A SCHEME encouraging junior members of staff to blow the whistle on council bosses is being reviewed after it was left unused for a year after its launch.

Darlington Borough Council appointed a person, in June last year, to deal specifically with complaints and concerns from employees, with the hope of cutting down on malpractice, corruption and bullying.

The whistleblowing policy was also aimed at ensuring all council workers have a person they can confidentially go to if they want to report an incident which they feel they can not talk to their direct line manager about.

In the year since its launch, there have been no issues raised and the borough council is looking to review the past 12 months in an effort to conclude whether that is down to good practice or low awareness of the procedure.

A council spokeswoman said: "We have developed a policy, but no issues have been raised to date.

"We will obviously be reviewing the last year and working closely with all workers to make sure employees are aware of the system in place."