Agenda item

To receive the minutes of the Corporate Governance Committee meeting held on 22 November 2023 (copy enclosed).

The minutes of the Governance and Audit Committee meeting held on the 22

November 2023 were presented for consideration.

 

Matters of accuracy –

 

Page 18 and 19 – Annual Corporate Health and Safety Report – The Chair stressed in future the report would be presented to the committee for information.

 

Matters arising –

 

The Chair informed Members he had received an email from Lay Member Nigel Rudd regarding the budget. He stated it was his intention to include as part of matters arising from the minutes.

 

Page 8 – Minutes – The Monitoring Officer confirmed he would arrange a meeting with the Chief Internal Officer before the next Annual Governance Statement.

 

Page 8 – Minutes – The Chair confirmed Scrutiny Chairs and Vice Chairs group would discuss shared prosperity and levelling up funding at the last meeting and it was decided a report would be presented to Performance Scrutiny for debate.

 

Page 9 – Minutes – The Monitoring Officer confirmed he had met with the Corporate Director: Social Services and Education regarding the Joint Inspection of Child Protection Arrangements. The letter has not been issued yet as a meeting with the regulators was arranged and a draft letter would be drafted following that meeting.

 

Page 10 - Corporate Risk Register: September 2023 Review – The Chair conformed an information report on the Risk Register would be presented to the Committee at the June meeting. The Chair informed the Committee he had met with the Lead Member and Officers to discuss what the Committee had requested and it was confirmed the guidance had been updated to reflect the Governance and Audit Committee’s role in relation to risk management. It was also suggested a workshop specific to risk in the summer 2024. He stated he had discussed with the officers the committee’s suggestion to receive a report quarterly. Officers confirmed it would look at the proposal and discussed with the Corporate Executive Team in March.

 

Page 11 – Budget Process Update – The Chair confirmed the role of the committee was not about the benefits of negatives of savings, it was for Members to receive assurance the process for the authority to balance its revenue budget for the future years. It was stressed Members agreed to receive budget process updates in June and November annually.

The Head of Finance provided a verbal update on the budget process. She informed the committee the full budget proposals were presented to Full Council for approval. The estimated level of pressures, the cost to provide services in 2024/25 compared to 2023/24 in total came to £24.5 million. Details of how that pressure would be met were provided to the committee. The net budget moved from £251 million to £265 million in 2023/24. There was no planned use of reserves in how the authority balanced the budget although details were provided of plans to use reserves to fund certain schemes.

Councillor Ellis and the Head of Finance highlighted the risks to Full Council. It was stressed it was a high level of savings that was needed to be found. It was made clear that tracking of those savings would be essential and reporting to Members through a variety of meetings.

It was also stressed at Full Council were the authority was in proposing the £3million savings requested to be proposed by Heads of Service. It was emphasised the difficulty in forecasting the pressures for the coming year in demand and inflation.

The Chief Internal Auditor confirmed he had met with the Corporate Executive Team and the Section 151 regularly over recent months to discuss plans going forward. He had proposed to meet with all Heads of Service to discuss budget pressures, identify areas for savings and report back to the Section 151 officer in the coming months. He informed Members finance officers would track the budget with internal audit officers testing the process in place for each of the systems. The audit work proposed would be completed throughout the year with certain audits taking place at the beginning of the year.

The Head of Finance proposed to bring a report to the Committee in April on the tracking process along with an outline of the budget strategy.

 

Lay Member Nigel Rudd, stated what he expected in relation to the budget process strategy going forward. In his opinion he would like to see a report back to Governance and Audit Committee on a stress test on the budget and the budget process. Within that report he would expect to see the 6 points identified by CIPFA on reasons why local authorities fail in section 114. Mr Rudd provided a brief summary of the 6 points; 1- over ambitious savings, 2 – lack of a medium term financial plan, 3- leadership, 4- inadequate governance, 5 – weak financial management and 6 – lack of reserves.

All these points had been identified in connection with section 114 authorities.

He also suggested other points to the proposed report include the use of the risk register to inform thinking explicitly in terms of high corporate risk. He agreed there had to be further information on the tracking of savings in line with proposals made by Heads of Service. He also suggested contacting Arlingclose for an opinion on the treasury management implications of the capital programme as projected going forward.

He suggested an update to the exit scheme would be beneficial in that report. providing details of how that scheme was progressing. He stressed the importance of separating cost savings with fees and charges generating income. He stressed the importance of looking at council tax increases and comparing to what was occurring elsewhere in Wales.

Another area suggested that needed Governance and Audit’s views was business rates. It was suggested better communication with businesses and knowledge on what the business rates were used for would benefit the authority and the businesses.   

Mr Rudd concluded by stating in his opinion he felt the terms of reference for Governance and Audit Committee, Council and Scrutiny Committees in sync. He stressed the need for Members to understand the requirements of each committee and what was expected from Members of committees.  

 

The Lead Member thanked the Lay Member for his detailed questions and comments raised. She stressed a discussion with Head of Finance would need to take place to discuss the points raised. She stated last year the council tax had been set under the same understanding to balance the budget.

The Head of Finance thanked the Member for the comments. She agreed that some of the elements of the comments raised would be beneficial for the committee to receive in particular the CIPFA points around section 114.  A number of the aspects raised needed further discussion and review. The March committee meeting deadlines may be too ambitious to address the concerns raised. The Head of Finance suggested a verbal update on the progress in March with a more formal paper presented to the committee at the April meeting.

 

The Monitoring Officer confirmed he would take away the meeting schedule for the next cycle of meetings to review if the ordering of meetings needs to adjusted. It was the discretion of the Chair as to when to discuss the concerns raised by any Members of the Governance and Audit committee when he is made aware of any issues or concerns.

 

The Chair confirmed the Audit Wales timetable would be discussed under the Forward Work Programme agenda item.

 

RESOLVED, subject to the above that the minutes of the Governance and Audit committee held on 22 November 2023 be received and approved as a correct record.