Agenda item

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

Consideration was given to a report which provided the Audit Committee with an insight on the assurances across all the Council's critical services, key risks and projects.

 

The Executive Directors were in attendance to present their Combined Assurance report and answer any questions from members of the Committee.

 

Public Health

 

The Executive Director Community Wellbeing and Public Health presented the Combined Assurance report for Public Health to the Committee.  The Committee was informed that the areas the Executive Director was responsible had changed quite considerably following the senior management review and now included libraries.

 

It was reported that the risk had not changed from last year, but there were some particularly risky areas under the core statutory business of public health, such as outbreaks, education etc.  However, there was a lot of expertise which could be used to mitigate these risks. There were now some areas which were not related to core public health business such as libraries.

 

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:

·         It was noted that these reports were a 'snapshot' of the assurances in place which looked at both critical systems and strategic risks, as well as emerging risks;

·         It was acknowledged that one of the highest risks at this time was that a number of services would be re-procured in the near future;

·         The Coroners Officers were paid for by the Police Force, and there was very little impact the authority could have on this service;

·         It was noted that in relation to the Coroners Service, it had been reduced from four districts to two three years ago.  The system was currently working as well as it could, but both coroners were due to retire in two years.  There would be a need to look at what the Coroners Service would look like in the future;

·         Nationally, there was a preference for one coroner per county, but Lincolnshire had pushed to have two;

·         It was queried, in relation to mental health issues, how certain the authority was that it could offer services that could prevent people from becoming acute cases.  Members were advised that a lot of work was taking place around mental health prevention.  This was a joint approach and work was underway on preventing mental health problems from getting worse or developing and the authority was working with a whole range of organisations in order to better support people.  There were a variety of schemes in place including a number of schemes that supported people and the community to give people mental health resilience;

·         It was noted that the Integration with Health and Social Care was a newly recorded risk, and there would be large numbers of organisations involved in this process.  There was not yet a completed plan on how this process would happen.  It was expected that this plan would be ready by the summer.  The programme of work had its own risk register and risk arrangements.  The Executive Director reported that discussions had taken place with external audit on this issue;

·         The potential for a second judicial review into the libraries review was recognised, and officers had put in a lot of work to ensure that the authority could respond in a more successful way;

 

Finance and Public Protection

 

The Executive Director for Finance and Public Protection presented the Combined Assurance report for Finance and Public Protection to the Committee.  It was reported that this was an assessment of risks and how the authority was dealing with them.  It was noted that some areas had moved from being completely green, into amber, such as the Youth Offending Service, this was mainly due to changes to the way that the service was managed, and a move to more pro-active work.

 

The Committee was advised that one risk which needed to be managed corporately was the budget.  It was reported that the Council would only be publishing a one year budget due to the uncertainty in a number of different areas.  It was also noted that the government had only published a one year spending review due to the general election taking place in May 2015, and it was expected that the new government would publish a spending review in the autumn of 2015.  There would need to be a national discussion on what the role of a local authority was in providing services. 

 

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

·         Concerns were raised regarding the police non-emergency number and how long people were waiting to get through, and how long they should then have to wait for action.  The Executive Director agreed to raise this issue with the Police, but certain issues would be of lower priority than others;

·         The areas with large budgets such as adult care were most sensitive, in terms of the role of local government, and it would need to be determined whether the existing model was sustainable in the future – both locally and nationally;

·         In relation to the issue of Lincoln being labelled as a 'hot spot' for so called legal highs, this was due to an FOI request, and a lot of counties did not respond.  Lincolnshire also had a good recording system for incidents.  It was noted that officers were developing a good database of information and were working with the Police;

·         There was a government commitment in 2014 to introduce new legislation in relation to legal highs which would seek to make them illegal.  The authority was working on a partnership approach, as there were issues around them being used by young people in care;

·         It was commented that often, other authorities had placed difficult young people in private establishments in Lincolnshire, particularly in the south of the county, and so plans had not been able to be put in place soon enough.  Officers were working with colleagues in the police on this issue as well.

 

Children's Services

 

The Assistant Director – Children's Services presented the Combined Assurance Report for Children's Services to the Committee.  It was reported that there had been an Ofsted inspection of the authority in November 2014, and the outcome was very positive, and Lincolnshire received the second best report for a local authority in the country. 

 

It was noted that the children's scrutiny committee played a significant role, and had held a task and finish group on safeguarding.  The authority also had a very active Corporate Parenting Panel.  The authority also participated in peer reviews and had a comprehensive performance regime which was reported through the Lead member to the DMT group and to the scrutiny committee on a regular basis.  Members were advised that this year officers would be examining several areas that were showing as amber. 

 

The Committee was 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:

·         Members were advised that there was regular sufficiency reporting in terms of provision, from all aspects of education, but particularly in the primary sector.  There was also regular reporting through the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee;

·         The government expected any new provision to be either free schools or academies;

·         Home Start was very active in the south of the county.  However, it was noted that this was one of the authority's commissioned activities, but due to budget restrictions it may not be commissioned in the future;

·         The authority was successful at maintaining SEN provision within the county, and this provision was constantly reviewed.  The provision in special schools would be reviewed in the future to determine whether there would be sufficient places for the future;

·         Additional grants had been received for 2015 and 2016 to enable the authority to transition through the SEND reforms;

·         There had not been a reduction in the cost of home to school transport due to reduction of the price of fuel.  It was likely that this was because it was a fixed price contract;

·         There were aspects of the home to school transport policy which were reviewed every year.  However, the last fundamental review was approximately six years ago.  The authority would be looking at new ways to bring in efficiencies and officers would be looking very closely at services related to children's transport;

 

Adult Care

 

The Director of Adult Care was in attendance to present the Combined Assurance report on Adult Care to the Committee.  It was reported that this report showed an improving performance and a strengthening of budget management.

 

Members were advised that there had been two internal audit reports around key areas which included contracting which provided significant management assurance. 

 

The Committee was 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:

·         It was queried whether there was a need for a minimum standard for carers?  It had been discussed whether apprenticeships could be developed which had an opportunity to progress to qualify as a nurse.  It was noted that a similar issue had been raised at a recent meeting at East Lindsey District Council in relation to standards across domiciliary and residential care.  Members were advised that within Adult Care was a Quality Assurance Team and contract officers would undertake quality checks when they went out to check providers;

·         It was reported that there were over 60,000 visits per week in Lincolnshire, and the authority had six quality assurance officers and the CQC would visit once or twice a year.  Therefore it was difficult to quality assure every visit.  However, a sample of 300 people who received the home care service was carried out, and it was found that the most important thing to the people receiving the service was the quality of the relationship with the carer and that the scheduled visits took place on time.  The length of the visit was found to be irrelevant;

·         The area of most concern was domiciliary care in terms of securing better standards of employment and increased rates of pay;

·         Clinical staff and carers were both difficult to recruit;

·         The LEP had also looked at the health and care sector, and considered it one of the key sectors for the areas.  One of the issues was the relatively low pay, and this was also an issue in the food sector;

·         Concerns were also raised regarding the need for standardisation of travel costs for those staff who carried out home visits;

 

Information and Commissioning

 

The Chief Information and Commissioning Officer was in attendance to present the Combined Assurance report for Information and Commissioning to the Committee.  Members were advised that as this was a new area, this was the first combined assurance report that had been produced.

 

It was reported that the contract with Mouchel would be ending on 31 March 2015 and staff would be transferred to the new providers or brought back in-house.  It was also noted that there were a lot of system changes taking place, including the implementation of the Agresso and Mosaic systems.  This was a relatively high risk period due to the volume and complexity of the changes, and was being very closely managed.

 

There was a lot of uncertainty for staff at this time and the authority was currently in a TUPE consultation period with staff.  Regular newsletters were circulated and there was a lot of staff engagement both directly and with the trade unions.  The engagement was positive and it hoped that there would be a successful transfer.

 

In relation to the technology issues, the implementation of the Mosaic system would be a substantial move away from the Northgate system.  It was noted that data from 18 different systems would be moved across, and some of the data from different systems would relate to the same client.  It was intended that the new system would go live on 30 March 2015.  The new Mosaic system would interface with the Agresso system.

 

Under the new property contract, Vinci Mouchel would be implementing a new system – Concerto – on 1 April 2015, which will also be integrated with the Agresso system.

 

All new IT systems were in the final stages of testing.

 

The Committee was advised that there had been a large restructure of Commissioning, and there were still a few vacant posts to be filled.  Commissioning Leads would be remaining in each department.  Officers were looking with each commissioning area to improve contract management as there were a range of different contract management arrangements in place.  Some arrangements worked well and some required improvement, there was a need to share best practice within the authority.

 

Members of the Committee 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:

·         It was acknowledged that all new staff transferring into the authority would be made aware of the whistleblowing and counter fraud policies;

·         In relation to the new arrangements for a more robust 24/7 out of hours communications service, it was noted that an out of hours service had been in place for a number of years on a good will basis.  More robust arrangements were being put in place;

·         Regular meetings took place with the suppliers of the new IT systems to ensure that the accommodation was ready and that IT equipment would be available.  HR was also working closely with the suppliers;

·         There was time within the hand over process to get to know the staff and help them with the transition process into their new roles;

·         The biggest risk was that the Agresso system or Mosaic system were not operational on time.  This risk was being managed very closely in order to mitigate the risk;

·         Departments would constantly have new IT requirements, such as office moves or legislative changes.  Members were assured that the new systems would be able to meet these requirements as and when they arose.

 

Environment and Economy

 

The Executive Director for Environment and Economy was in attendance to present the Combined Assurance report for Environment and Economy to the Committee.  It was reported that the directorate's highest rated strategic risks were Resilience (Business Continuity) and Projects as with fewer people there would be a need to think differently as the organisation shrinks.  There would be a need to build into the structures sufficient people who could cover the specialisms.  Projects were a high profile risk, and the authority did not always get the result it wanted.  This also carried a reputational risk.

 

RESOLVED

 

            That the Committee note the current status of the Executive Directors' assurance regime.