Issue - meetings

That the Annual Improvement Report be accepted and the Council’s response endorsed as a comprehensive response of assurance.

The Chief Executive invited Mr. Huw Lloyd Jones of the Wales Audit Office (WAO) to present the Council’s Annual Improvement Report published by the Auditor General for Wales.  The report contained the Annual Audit Letter, which had been reported to the previous meeting of the Committee, and the findings of the Corporate Assessment carried out in September 2014.  This work by WAO had continued beyond this date to ensure that information was updated.  In line with the usual practice, the Council’s Executive response was presented for endorsement.

The Chief Executive explained that the report had been presented to Cabinet and would be submitted to the Corporate Resources Overview & Scrutiny Committee the following month.  He went on to clarify the role of the Audit Committee in determining whether the report was proportionate.

Mr. Lloyd Jones explained the arrangements for Corporate Assessments to be undertaken on a four year cycle across all Welsh Councils.  He added that the outcomes within the report were not solely based on the work in September 2014, but also reflected work prior to and after this period, partly due to the implementation of a new operational model at that time.  He confirmed that, despite this significant change, the Council had engaged fully with WAO representatives on the Corporate Assessment and that prior to recent publication of the full report, verbal feedback had been given to the Council with an action plan currently being progressed.  A summary of the full report, which had been prepared by WAO, was appended to the report and included the key messages.  The Chairman confirmed that the Committee had been provided with copies of the full report in advance of the meeting.

Mr. Lloyd Jones stressed that the Council’s report was mainly positive and gave an overview of the four main headings in respect of improvement issues, as this was the focus of the Committee.  He confirmed that there were no statutory recommendations and detailed the seven advisory proposals for improvements, as set out in the report, which were being progressed by the Council.

The Chief Executive agreed that this was a positive report and agreed with the observations by WAO which gave no cause for major concern.  He provided further detail on the Council’s Executive response, prepared by Cabinet and senior officers, to address the seven proposals for improvement and highlighted the overlap of remit on some matters, for example the review of the Medium Term Financial Plan which would be reported to the Corporate Resources Overview & Scrutiny Committee no later than June 2015.  Whilst detailing actions for the proposed improvement on workforce planning, attention was drawn to the national report recently produced by WAO which had identified Local Government in the public sector as the most cost-effective on policies and practices in this area, with all of its recommendations met or exceeded in Flintshire.

In response to a query from Councillor Haydn Bateman, Mr. Lloyd Jones explained that the four main conclusion headings within the report were each supported by lower  ...  view the full minutes text for item 61