Agenda item

To receive a report by the Strategic Planning and Performance Team Leader (copy attached) seeking recommendations from Governance and Audit committee to County Council on the necessary changes to the Constitution, accommodating new arrangements for the Panel Performance Assessment required under the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021.

The Monitoring Officer introduced Helen Vaughan-Evans the newly appointed Head of Service for Corporate Support, Performance, Digital and Assets along with Iolo McGregor the Strategic Planning & Performance Team Leader.

The Chair welcomed officers to the meeting.

The Head of Service for Corporate Support, Performance, Digital and Assets thanked the Chair and Monitoring officer for the introduction. She along with the Strategic Planning and Performance Team Leader introduced the report (previously circulated). Members heard the report was seeking Members support for the necessary changes to the Constitution, accommodating new

arrangements for the Panel Performance Assessment required by the Local

Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021.

Officers confirmed they had awaited the guidance from WLGA prior to attending the Committee. The report had been to allow members to view the proposed steps and discuss any concerns. The legislation in its flexibility left the authority in a quandary in that it allowed a level of choice to be made in the constitution. He guided members to the detail proposed for the process to follow. The process suggested was consistent with the processes currently in place such as planning policies or budgetary decisions that being it would be the executive that would have overall sight of how the process was taken forward. It was felt appropriate that Governance and Audit Committee provided a steer on the direction of the scoping work prior to a panel being convened. The legislation stated it would be for the Governance and Audit Committee to receive the report received from the panel to discuss and give recommendations.

The Legislation stated who was required to sit on the panel details of which had been included for member’s information.   

The Chair thanked the officers for the detailed report and introduction.

At this point Lay Member Nigel Rudd tendered a personal declaration as he

 was a member of the Conwy County Borough Council Governance and Audit Committee.

Officers responded to questions regarding various aspects of the report, as follows –

·         The Legislation dictated that the panel had to perform at least once during an administration. Prior to the new Legislation, corporate assessments were undertaken by Wales Audit previously every five years. The reason also may be the amount of work involved in completing a panel performance assessment. The peer assessment was conducted annually.

·         Members felt following the guidance and services set by WLGA would be beneficial.

·         Members were pleased to note the particular reference to business community was an important role in the process.

·         Light touch conversations with WLGA to express the authority’s intentions for the timing to conduct the assessment. No feedback to suggest that would be an issue had been received back.

·         The improvement team had a single point of contact in the council who was nominated to assist with co-ordination, that liaison point for the authority would be the performance team.

·         During the week of field work, regular feedback would be provided to the contact team in the authority this would support the accuracy of the process. The authority had a 10-day window to respond to any inaccuracies within the report. The formal report after the previous processes would be provided to the Governance and Audit Committee for discussion. Members heard at that juncture Members would also have sight to the manager’s response to report which would include an actioned timetable with a timescale of actions to be completed.  

·         Officers stated they were trying to avoid the situation of receiving the assessment too late to work with. It was hoped that the assessment could be completed late summer into the autumn of next year.

·         Members stressed the importance of having a range of individuals involved in the discussion. Resources to engage with the diverse population would be required. Timing of the work would have an impact on the amount of resources available from officers. Officers stressed if the authority were to follow the WLGA model, it would be there officers to implement and would not cause an additional cost to the authority.

The Chair thanked the officers for the detailed discussion and response to members questions.

It was,

RESOLVED, That Governance and Audit Committee considered the proposal outlined in paragraph 4.6 of the report and recommend a change to the constitution for County Council approval on November 14.