Issue - meetings

That the Council’s Improvement Assessment Letter received from the Auditor General for Wales be noted and the Council’s Cabinet response be agreed.

The Chief Executive welcomed Mr. A. Morris of Wales Audit Office (WAO) and invited him to present the Council’s Improvement Assessment Letter of January 2013 from the Auditor General for Wales.  Mr. Morris gave an overview of the key points from the WAO letter covering the assessment of the Council’s Improvement Plan and Annual Performance Report.

No new statutory formal recommendations had been made: four proposals for improvement had been made and the Council’s response was provided.  In response to a query from the Chair, Mr. Morris confirmed that the data and information provided by the Council had met the tests of reliability on the sample audit.

The Chief Executive reflected that the letter overall represented a ‘clean bill of health’.  There were no statutory recommendations and a response had been made on the four proposals as good and established local practice.  The first proposal on priorities and resources was significant; the remaining three proposals were more technical.  He commented that the Improvement Plan would be better published for the municipal year not the financial year.  A selection of priorities for the year would be made by the Cabinet within the Plan with an extract summary published on the Council’s website for public interest and engagement.

Mr. P. Williams sought clarification on the amendment of a performance indicator (PI).  Mr. Morris explained that this had been due to a flaw in Leisure data which was not significant and that further detail could be provided on request.

Councillor R.B. Jones asked if comparisons were made on how other Local Authorities measured outcomes against PIs.  Mr. Morris said that guidance was available based on definitions but there was still scope for interpretation.  As part of the WAO assessment, a sample of PIs were analysed based on knowledge of that Local Authority and those PIs which were in need of review.  Ms. A. Hughes of WAO explained that ten PIs had been assessed during the last year across North Wales Local Authorities.  In response to Councillor Jones’ query, she said that differences between Local Authorities could be due to local factors or the need to sharpen up definitions, however information was fed back to the Data Unit Wales to enable any underlying problems to be identified.

RESOLVED:

That the Council’s Improvement Assessment Letter received from the Auditor General for Wales be noted and the Council’s Cabinet response be agreed.