Agenda item

Annual Governance Statement 2019/20

Decision:

That the Annual Governance Statement 2019/20 includes the commitment to increase Member involvement from next year, and be endorsed and attached to the Statement of Accounts for adoption.

Minutes:

The Chief Executive presented the Annual Government Statement (AGS) 2019/20 to accompany the Statement of Accounts.  The report set out the process for preparing the AGS and the intended approach which was not possible due to the national emergency.  The report also indicated that Audit Committee Member participation would be an integral part of the 2020/21 process.

 

The Chief Executive spoke about the importance of the AGS in helping to manage risks year on year by taking mitigating actions to address significant strategic issues.  Examples were the increase in residential care capacity to manage the crisis, support given to rough sleepers and the Council’s ability to set a balanced budget despite the challenges.

 

In response to a question from Councillor Johnson on reviewing mitigating actions to respond to the national emergency, the Chief Executive acknowledged that impacts on 2020/21 would be significant, for example on challenging debt levels for Council Tax and rent arrears.  He said that the Council’s Recovery Strategy would be recommended to the cross-party Member Recovery Board seeking agreement that Overview & Scrutiny committees meet at the end of September to assess the impacts across all portfolios and mitigating actions.

 

Sally Ellis asked that the AGS reflect the commitment for more Member involvement on the AGS which had not been possible during the crisis.  The Chief Executive agreed and said that the process and timescale to enable this engagement in Quarter 4 would be shared with the Committee during the Autumn.

 

In response to questions on outcomes from the crisis, the Chief Executive said that work on the risk approach was well advanced with quality, comprehensive risk assessments to aid risk mitigation and help manage the emergency.  The six recovery risk registers supposed by business plans would be shared with the Committee following the meeting.  The Principal Auditor spoke about the benefits of effective working relationships with performance and risk teams with clearly defined roles and responsibilities.  On the need for a balance between reactive and preventative actions to respond to significant events, officers said that the resilience of Business Continuity Plans - including a ‘dry run’ of testing for a pandemic scenario in the previous year - as part of the regional Emergency Planning service had useful in preparing for the challenge.

 

Allan Rainford asked about independent verification of areas of effectiveness in the Council’s governance framework.  The Chief Executive spoke about the Council’s track record on implementing feedback from peer challenges, as regularly reported to the Committee.  He highlighted regional partnership working which had been a particular strength of the Council for some time, evidenced in regulatory reports from partners such as Audit Wales, Estyn and Care Inspectorate Wales.  The Council’s lead role in implementing the North Wales Test Trace Protect (TTP) scheme had been recognised as good practice exemplar by Welsh Government.

 

The recommendation was moved and seconded by Councillor Dunbobbin and Sally Ellis.

 

RESOLVED:

 

That the Annual Governance Statement 2019/20 includes the commitment to increase Member involvement from next year, and be endorsed and attached to the Statement of Accounts for adoption.

Supporting documents: