Discipline - Note-taking

The Commissioning Manager may consider assigning a note taker to ensure adequate notes are taken of each interview.  This is not the role of HR and the Investigating Officer would need to request this from the Commissioning Manager.

Notes do not need to be verbatim however they should cover the key points of each interview including the questions asked as well as the responses.

The note taker could be an existing employee that has not been directly or indirectly involved in the case, that is, they should not have been a witness to the alleged misconduct, or in some cases, an external note-taker could be appointed.

Employees/note-takers should be reminded that all notes taken should be kept confidential.

All parties should receive their individual notes within 3 days and reminded that they should be kept confidential.

All parties interviewed should be given a copy of their notes and asked that they sign/date and return them to the Investigating Officer to confirm they are a true reflection of what was said.  Any amendments felt necessary to be made by the interviewee should be hand-written on a signed/dated hardcopy.  Signed copies of notes should be returned to the Investigating Officer within 3 days of receipt.

If an employee refuses or fails to return their signed notes, they should be given one final opportunity to do so and advised that if they do not return by a given date their unsigned notes will be used as part of the investigation.  A reference to unsigned notes may be made in the report.

In the case where a witness wishes to remain anonymous the Commisioning Manager must seek to corroborate their evidence and make efforts to check the witnesses motives are genuine.

If during the course of the investigation, other allegations come to light, the Investigating Officer should refer these to the Commissioning Manager who will decide whether they should form part of the ongoing investigation.

If the Commissioning Manager makes the decision that these should be investigated as part of the ongoing investigation, they will write to the employee informing them and instruct the Investigating Officer to include them in their Investigation.
 

8.2.    Preparing the investigating officer’s report

A report should be written outlining the findings of the investigation.  The report should then be forwarded by the Investigating Officer to the manager who commissioned the investigation.

The Investigating Officer’s report must:

• Confirm the specific allegation/s and recommend whether the matter should proceed to a Disciplinary Meeting, giving reasons.
• Confirm whether it is a case of potential misconduct or gross misconduct
• If the recommendation is that a Disciplinary Hearing is not appropriate, the report should indicate why i.e. no evidence to support the allegation/s, or
• If appropriate, the Report should recommend that cases of minor misconduct could be addressed through in a Guidance Meeting and/or Mediation and/or additional support to the employee.
• If during the course of the investigation, issues of poor practice or systems come to light, the Investigating Officer may make appropriate recommendations ie changes in policies/procedures or management practice