Agenda and minutes

Venue: Virtual - Online Meeting via Microsoft Teams

Contact: Cheryl Evans  Democratic Services Officer

Media

Items
No. Item

29.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor A N Stokes.

30.

Declaration of Members' Interests

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest made at the meeting.

31.

Minutes of the meeting held on 16 November 2020 pdf icon PDF 151 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED

 

That the minutes of the meeting held on 16 November 2020 be signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

32.

Combined Assurance Report pdf icon PDF 185 KB

(To receive a report which provides an insight on the assurances across all of the Council's critical services, key risks, partnerships and projects. The Chief Executive, Executive Directors and the Chief Fire Officer will be in attendance)

Additional documents:

Minutes:

A report was submitted to the Committee on the Council's combined assurance status, with the Chief Executive and each executive director assessing: critical service delivery activities; key risks; key projects; and key partnerships.  This provided the Council with an effective framework to assess risk, which in turn would provide an overall assurance level for the Council.

 

The Chief Executive introduced the report by reflecting on the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Staff had risen to the challenge, both in their response to the pandemic, and by maintaining business-as-usual activity, as far as possible, including the Council's transformation programme.  In particular the work of Derek Ward, as the Director of Public Health, and the public health team was acknowledged.   

 

The Chief Executive also highlighted several risks: adult and children safeguarding arising from the reduced levels of home visiting; staffing resilience during the pandemic; the impact of Covid-19 on the management of the Council's budgets; the ability of the market to continue to provide certain adult care and children services; IMT and challenges of expanding the network and its modernisation; and the levels of workforce turnover and sickness. 

 

The Committee recorded its thanks to all the staff who had responded to the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

 

Responses were made to questions from members of the Committee on the following topics:

 

  • Child and Adolescent Mental Health – In Lincolnshire there was an emphasis on prevention through services, such as Healthy Minds, and Kooth (an online service), as well as the mental health in schools pilot.  Training had been provided to schools-based staff, with both maintained schools and academies participating.
  • Recruitment of Staff – For most council posts there were no challenges in recruitment.  Areas such as social work, legal services and engineers were cited as areas where recruitment was difficult.  Strategies to address this included training being offered to the Council's existing staff; and the smarter working programme was also expected to aid recruitment.
  • Special School Provision – Special schools had been in regular contact with the families of pupils of these schools during the pandemic, with offers of support.
  • Strategic Risk Management – During 2020 there had been rapid refinement of the Council's risk management processes.  Internal structures, which had been in place prior to the pandemic, had placed the Council in a strong position both to identify new risks and to meet the challenges of all risks during the last year.
  • Recruitment and Retention of Retained Firefighters – Whilst there were new applicants to become retained firefighters, the challenge was to retain existing staff.  It was anticipated applicants for the role would increase as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
  • Market Supply of Residential Adult Social Care – Nationally there had been reductions in placement into residential care of up to 15% and in Lincolnshire an assessment was being made of the likely effects on the availability of residential care, as opposed to residential with nursing care, as there was an over-supply in Lincolnshire of the latter.  The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.

33.

Work Programme pdf icon PDF 288 KB

(To receive a report by Lucy Pledge (Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management), which provides the Committee with information on the core assurance activities currently scheduled for the 2021 work plan)

Minutes:

The Committee considered its forward work programme for its forthcoming meetings.  It was noted that the next meeting of the Committee would now be held on 19 March 2021, and the key items of this agenda were highlighted.  It was agreed that an item on horizon scanning would be included in the work programme for the meeting on 14 June 2021.  An item on the integration of health and social care, including the compatibility of IMT, would be included in the work programme at a later date.  

 

RESOLVED

 

That the work programme of the Committee be approved, including the above amendments.

 

 
 
dot

Original Text: