Agenda item

Review of Governance Framework and development of the Annual Governance Statement 2019/20

(To receive a report by Lucy Pledge (Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management), 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)

Minutes:

Consideration was given to a report by Lucy Pledge, Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management, which provided the Committee with the opportunity to review the contents of the draft Annual Governance Statement to ensure it accurately reflected the Committee's understanding of the Council's governance and assurance arrangements.

 

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:

·         Reference was made to progress that had been made in IT governance, and it was queried whether there could be any more detail on this included such as improvements which had been implemented.

·         It was queried whether the Business World re-engagement progress could be reworded as it was due to be delivered by December 2019, and so it was not on track as suggested.

·         It was queried whether there could be more detail added in relation to the new capital strategy processes which had been introduced in April 2020.

·         The Overview and Scrutiny Management Board was due to have a paper at its meeting at the beginning of July looking at new ways of monitoring the IT improvements.  This would be circulated to all members of the Audit Committee for information.

·         It was noted that the medium term financial plan would be reviewed and revised over summer 2020 and there were plans in place to capture all additional costs from the Covid-19 pandemic.

·         The capital strategy had not been reported to the Audit Committee as it was part of the budget papers which had been considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board and Executive. 

·         It was noted that the Council had received £35million as an emergency grant from government for the Covid-19 pandemic.

·         It was noted that unlike districts, the County Council did not rely on income from things such as car parks, etc.  It was queried whether the grant would be sufficient to cover all the additional costs.  Members were advised that specific cost codes had been set up so costs could be easily monitored.  Budget holders were reporting back to the finance team on a regular basis.

·         Districts had been affected to a greater degree financially, due to a loss of income from parking fees, planning fees and other discretionary income.

·         Previously, the Chief Executive had highlighted some areas of concern regarding the workforce, specifically challenges around recruitment in key areas, such as social work.  It was noted that this did not seem to be highlighted in the risk register.  Members were advised that this was still an issue for the Council, and the dynamics had changed significantly since the pandemic was declared, particularly around wellbeing, and recruitment and retention of staff.  There had also been an impact on communities and how the Council worked.  Officers would go back to the Chief Executive to see if a report needed to be brought back to the Committee with more detail around this.

 

RESOLVED

1.    That it be recorded that the contents of the draft Annual Governance Statement 2020 accurately reflected how the Council was run.

 

2.    That the Statement included the significant governance issues/key, risks which the Committee would expect to be published.

 

 

 

(NOTE: Councillor A Spencer left the meeting at this point and did not rejoin)

Supporting documents:

 

 
 
dot

Original Text: