Agenda item

(To receive a report from the Head of Corporate Audit and Risk Management which provides the Committee with an insight on the assurances across all the Council's critical services, key risks and projects)

Consideration was given to reports which provided an insight on the assurances across the Councils critical services, key risks and projects.

The Committee was guided through each assurance report by a senior officer and provided with an opportunity to ask questions in relation to the information contained within each report, and some of the points raised during discussion included the following:

Communities (presented by the Assistant Director Highways and Transportation)

·         There was only one area which was identified as red, which was in Regeneration, which was mainly the Sutton Bridge Marina project, which had complex land ownership and legal issues which were outside of the authority's control, officers were working hard to resolve this;

·         The assurances reported were on the processes and systems which were in place to deliver the work;

·         The Highways and Transport Scrutiny Committee received regular updates on the performance of the Highways Alliance;

·         Members were pleased with the support which was in place in respect of flood alleviation;

·         An investigation into recent flooding events had been commissioned and published;

Resources and Community Safety (presented by the Executive Director Resources and Community Safety)

·         Progress had been made in terms of overall assurance status;

·         The only area identified as red was in internal audit, but officers were confident that the action plans which had been put in place were more than adequate to deal with this issue;

·         It was noted that the authority would be facing a period of change in the coming 12 months including the procurement of support services and systems;

·         It was commented that it was an excellent report and contained a lot of information;

Children's Services (presented by the Executive Director Children's Services)

·         An ofsted visit was due in relation to early help and safeguarding;

·         Further details were requested in relation to the next steps identified in the report;

·         Officers would be looking for what issues were picked up on in ofsted inspections of other authorities and ensuring Lincolnshire's arrangements met requirements;

·         There had been some very high profile cases from serious case reviews ;

·         The Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children's Board did have a risk register and this was reviewed at every meeting;

·         Clarification was sort regarding the methodology for how assurance was given, and it was reported that the Executive Director had a huge raft of data at their disposal including ofsted reports, peer reviews, and significant amounts of performance information, which was used in agreeing the assurance level;

·         The 5-11 age group was covered by the school improvement service;

·         15 hours of early education was important in areas of deprivation and a national requirement.  There was a new initiative that 40% of two year olds in deprived areas should have access to good or excellent nursery care.  The DfE had provided a £850,000 grant to provide capital support to the two year old offer, and there were four significant projects underway, but it was more about making smaller changes to offer more places;

RESOLVED

            That the current status of the Executive Directors' assurance regime be     noted.