Whistleblowing

City of Doncaster Council is committed to the highest possible standards of openness, probity and accountability and expects that Members and officers/employees at all levels will protect the Council and its resources and lead by example, ensuring high standards of personal conduct and adherence to the Council’s policies, procedures and rules.

What is whistle-blowing?

Whistleblowing is the act of reporting concerns of wrong-doing so that they may be investigated and acted upon. The term whistle-blower is typically reserved for employees that whistle blow about actual or suspected wrong-doing within their own organisation. This policy however, is intended to cover employees, elected members, partners, customers or citizens.

Whistleblows are always about serious concerns such as breaches of the law, endangerment of individuals or the environment or serious breaches of policy. These are different from complaints or employee grievances which typically only affect one person or a family and are usually about dissatisfaction with the level of service received or employment issues. Examples of the types of issue that can be reported under the Whistleblowing Policy are included in the Whistleblowing Fact Sheet.

A full copy of the policy and the associated fact sheet are available to download on this page. These documents contain information about what to do/who to report your concerns to should you believe that you have a concern to raise under the Whistleblowing Policy.

Should it be more appropriate, concerns may be dealt with under alternative policies such as the Council's Safeguarding Policies or the Complaints Policy. Links to these pages have also been provided below:-

Complaints and compliments

Adult safeguarding pages

Children's safeguarding pages