Agenda item

The Leader was once again welcomed to report the Self-Assessment Report

             for 2021/22. Part 6 of the new Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act

             2021 replaces the old Local Government Measure (Wales) 2009 and

             introduces a new Self-Assessment based performance regime for Principal

             Councils.

 

              The new performance regime is intended to build and support a culture in

              which councils continuously seek to improve and do better in everything

              they do, regardless of how well they are performing already. It is the

              expectation of the Act that councils will always be striving to achieve more

              and seek to ensure best outcomes for local people and communities. One

              way of doing this is to continuously challenge the status quo and ask

              questions about how they are operating.

 

              There are 5 specific duties for Councils introduced by the Act:

                 • Duty to keep performance under review

                 • Duty to consult on performance

                 • Duty to report on performance

                 • Duty to arrange a Panel Performance Assessment

                 • Duty to respond to a Panel Performance Assessment

 

              The focus of self-assessment is on outcomes rather than process, and

              requires local authorities to take a different approach to assessing their

              performance than previously. This requires greater self reflection.

 

              Since May 2022, Ceredigion County Council has been undertaking the first

              round of Self-Assessment, in which the Overview and Scrutiny Coordinating

              Committee has played an integral part:

                 • On 15 June 2022 the Self-Assessment process that has been developed

              for use in Ceredigion was presented to the Committee. (The Council’s

              approach uses a set of Key Lines of Enquiry or key questions to help focus

              on the requirement of the Local Government and Elections Act).

                 • On 29 July 2022 a workshop was held with the Committee to record

              Members’ perspectives on Council performance and opportunities for

              improvement to feed into the Self-Assessment Matrix. (The Matrix is a table

              that captures all of the evidence, future challenges, proposed actions and

              scores).

                 • On 10 August 2022 a further workshop was held with the Committee to

              review the draft scores and key lines of Enquiry Matrix.

 

              Since then, the evidence collected has been used to produce the Self-

              Assessment Report which the Officer referred to as Appendix 3 of the

              agenda papers. This is the main output from the Self-Assessment process

              and sets out how the Council is currently performing and the actions it

              intends to take going forward.

 

              The Self-Assessment Report for 2021/22 discharges the requirements of

               both:

                  • The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015 – to set and

               review progress against our Corporate Well-being Objectives

                  • The Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 – the duty to keep

               performance under review, consult on performance, report on performance,

               arrange a Panel Performance Assessment and respond to a Panel

               Performance Assessment.

 

                The Governance and Audit Committee has a statutory responsibility to

                consider the Self-Assessment Report and make recommendations on the

                findings and the actions that the Council proposes to take. The Report

                was considered at its meeting on 27 September 2022 and approved the

                report to proceed to publication. No formal recommendations to change

                the conclusions or the actions that the Council intends to take were made.

                However, minor formatting amendments were requested and a number of

                points raised on how to improve the next round of reporting. The

                Committee were advised that these amendments have been made and

                shown in Appendix 3 of the agenda papers. Following approval by

                Governance and Audit Committee the process of producing the 2021/22

                 Self-Assessment Report is now complete and cannot be amended further.

 

                 Committee Members were advised that the Self-Assessment Report is

                 scheduled to proceed to Cabinet on 6 December and Council on    

                15 December, before being submitted to Ministers, Estyn and the Auditor

                 General for Wales, as well as being published on the website.

 

                 During discussion, the following were noted:

·             Ensure that community benefits continue to be secured and that they

      prove beneficial,

·             Support local contractors to work together on tenders for bigger contracts,

·             Members suggest investigating establishing arms-length services.

 

                 Following discussion, Committee Members agreed to receive the 

                 Self-Assessment Report 2021/22 including the Annual Review of

                 Performance and Well-Being Objectives.