Agenda and draft minutes
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APOLOGIES Minutes: Apologies were received from Councillors Joe Welch and Martyn Holland. |
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DECLARATION OF INTERESTS PDF 116 KB Members to declare any personal or prejudicial interests in any business identified to be considered at this meeting. Minutes: Councillor Barry Mellor declared a prejudicial interest in agenda item 13, Councillor Alan James would chair the item in his absence . |
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URGENT MATTERS Notice of items, which in the opinion of the Chair should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency pursuant to Section 100B(4) of the Local Government Act 1972. Minutes: None. |
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To receive the minutes of the Corporate Governance Committee meeting held on 8 July 2020 (copy enclosed). Minutes: The minutes
of the Corporate Governance and Audit Committee meeting held on 9 September
2020 were submitted Point of accuracy – Councillor
Julian Hill highlighted that he was not noted as being present in the previous
meeting. RESOLVED
that the minutes of
the meeting held on 9 September 2020 be received and confirmed as a correct
record. |
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TACKLING CLIMATE AND ECOLOGICAL CHANGE IN COUNCIL DECISION MAKING PDF 205 KB To receive a report by the Climate Change Programme Manager on the proposed amendments to the Council’s Constitution to support the Council in having regard to tackling climate and ecological change when making decisions (copy attached).
Additional documents: Minutes: The Climate Change Programme Manager (CCPM) presented
the having regard to tackling climate and ecological change in Council decision
making report (previously circulated) alongside Councillor Graham Timms. The report
was about the amendments proposed to the Council’s Constitution to support the
Council in having regard to tackling climate and ecological change when making
decisions. The amendments proposed to
the Council’s
Constitution and supporting
documents and processes and the timeline for implementing these changes, if
approved by Full Council, including the roll out of Carbon Literacy Training. Councillor Graham
Timms, thanked for the opportunity to speak the project has been ongoing for
year, and there was a political union with the project, which was good and its
good the matter has not been politicized. It was
highlighted that it was a real pleasure to read the wellbeing form, as
something in each field indicated how the proposed changed would affect the
Council but also be beneficial to residents within Denbighshire, the whole life
cost of the project was a good term to be used. An investment in
Carbon Literacy Training was proposed for all Councillors and key officers to
support them in enacting the principals of decision making as amended having
regard to tackling climate and ecological change. This would be an accredited
1- day training course with providers being able to deliver it remotely on an
online video conference platform. It was intended that the procurement process
for this training would start in September and training undertaken throughout
autumn and winter. The proposals was
supported by all lead members and Cabinet, and many members of the public. General Debate – ·
Member
praised the report and the intentions for tackling climate change and thanked
the officers for the all the hard work which was involved, good to see real
change which would happen with the report. However highlighted that the Welsh
Language needed to be remembered within the work, and not just noted. It was
also raised how the Council would ensure those that rural communities, and
elderly people who can’t digital access were not losing out with the projects.
Officers responded stating that there was a rural connectivity project was
ongoing this would hopefully would include all with the digital side of the
project. ·
The
Local Development Plan was raised, and whether land which had been designated
on flood plains, should we not revisit, the LDP to ensure that land designated
for development on flood plains should be withdrawn. The officer informed the
committee that they had been invited to the Special Planning Group (SPG) to
discuss climate change and the LDP. ·
Member
queried with the officers, whether these changes were implemented would there
be an impact on planning committee, The monitoring officer responded the change
would be to the constitution which would change the principle of the framework
for the Council, whilst we can change the constitution, the law would prevail
whether there was conflict between the both. With planning it would not change
how the committee would deal with the matter. RESOLVED
that Corporate Governance and Audit Committee recommend approval to Full Council to amend
Section 13.2 of the Council’s Constitution- Principals of Decision Making to include an additional bullet point
under “All decisions of the Council will be made in accordance with
the following principles” with
the following wording: “having regard to tackling climate and
ecological change”. |
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CORPORATE HEALTH AND SAFETY ANNUAL REPORT PDF 21 KB To receive a report by the Corporate Health and Safety Manager on the health and safety management within Denbighshire County Council during 2019-2020 (copy attached). Additional documents:
Minutes: The Lead member for Finance, Performance and Strategic Assets presented the Annual Health and Safety Report (previously circulated). The Lead Member stated the overall assessment for the health and safety team had been given medium assurance, with a good history of health and safety works in Denbighshire. The Corporate Health and Safety Manager (CHSM) guided members through the Annual Health and Safety report, members were informed that the whistleblowing issue had been discussed thoroughly and good practices had been developed since. Since March 2020
the Covid – 19 pandemic has driven the organisation to operate in a different
way with much more focus on providing essential services in a “Covid secure”
way and working from home. DCC responded rapidly to government regulations and
guidance. Risk assessments
and safe working procedures were developed as soon as practicable and reflect
the rapidly changing position. DCC’s approach to managing the risk from Covid –
19 is assessed as high assurance The accident \
incident count for the year shows an increased level of accident reports over
previous years. This increase is due to the drive to improve accident reporting
rather than the superficial indication of an increased accident rate. Throughout
the financial year 2019\2020 and to date, a number of our RIDDOR incidents were
formally investigated by the HSE. In all but one case the HSE were satisfied
with the response they received from DCC and took no action. In one case where
there was an asbestos
release the HSE imposed a “Fee for Intervention” of £123. The identified
“Material Breach” that caused
this has since been rectified by
the housing management team. General Debate – · Members praised a further and informative report, it was queried whether there was a list of properties with asbestos present. Officers responded that each building had two asbestos surveys carried out, however problems would arise as sometimes asbestos would be discovered where it was not meant to be. · The committee queried why PPE and whether it comes under the remit of the Corporate Health and Safety team, it was confirmed that the procurement and management was not dealt with by the Health and Safety team. · Members were reassured that the Council had a good amount of PPE whether the need would increase once again. RESOLVED
that, the Corporate Governance Committee receive the report, note its contents
and endorse the Corporate Health and Safety team Work plan for 2019/20. |
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FIRE SAFETY ANNUAL REPORT PDF 111 KB To receive a report from the Property Health & Safety
Manager on the work carried out on the annual
work on Fire Safety programme and performance (copy attached). Additional documents: Minutes: The Lead
member for Finance, Performance and Strategic Assets presented the Fire Safety
Annual Report (previously circulated) the report aimed to brief the committee on
the Property Health and Safety Team’s annual work on Fire Safety
programme and performance and to provide an insight into the work planned for
the remainder of 2020\2021. At the
beginning of the 19/20 financial year it was decided to appoint a Fire Safety
Manager in order to address the limitations identified in the Fire Risk Assessments
which were being undertaken. Historically these had been divided into 2
separate elements: ·
Property
– Undertaken within the Assets Team, and including a review of fire safety
equipment and servicing. ·
Management
– Undertaken by the Corporate Health & Safety (CH&S) Team and including
fire safety processes, training of staff and record keeping. Following an
internal audit, it was determined that this was not sufficient and a more
consolidated approach recommended. As a result, the lead officer for Strategic
Assets, decided to create a dedicated role in order to address this issue,
initially on a secondment, this role was made permanent in December 2019. From
the beginning of financial year 19/20 all FRA’s produced incorporated both
elements. General Debate – Members
queried with officers whether the pandemic had caused a delay with the FRA’s,
especially within schools, officers responded stating hopefully the FRA’s in
schools would increase over September and October. RESOLVED that the Corporate Governance and Audit Committee receive the Fire
Safety Annual report and note its content |
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DENBIGHSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE: FINANCIAL STRATEGY PDF 353 KB To receive a report by the Head of Finance and Property to update Corporate Governance and Audit Committee on the progress of the Financial Strategy recovery theme as set out in the ‘Denbighshire County Council Coronavirus Response: Planning for Recovery’ report agreed by SLT and Cabinet (copy attached) Additional documents:
Minutes: The Lead member for
Finance, Performance and Strategic Assets presented the Denbighshire County
Council Coronavirus Response: Financial Strategy report (previously circulated)
updating the committee on the progress of the Financial Strategy
recovery theme as set out in the ‘Denbighshire County Council Coronavirus
Response: Planning for Recovery’ report agreed by SLT and Cabinet. A net increase of
£2.1 million in Council expenditure was anticipated for the quarter to the end
of June as a result of the COVID19 impact, with additional expenditure of £2.8
million for the period up to the end of June, alongside a decrease in
expenditure of £747k over the same period. There was a more
dramatic impact on the Council’s income, with income losses of £6.3 million
forecast for the same period, the largest impact of £2.22 million on
Denbighshire Leisure Limited, £649k School Meals, £498k Parking and £403k for
loss of income for industrial units etc. The expectation was
that DCC would receive funding from the Welsh Government to fund the additional
expenditure, but there were no firm announcements yet in terms of funding the
loss of income. The budget for the next financial year was
behind due to COVID, the draft timetable within the pack for liable to change
due to external factors There were
multiple unknowns, they were not aware of what the settlement would be, waiting
for the WLGA to give the information who was waiting for the information from
UK government. Due to this all possibilities were being looked at, hopefully in
December the settlement would give us an insight for three years which could
give us DCC some flexibility. General
Debate – ·
The
committee praised the officers for the report especially in these difficult
times, the committee queried whether the grants implemented by DCC did they
cause any additional financial strain. It was also queried the deficit of what
was paid out was it covered up DCC’s budget. Concerns were also raised with the
lack of elected members being on the budget boards which were being formed. ·
Responding
officers clarified was a mixture of grants the expenditure grants, there were
grants to pay for additional costs. The grants generally covered the costs
which were incurred by the Council. Q1 WG paid most of the money, the amount
held back were due to queries about certain matters, and these matters were
being discussed. The costs of
COVID were reducing at the moment. The savings which were being sought were
efficiencies, not all savings could be done with the reduction within the proposed
4% cuts. ·
The
Lead member for Finance, Performance and Strategic Assets responded in regards
to the finance board queries, the boards have no formal decision making powers,
and the purpose was for senior members of staff to receive guidance for
decisions which would then be approved in accordance with the democratic
methods. RESOLVED that the Corporate Governance and Audit Committee receive the
Denbighshire County Council Coronavirus Response: Financial Strategy report and
note its content |
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APPROVAL OF THE STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS 2019/20 PDF 323 KB To receive a report by the Head of Finance and Property on the approve the statement
of accounts and ensure that it complies with approved accounting standards
(copy attached). Additional documents:
Minutes: The Lead
member for Finance, Performance and Strategic Assets presented The Statement of Accounts 2019/20 (previously
circulated) for approval the
council has a statutory duty to produce a statement of accounts that complies with
approved accounting standards. The audited accounts have to be formally
approved by elected members on behalf of the council. The
financial statements for 2019/20 were approved, subject to audit, by the Head
of Finance on 15th June (3rd June last year). The draft accounts were presented
to Corporate Governance Committee on 8th July
2020 and were open to public inspection from 3rd August to 28th August. These dates were later than usual due to the current
restrictions related to COVID 19. The Accounts and Audit Regulations require
that the Council formally approves the audited accounts, containing the external
auditor’s opinion, by 15th September. The approval of the audited accounts has been delegated to the Corporate
Governance and Audit Committee. The Statement
of Accounts was produced in compliance with the International Financial
Reporting Standards (IFRS). The Chartered Institute of Public Finance &
Accountancy (CIPFA) produces the IFRS based Code of Practice on Local Authority
Accounting and the council has produced the 2019/20 accounts in compliance with
the Code. General Debate – ·
The
committee queried with officers which areas within the Council which were worst
affected by the pandemic. The officers clarified social services in particular
have had a big hit and stressed the capacity, the council continued paying
social care providers to ensure they were kept afloat during the pandemic. ·
The
committee were also informed that during the first quarter school transport
were still being paid although schools were closed, this was to ensure that
when schools were to reopen the companies were still available. ·
The
committee questioned the reliance on using Excel spreadsheet for the asset
register. Responding officers clarified that DCC were trying to procure a new
IT system, and was due to be finalised however it was currently paused and
being reviewed. RESOLVED
that Corporate Governance and Audit Committee approve the Statement of
Accounts 2019/20 (see Appendix 1). At the meeting, the Chair and Chief Finance
Officer will be required to sign the Accounts and the Letter of Representation. |
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AUDIT ENQUIRIES 2019/20 PDF 120 KB To receive a report by the Head of Finance and Property to introduce the Audit Enquiries Letter and the
Council’s response to those enquiries (copy attached). Additional documents:
Minutes: The Wales Audit office, officers presented the Audit Enquiries 2019/20 report (previously circulated) the report aimed to introduce the Audit Enquiries Letter and the Council’s response to those enquiries. Wales Audit Office (WAO), as DCC’s appointed external auditors, have a duty to obtain evidence of how management and those charged with governance (in DCC this was the Corporate Governance and Audit Committee) were discharging their responsibilities for preventing and detecting fraud. Officers apologised for the delay with presenting the report. The officers informed the committee if they had any queries in regards to the report they could email the Head of Finance and Property. RESOLVED that the Chair
of the Corporate Governance Committee formally confirms the responses included
in Appendix 1 to the report. |
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SIRO REPORT - FOR INFORMATION PDF 460 KB For members to receive the SIRO report for information and noting (copy attached). Minutes: The Business
Information Team Manager introduced the SIRO report for 2019/20 (previously
circulated) The report covers the period April 2019 to March 2020 and details
breaches of the data protection act by the Council that have been subject to investigation
by the Senior Information Risk Officer (SIRO – in DCC this is the Head of
Business Improvement and Modernisation). It
also covers complaints about the Council relating to Freedom of Information
legislation that have been referred to the Office of the Information
Commissioner (ICO), and provides some information about the Access to
Information/FOI requests made to the Council. General Debate – ·
Members were glad to receive the report for information
purposes, the committee queried the 11 upheld complains within the report. The
monitoring officer responded that there had been 12 breaches, there had been
only one major breach which had been disclosed to the ICO. It was also
clarified that the term
complaint it’s an expression of dissatisfaction. RESOLVED
that the Corporate
Governance and Audit Committee note the Siro Report. |
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CORPORATE GOVERNANCE COMMITTEE WORK PROGRAMME PDF 262 KB To consider the committee’s forward work programme (copy enclosed). Minutes: The Corporate Governance and Audit committee’s Forward Work Programme (FWP) was presented for consideration (previously circulated). The committee requested that Schools in financial difficulties be included on the Forward Work Programme, the committee agreed for the item to be discussed in the New Year. The Head of Legal, HR and Democratic Services informed the committee that the FWP was not dated too far to the future as the future meeting dates had not been agreed in full Council. RESOLVED
that Corporate
Governance and Audit Committee’s forward work programme be noted. EXCLUSION OF PRESS AND PUBLIC RESOLVED that under Section 100A of the Local
Government Act 1972, the Press be excluded from the meeting for the following
item of business on the grounds that it would involve the likely disclosure of
exempt information as defined in Paragraph 14 and 16 of Part 4 of Schedule 12A
of the Act. |
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INTERNAL AUDIT OF ST ASAPH VP INFANTS SCHOOL To receive a report by the Chief Internal Auditor providing details of a recent Internal Audit
report of St Asaph VP Infants School that received a ‘Low’ assurance rating. Minutes: The Chief Internal
Auditor presented the Internal Audit of St Asaph VP Infants School (previously
circulated) the report provided details of a recent Internal Audit report of St
Asaph VP Infants School that received a ‘Low’ assurance rating. The review was
carried out following concerns raised, this was doing alongside governance of
schools. The review covered the following: (a) School governance arrangements; (b) Controls and procedures; and (c) Management of the voluntary school fund
account. The
review discovered the following - ·
School governors that were interviewed
expressed that they had not received appropriate support and advice when they
initially took up their role. Governors have not engaged with the Local
Education Authority (LEA) and, in some instances, they had not completed the
mandatory training for their role. ·
The terms of reference for the Full Governing
Body (FGB) and the individual sub-committees were either several years out of
date or not available. This was a major issue as terms of reference outline how
the FGB and each subcommittee would operate and, therefore, needed to be in
place and reviewed and updated on an annual basis. ·
Minutes for the FGB meetings were brief and
lacked key information. Audit could not find evidence that key documents or the
delegated budget had been approved. ·
Two governors had been in post for over 12
months and had not completed all the statutory training. If a governor has not
completed all the statutory training within 12 months, then the chair of
governors should suspend the governor until they complete the outstanding
training. Audit’s
overall opinion was that the school’s governance arrangements were weak,
administration arrangements were limited and controls around the school fund
account need to be improved. There is very little evidence to show that the
School Governing Body had challenged decisions at meetings, and governors state
that they are not fully aware of their roles and responsibilities. Therefore,
audit gave a low assurance overall. The committee were
informed the review was carried out some time ago there was an Estyn investigation
carried out following the internal audit. The committee were assured that
following the audit the school had progressed and had drastically improved. The committee
praised the report and highlighted how some changes within smaller schools could
have a large impact. They highlighted that certain smaller schools were at a
risk due to size and capacity. The Lead Member for
Education, Children’s Services and Public Engagement stated it
was a good audit which was carried out enabled a good action plan which enabled
the issues to be resolved. The committee wanted to know what was happening with the school and
action plan, there have been verbal assurances that the actions had been completed,
however suggested follow up report including the action plan be produced in the
new year. RESOLVED that
(a) Corporate
Governance & Audit Committee note the Internal Audit of St Asaph VP Infants
School (b) A follow
up report be brought back to the Committee in the New Year. |