Agenda item

Report of the Chief Executive on the draft Annual Governance Statement (AGS) for the financial year 2022/23.

Report of the Chief Executive on the draft Annual Governance Statement (AGS) for the financial year 2022/23.

The Annual Governance Statement for the 2022/23, was previously reviewed and noted by the Standards Committee on the 14 June 2023.

The Annual Governance Statement is published each financial year to demonstrate the Council's commitment to achieving good governance based on the principles outlined by CIPFA and SOLACE. It also shows potential areas for improvement in governance within the Council, it is provided under a duty under the Local government Act of 1999 regarding making arrangements to continually improve the way functions are exercised regarding a combination of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. The council are therefore responsible for implementing effective arrangements for the governance of the affairs facilitating the effective exercise of its functions, which includes arrangements for the management of risk.

The governance framework sets out systems, processes and values by which the council is directed and controlled, it is designed to ensure the council are complying with principles which are set out in the local code of governance.

The following points were raised and discussed:

·       Members were reassured and confident with the statement.

·       Members noted that diagram 4, the management structure was the most up to date structure for the governance process.

·       Members noted that the council have had many changes over the past few years. Members noted issues in the past regarding housing stock and fire certificates and were given assurance around that governance process at the time and that process, unfortunately this did not occur. Members asked with these changes in management are the council more assured that it will not happen again through the governance process?  Officers stated that since that has happened a lot more controls have been put into place. The council have reviewed the terms of reference of the Corporate Governance Group, and The Operational Health and Safety board had a complete refresh. The council have introduced more testing through internal audit on some of the KPIs, which were some of the issues highlighted. The council took on board the comments that was provided in the independent report and have implemented all the actions.

·       Members ask what is the governance around whistleblowing and how the council looks at it among staff? Officers stated that the council has a whistleblowing policy in place and there is contact details on the website with the whistleblowing procedures. It was noted that whistleblowing would fall under the Finance and Transformation directorate.  Officers also stated that it is also part of the staff induction process and there is a induction checklist that managers go through with their staff so that they are aware of it when they join the council.

·       The Independent Person asked about section 5.19 of the report and how the council’s policies are reviewed, how does the council make sure they are all reviewed?  Officers stated the council are currently going through a process of mapping all of the policies to make sure that they have corporate oversight of them, and that's something that the Corporate Governance Group, which is led by the Chief Executive and the Directors, are going to be overseeing and are currently putting together a list of all their policies and strategies to make sure there is a regular review programme in place. The council are mindful of the fact there has been slippage on policies in the past, because that's one of the reasons we want to be able to introduce this.

·       Members asked for clarification as in the report it says our role is to consider the report and make comments. Does this mean the report has not been finalised yet? Officers stated that comments from members would be considered as it is currently in the draft phase.

·       Members asked about the General Procurement Board and whether the Board would have been disbanded as part of this report or would there have been a different procedure to be disbanded? Officers stated it is a slightly different process. It would have formed part of the council’s contract procedure rules as part of the constitution. It set out what levels a procurement would go to general procurement board.  This was replaced with things like executive Member decisions which are published and can be called in and also more cross-party project groups been created to focus more on the aims and objectives of the service before it is tended, rather than focusing on the actual procurement process, which is more technical.

RESOLVED:

(unanimous)

The Audit Committee noted/considered and agreed for the draft Annual Governance Statement to be submitted to Cabinet for consideration and the Leader and Chief Executive’s signatures.