Councillor broke rules over support service payments
ABIRMINGHAM Labour councillor continued to be paid to work for a city council-run special needs support service for three months after he stood for election – defying strict rules designed to avoid conflicts of interest and improper behaviour.
When the ‘overpayment’ came to light, Councillor Des Hughes claimed he had been working in a voluntary capacity and didn’t realise his salary was still going into his account.
He also failed to declare his financial interest in the service while speaking out in its defence at council meetings.
Cllr Hughes, who represents Kingstanding, breached the code of conduct for councillors in four separate ways, bringing the council into disrepute, the city’s Standards Committee ruled after an investigation. He had denied wrongdoing.
The ruling harks back to a fraught dispute over the future of the city’s Sendiass – an information, advice and support service for parents of children with special needs.
Parents, supported by some councillors, mounted a fierce campaign to defend the service when it was condemned in a highly-critical report. The actions of councillors were later condemned by an external commissioner as ‘disproportionate’.
Among them was Cllr Hughes. He had been a paid parent support officer for Sendiass, a service run by the city council, since 2019 and resigned in March 2022 so he could take up a role as a city councillor instead. He had served as a councillor twice before, and knew he could not do both. But he continued to receive a monthly salary from the service in April, May and June. He continued to do work tasks, though he claimed this was ‘voluntary’ and done because he felt he had left them in the lurch with his rapid resignation.
On two subsequent occasions he defended the service at council scrutiny meetings, without disclosing his continued direct links to it, said the investigator, a barrister brought in to independently conduct the inquiry.
The findings, discussed at a specially-convened hearing of the standards committee, were that
Cllr Hughes committed four breaches of the council’s standards of conduct:
Continued to receive his salary after his purported resignation, and failed to take steps to repay that money.
Failed to declare an interest or to recuse himself from two scrutiny meetings discussing Sendiass.
Failed to register his trusteeships of two charities on his register of interests.
Continued to access council systems, including to extend the employment contracts of agency workers.
As a result, it was recommended he should repay all the money, be made to apologise to the council for his conduct, and be removed from his roles as trustee of the Barry Jackson Tower (a family homeless centre) and as the council representative on the board of the Birmingham Royal Ballet.
He continues to represent Kingstanding but remains suspended by the Labour Party and a decision about his future as a member will be made in the coming weeks, said a Labour spokesperson.
Evidence presented to the committee suggested Cllr Hughes had tendered his resignation with immediate effect in March 2022 but it was not processed until July, and he continued to work. He told investigators this was on a voluntary basis and he had not noticed he was continuing to be paid.
Investigators found multiple inconsistencies. There was ‘striking evidence’ of a continued close association between Cllr Hughes and officers in Sendiass, and at one point he accessed the council system to extend work contracts for agency workers.
The inquiry report said: “Receiving a salary from the council, like continuing to work for the council, is in my view a misuse of the role of councillor.
“As well as unacceptably blurring the roles of councillor and officer, it also undermines the strict rules in place which regulate what financial payments councillors are permitted to receive from the council.”
His actions also ‘diminished public confidence’ in the role of councillor, “given the clear and unacceptable way in which he blurred his responsibilities as a councillor and officer of the council.”
Cllr John Cotton, Labour group leader, said the report was ‘very clear’ in its ruling. It was now a matter for the Labour Party to make any further decisions, he said.
The Birmingham Post contacted Cllr Hughes to offer a right of response, without answer.