Issue - meetings

Report of the Director of Corporate Services

The interim Head of Audit and Financial Services asked Members to approve the Annual Governance Statement 2018-19 which forms part of the Annual Accounts and is overseen by the external auditor.  Following approval by the Audit and Standards Committee, the Statement was required to be signed off by the Chief Executive and the Leader of the Council. 

The Statement followed the same format as in 2017-18. It had been prepared in line with guidance issued by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) and the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers (SOLACE). The document described what the Council was responsible for; the aim of the governance framework; the governance framework; a review of how effective the Council’s governance framework is and significant governance issues. Annex 1 to the Statement reproduced “The Annual Review of the Effectiveness of the Governance Framework including the system of internal control – 2018-19”. 

Details of the way in which the Annual Governance Statement had been prepared were detailed in the report.  Six key questions had been agreed and approved by the Corporate Governance Group to act as a guide on what constituted a significant governance issue to inform the completion of the 2018-19 statement.  These were detailed in paragraph 7 of the Statement. 

Details were given of the arrangements for monitoring and evaluation of the Statement.  The annual review of effectiveness was explained and attached to the Statement.  This explained the key governance issues and actions taken to complete them against the Code of Corporate Governance and Annual Review.  Some governance issues in the 2017-18 Statement were ongoing and had been carried forward into the 2018-19 Statement. The interim Chief Internal Auditor’s Annual Report had given an adequate assurance opinion on the overall control environment and this had been reported to the June meeting of the Committee.  An unqualified opinion had been given by the external auditor in 2017-18.  The external auditor had indicated their intention to give a qualified opinion by exception, based on the SEND Ofsted report that had been received in November 2018. 

As reported to the Committee as part of the Annual Outturn Report the Council has an effective system of internal audit; during 2018-19 the Monitoring Officer and the Chief Finance Officer have not had to use their official powers; the Council has effective processes in place and scrutiny arrangements that reflected the Council’s key priorities; Children’s Services maintained a ‘Good’ rating from Ofsted; there was positive feedback regarding the Council’s governance processes from the Peer Challenge in September 2018; an Action Plan in regard to SEND had been put in place and would be overseen by the Families Strategic Partnership Board; the Audit and Standards Committee had received an Annual Report on the management of elected member related complaints and ‘unconscious bias’ training had been arranged for Members.  Moving forward detailed Member Code of Conduct reports would be included where appropriate. Finally, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman did uphold a complaint regarding  ...  view the full minutes text for item 92