Issue - meetings

That having considered the report and the Council’s response to it, the Committee is assured by the contents of the Annual Improvement Report.

The Corporate Business & Communications Executive Officer introduced the Annual Improvement Report summarising audit work by the Wales Audit Office (WAO) since the last report in March 2015.  She welcomed the positive conclusion by WAO in recognising continued improved performance within priority areas, despite increasing financial pressures.

Members’ attention was drawn to the summary of conclusions for performance, resources and governance and the assessment of performance in 2015/16 against the previous year which reflected that most national indicators had been achieved.  The latest data for the period showed that 63% of national indicators had been met across Wales.

In presenting the report, Mr. Paul Goodlad of the WAO acknowledged the context in which Local Authorities had to operate, with increasing challenges such as financial constraints and growing demand from service users.  He described the report as mainly positive with further work highlighted in a number of areas, but had no specific concerns to raise with the Committee.  It was acknowledged that the Council was continuing to work on areas requiring strengthening and the Action Plan gave assurance that progress was being made on previous recommendations.

Councillor Paul Shotton congratulated officers on the report’s conclusions.  In response to a query on benchmarking, Mr. Goodlad explained that overall performance at other councils had not been as positive as that in Flintshire, although some councils had improved strongly in certain areas.

On a Council IT issue, Councillor Richard Jones referred to the recent refresh of Members’ iPads for accessing agendas and felt that clear information should have been provided on moving information on iAnnotate.

In response to Councillor Paul Cunningham’s query on the Action Plan, Councillor Aaron Shotton explained that the WAO recommendation was for Group Leaders to engage with their Members on the Member Development Scheme.  He suggested that this could be included as a future agenda item for the Group Leaders’ meeting with progress monitored through the Democratic Services Committee.

Councillor Marion Bateman said that she was unaware of the scheme which led to Councillor Aaron Shotton providing information on a number of schemes, both internal and external.  The Chief Officer (Governance) spoke about the Council’s scheme which was available to all Members and offered to re-circulate information if required.  The Member Engagement Manager pointed out that information on development opportunities was regularly circulated but that attendance was variable.  Councillor Arnold Woolley referred to poor attendance at a recent workshop on Equalities.

Councillor Robin Guest commented that attempts by Group Leaders to generate interest on training sessions were not always successful and that this was an issue in the Council.  He went on to refer to required attendance levels for mandatory types of training and approaches taken by other councils to hold agreed regular training slots.

Councillor Billy Mullin thanked Mr. Goodlad for the report and welcomed the positive conclusion.

RESOLVED:

That having considered the report and the Council’s response to it, the Committee is assured by the contents of the Annual Improvement Report.