Agenda and draft minutes

It was RESOLVED that Mr Alan Davies be appointed as the Lay Chair to Governance and Audit Committee for a period of two years from 17 May 2024 to 17 of May 2026.

It was RESOLVED that Mr Andrew Blackmore be appointed as the Lay Vice- Chair to Governance and Audit Committee for a period of two years from 17 May 2024 to 17 of May 2026.

It was AGREED to note the content of the Governance and Audit Committee Meetings Action Log as presented, subject to the collated responses following consideration by Leadership Group to item 7 on the log, to be circulated to all Members of the Committee.

It was reported to date, that a response had been received from the Head of Democracy.

It was agreed that this item would be considered further in a Workshop as Officers could not provide additional views to the ones already presented.

Consideration was given to the Draft Annual Governance Statement 2023-24. It was reported that the Accounts and Audit (Wales) Regulations 2014 requires local authorities to conduct at least annually a review of the effectiveness of their governance framework including their systems of internal control. This review must be documented in an Annual Governance Statement and published as part of the Council’s Annual Statement of Accounts. The Governance & Audit Committee was responsible for monitoring the governance arrangements on behalf of the Council.

The Annual Governance Statement must be prepared in accordance with proper practices, including those set out in the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (‘CIPFA’) and The Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (‘SOLACE’) ‘Delivering Good Governance in Local Government: Framework’ (2016). The Framework, published in April 2016, was based on the CIPFA/International Federation of Accountants (‘IFAC’) ‘International Framework: Good Governance in the Public Sector’. The CIPFA/SOLACE ‘Delivering Good Governance in Local Government: Framework’ (2016) sets out a framework of 7 key principles that would enable organisations, public sector partnerships and combined authorities to achieve their outcomes while working in the public interest. The principles were further supported by core-principles of behaviour that demonstrate what good governance should look like in practice. These principles were the basis for the Council’s current Local Code of Corporate Governance and are considered in the draft Governance Framework document.

A workshop of relevant officers and committee Members was held on 6th December 2023. The workshop considered:

· progress on the actions set out in the 2023-24 Governance Framework Review.

· any updated evidence included in the document.

· previously identified actions.

It was also agreed to amend the scoring to the document to be out of 5 rather than 10 as in previous years. The Annual Governance Statement 2023-24 had since been drafted. It was reported that the current format of the document was being reviewed to be more feasible for the user.

The Annual Governance Statement 2023-24 would be presented to Committee and Council, along with the Statement of Accounts during 2024/25.

It was reported that the AGS was not a statutory document, but however, it was seen as good practice that the document was produced.

It was noted that the current AGS format was unwieldy, and needed to  be clearer, and more efficient, simple and focussed.

Following questions from the floor, it was AGREED:

1)to RECOMMEND the draft Annual Governance Statement 2023-24 for approval by   Council

2) to note that the format and presentation of the AGS template would be reviewed and presented to a future Committee meeting.

The Annual Governance Statement 2023-24 would be presented to Committee and Council, along with the Statement of Accounts during 2024/25.

It was reported that the AGS was not a statutory document, but however, it was seen as good practice that the document was produced. All Members agreed.

Following a review of the Council’s governance documents, it was agreed that a Governance Framework would be created to act as an overarching document encompassing the Council’s governance arrangements and to replace the current Local Code for Corporate Governance 2023-2024.

The Council was committed to demonstrating that it had the necessary corporate governance arrangements in place to perform effectively, and to ensure that these arrangements were reflected in the Council’s governance arrangement documentation.

The draft Governance Framework demonstrates the arrangements in place to ensure that the intended outcomes for all stakeholders were defined and achieved, whilst ensuring that the Council always acts in the public interest. It sets out the way the Council meets that commitment to achieve the Council’s vision and Corporate Well-being Objectives, brings together all governance arrangements and provides assurance that there were clear governance arrangements in place.

The Governance Framework document summarises how the Council:

 · organises its affairs through determining an appropriate governance, executive oversight and organisational structure

 · agrees and implements robust policies, systems and processes

· makes and executes decisions in an efficient and transparent manner engages with, and holds itself accountable to local people Proposal Committee

It was AGREED to recommend the draft Corporate Governance Framework for approval by Council

Consideration was given to the report of the Corporate Manager-Internal Audit on The Internal Audit Progress Report Quarter 3. The report had been presented to ensure that the Committee was satisfied that the Internal Audit Section was undertaking sufficient and appropriate work in order to provide a realistic assurance at year-end, whilst adding value and assisting the Council in achieving its objectives.

It was AGREED to note the work undertaken and current position of the Internal Audit Service

Consideration was given to the Internal Audit Strategy and Plan. The report had been presented in order to propose an Internal Audit plan of work areas to be reviewed during 2024/25 to Members of

the Audit Committee.

The Public Sector Internal Audit Standards (PSIAS), along with CIPFA’s

accompanying Local Government Application Note require Councils to have an Internal Audit Charter with an accompanying Annual Audit Strategy and Plan.

The Plan was designed to ensure a sufficient area of coverage was undertaken to support the annual opinion on the effectiveness of the systems of governance, risk management and internal control across the Council.

This proposed Internal Audit Strategy and Plan supports the IA Charter by

summarising the work areas the Internal Audit Section would concentrate its time on during 2023/24 and takes account of the current situation due to the pandemic.

          It was AGREED to APPROVE the report.

A review had recently been undertaken of the Framework supporting the Annual Governance Statement (AGS) for 2023/24.The Governance Framework, AGS and Local Code of Corporate Governance

were presented to the Committee in January 2024. Members of the Committee were also involved in its review.

AW provides an audit opinion on the AGS based on its consistency with their knowledge and compliance with legislation. The internal audit review consists of an assessment of the procedures in place to

compile the governance framework, the scoring methodology used, and

consideration of the ‘evidence’ noted in the framework.

This review therefore complements AW’s work on the AGS, and provided

assurance that the procedure is robust, focussed and effective.

It was AGREED to note the review of the Governance Framework

It was reported that this was statutory guidance issued under section 38 of the Local Government Act 2000, as amended by section 45 of the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021

The guidance was first presented to the committee on 24 January 2024 for information. In August 2023 there was an update to the section highlighted in yellow on Appendix 1 Part 4 Governance and Scrutiny.

There has been an amendment in that an additional paragraph has been added into the August 2023 version relating to the Annual Governance Statement which now reads as follows:

‘An Annual Governance Statement is a document which sets out a council’s arrangements for decision-making and governance. The AGS is the product of a review of council governance carried out by senior officers. There was no obligation on Welsh councils to prepare an Annual Governance Statement. As there was no legal obligation to produce an Annual Governance Statement, Welsh Government was not providing statutory guidance on this matter. However, councils would note the presence of the local government accounting standards. Councils could consider how the AGS could be used as a tool for broader corporate improvement, it could be used to evaluate strengths and weaknesses in the governance framework and, as part of an annual action plan, take forward agreed changes accordingly.’

The additional text had been shared with the Chair and Vice Chair.

  Current position

  1)It was proposed that the impact/effect of this additional text relating to the Annual Governance Statement would be considered and reported back to Committee.

          2)Officers are planning on reviewing the Annual Governance Statement template for 2024-25

          It was AGREED to:

(i)note the contents of this report, and the parts of the Guidance relevant to the Governance & Audit Committee, in particular the additional text in relation to the Annual Governance Statement.

  (ii) to note that a report on the:

·       impact/effect of the additional WG Guidance text 

·       content/focus,

·       role of the GAC

in relation to the Annual Governance Statement would be considered and reported back to Committee.

It was AGREED to note the content of the Forward Work Programme as presented subject:

(i) that the Corporate Lead Officer – Finance and Procurement would be discussing with Audit Wales the programme for presenting the Statement of Accounts.