Agenda item

(To receive a report which provides the Committee with the opportunity to review the contents of the draft statement – ensuring that it accurately reflects the Committee's understanding of the Council's governance and assurance arrangements.  This is a key activity in the Council's terms of reference)

Consideration was given to a report which provided the Committee with the opportunity to review the contents of the draft Statement – to ensure that it accurately reflected the Committee's understanding of the Council's governance and assurance arrangements.  This was a key activity in the Committee's terms of reference.

It was reported that each year the Council was required to reflect on how well the Council's governance framework had operated during the year and identify any governance issues which needed to be drawn to the attention of Lincolnshire's residents.  Good governance underpinned everything the Council did and how services were delivered often came under close scrutiny.

Members were advised that a 'good' Annual Governance Statement was an open and honest self-assessment of how well the Council had run its business across all activities – with a clear statement of the actions being taken or required to address any areas of concern.  The development of the Annual Governance Statement was overseen by the Audit Committee.

The Assistant Director Finance and Resources provided a brief update in relation to the outcome of the judicial review of the libraries service.  It was noted that the lessons learned would need to be incorporated into the Annual Governance Statement.  The final version of the Statement would be presented to the Committee for approval in September.  Members were informed that in relation to the judicial review, the judge found in the council's favour in two aspects – that the proposals did not compromise the authority's statutory responsibility to provide a comprehensive library service and it was fully compliant in terms of equality and diversity.  There were two areas where the judge asked the Council to re-think which were that the questions in the consultation were closed with limited scope to make alternative suggestions, and that the proposal from Greenwich Leisure should have had further consideration.  It was reported that if the Council did wish to pursue the route of Greenwich Leisure's proposal, then a procurement exercise would need to be undertaken, and the library service would effectively be outsourced.  Members were advised that there would be an internal review, and this may come to this Committee for consideration.

Members were provided with the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present in relation to the information contained within the report, and some of the points raised during discussion included the following points:

·         It was agreed that statistics into the number of contacts and complaints received through the Customer Service Centre could be included in the summary on the first page of the Statement;

·         It was requested that the section entitled 'Our Audit Committee' on page 7 of the Statement be re-worded to include reference to the Committee's assurance role;

·         All directors had been required to complete a pro-forma which set out the potential risks which could arise from the proposals being considered under the fundamental budget review;

RESOLVE

1.    That the Committee agreed that the contents of the Annual Governance Statement accurately reflected how the Council was run;

2.    That the Statement included  the significant governance issues/key risks it would have expected to be published;

3.    That the changes listed above be incorporated into the Statement.