comply with administrative arrangements within the Council.

 

The Committee welcomed the draft document and suggested that it should be expanded to include a definition or statement on what is meant by the term “social media”.  The Committee asked that the final document be made available in hard copy and in electronic format.  The Committee noted the advice contained within the protocol regarding the potential risks associated with councillors engaging with social media during meetings; they suggested that this should be brought to the attention of committee Chairs so that they could brief committee members accordingly.  The Monitoring Officer undertook to address these points.

 

The Committee noted the Monitoring Officer’s intention to reference the social media Protocol in any future revision to the Code of Conduct so that it would form part of the Constitution.

The Standards Committee resolved to:

a)              Approve the social media protocol for councillors as set out in Appendix 1; and

b)              Delegate authority to the Monitoring Officer to finalise the text and format of the final document to take account of the amendments proposed by the Committee (as detailed above).

 

 

 

7pm: Councillor Gotch left the meeting during consideration of this item.