Issue - meetings

To consider a report by the Corporate Improvement Team Manager (copy attached) which presents the Improvement Assessment Letter for Denbighshire County Council, issued by the Welsh Audit Office (WAO).

                                                                                                         10.05 a.m.

A copy of a report by the Corporate Improvement Manager had been circulated with the papers for the meeting.

The Corporate Improvement Manager (CIM) introduced the report which presented the Improvement Assessment Letter for Denbighshire County Council, Appendix 1, issued by the Wales Audit Office (WAO) on the 17^th September, 2012.  The letter was one of the key external regulatory reports received by the Council each year, and this would enable the Performance Scrutiny Committee to carry out its performance management function. 

The Improvement Assessment was the main mechanism for the WAO to report its assessment of the Council’s performance and prospects for improvement.  Although there were no formal recommendations in the letter, Members were provided with an opportunity for discussion in order to decide whether any particular aspects of performance referenced in the letter required further scrutiny. Members agreed that the next Improvement Assessment Letter, due to be issued by the WAO before the end of November 2012, be included in the Committee’s Forward Work Programme for consideration on the 10^th January 2013.

Mr Gwilym Bury, the representative from the Wales Audit Office, provided a summary of the detail contained in the letter and highlighted the proposals for improvement made in the Annual Improvement Report 2012.  He made particular reference to the work to be undertaken on the Annual Governance Statement, and the relevance of the Strategic Review in respect of the Rhyl Going Forward delivery plan. 

He explained that a key element of the information considered by the WAO was the Council’s performance in relation to delivering the priorities in its Corporate Plan.  The WAO was required to formally assess the Council’s Annual Performance Report and its Corporate Plan.  Neither document had been available for assessment prior to the publication of the Improvement Assessment Letter, as the draft versions of both documents had been discussed and approved by Council on the 9^th October, 2012.  The WAO would therefore include an evaluation of both documents in its Improvement Assessment Update Letter which was due to be published before the end of November, 2012. 

Mr Bury explained that the WAO had undertaken a number of interviews with relevant officers and elected members prior to drafting the Improvement Assessment Letter.  The draft report had been shared with the Council, and feedback had been requested prior to publication.

The Chair commented on the positive assessment given in the letter and following further discussion, it was:-

RESOLVED – that Performance Scrutiny Committee:-

(a)   receives and notes the contents of the Improvement Assessment Letter, and

(b)   agrees that the next WAO Improvement Assessment Letter be included in the Committee’s Forward Work Programme for the 10^th January 2013.