Croydon Council's Audit & Governance Committee is reviewing the authority's whistleblowing procedures, following a quarterly update presented at their meeting on 27 November 2025. The council's Whistleblowing Policy provides for six monthly reports to the Committee on whistleblowing referrals received.
The update covered whistleblowing referrals received between January and October 2025. During the reporting period, there were three whistleblowing referrals concerning:
- Concerns regarding manager and statutory compliance and financial governance.
- Concerns regarding a private tenancy arrangement involving an employee and access to council information and housing support not available to others.
- Concerns regarding alleged pay discrepancies between staff and payment to an unqualified employee.
Two referrals were investigated, with no issues of concern found. One investigation is ongoing.
The council's Whistleblowing Policy aims to encourage openness and transparency, and to provide a safe mechanism for individuals to raise concerns about potential wrongdoing. The policy commits the council to dealing with disclosures of wrongdoing, sets out how to raise concerns, the role of the Monitoring Officer to review disclosures and appoint Designated Assessors to investigate, the protection and support for disclosers, and the action to be taken following an investigation.
Updates on other governance matters were also discussed at the meeting of the Audit & Governance Committee. The agenda included updates on the Audit Governance Committee Action Log, the Committee Work Programme & Committee Assurance Mapping Document, and Corporate Risk Management.
