Agenda item

To consider a report by the Strategic Planning and Performance Officer (copy attached) to provide end of year analysis of progress and challenges with key performance objectives.

 

The Lead Member for Finance, Performance and Strategic Assets, Councillor Gwyneth Ellis, introduced the report (previously circulated).

 

Regular monitoring of performance had been monitored and quarterly reports were taken to Scrutiny and Cabinet meetings. 

 

The Executive summary together with the covering report provided an evaluative statement of progress.

 

Feedback was sought on the content of the draft reports attached at Appendix I and II prior to the report being submitted to Council in July for approval.

 

For clarification - the report had been submitted to GAC as good practice and enabled GAC to recommend any changes to the report prior to Council in July 2024.  If any of the recommendations from GAC were not incorporated then the reasoning why would need to be included within the final Performance Self-Assessment report. 

 

The Panel Pier Assessment which happens once every political terms, was the report that GAC would receive which included the response from Cabinet.  GAC’s role in the Self-Assessment was to review the report and make any recommendations upon it where necessary.  GAC had the same powers with the Panel Pier Assessment report.

 

Nigel Rudd asked officers if the methodology of reporting like this a requirement of the legislation or was it a practiced approach which had been adopted by performance staff across various authorities.  How much scope was there as to how these type of matters were reported?   There had been an issue of repetition throughout parts of the report.  As a public body the report needs to be available in a way that members and members of the public can easily understand the information provided.

 

Officers responded that it had been an evolving report and had been developing the reports over many years as a team.  An effort was made to reduce the narrative within the report but at the same time a balanced picture needed to be presented so were responding to expectations from the regulators both internal and external,  The Well-being Future Generations Office looks at the report, the Equality Human Rights Commission also looks at the report.  Because of the legislation, the report needed to satisfy at least three Acts. 

 

The Chair requested that the comments regarding the report be taken back as a comment from GAC.

 

Officers clarified that additional improvement activity which had been added which was to keep Corporate Plan commitments and performance expectations under continual review.    In February, the Corporate Plan was revised to try and address this issue which it had to a certain extent.   What the Corporate Plan attempts to do is huge in scope, so it is challenging. 

 

The Monitoring Officer informed GAC that there was a large amount of work which went into the report and officers worked very hard on it.  The feedback will be taken on board.

 

 

Appendix 1 –

 

Page 29 of the Agenda Pack – Equality and Diversity –Had the training taken place and had it been included in the Annual Governance Statement which was to be presented at the next meeting?

 

Members were surveyed to seek their views on mandatory and non-mandatory training and the results were presented at Democratic Services Committee and as part of that it was recommended to make Equality and other training mandatory.  The paper would then be presented to Council  containing those recommendations. 

 

It was confirmed that members of the Strategic Equalities and Diversity Group had all received training from the WLGA in April.    The report eluded to all members and lay members receiving the mandatory training.

 

Page 31 – How Well Are We Doing.  Clarification was sought as to the Well Run High Performing Council Board, and what status it had, and who were the members.

 

Officers clarified that the Well Run High Performing Council Board had been established when looking at the governance arrangements in place for the Corporate Plan.   The Corporate Plan theme being around a well run high performing Council was to embed values and principles as an organisation.   It was recognised that there was not a body looking at that so the Board was established in October 2023 chaired by Councillor Gwyneth Ellis.  The Chief Executive, Graham Boase, was the officer lead and Heads of Service.  It is a key programme Board for delivery of the Corporate Plan and meets every 3 months. 

 

The Well Run High Performing Council Board reports to CET and Cabinet.  The Board takes on a slightly different approach to other Boards in that it was offered up to all staff who might be interested in sitting on the Board.   There were people with no managerial responsibility or people with middle management responsibility who are on the Board on an equal footing. 

 

Page 31 – Recruitment and Retention.  It was queried if there were issues with recruitment and retention of staff in the governance functions of the council for example, legal, HR, finance, internal audit, procurement, business improvement, planning and performance, ICT, and asset management. 

 

It was explained that the report covered the financial year 2023/24 so whilst decisions might have been made on voluntary exits, the staff would not have left the employ of the council until this financial year (2024/25).  This would be assessed more fully in the first 6 months reporting. 

 

Every Head of Service was mindful of the issue with recruitment and retention of staff.  Good governance was in place for vacancy control forms, business case and impact and same across budget saving suggestions.  There was a Well-being Impact Assessment which was being looked at from the perspective of staff currently and would continue to be assessed.  It was a risk in the Corporate Risk Register. 

 

It was confirmed that Emma Horan was working with HR to look at the impact of the budget savings, budget proposals etc., and the voluntary exit scheme.  CET were also mindful of the impact on particular areas.

 

Legal and Procurement were not currently carrying vacancies, they were fully staffed.  Services were taking more innovative ways forward. 

 

Page 34 – A Greener Denbighshire.  In the previous report the status had been “good” (yellow), this report status of acceptable was taking into account some of the challenges.  The theme was not just focussed on achieving net zero, it was a much wider theme so that overall status took into account many other projects. 

 

Page 35 – Corporate Planning.  No mention in this section of project and programme management or of counter-fraud.  Counter-fraud had been mentioned in the Self-Assessment report last year. 

 

Project Management would usually be included in the Performance Management section of the report.  The lack of comment would be because there was nothing to say.  It had been commented upon extensively within the report regarding programme changes particularly around the governance of the Corporate Plan so there are references to how the Boards have changed.  

 

There is also a specific measure under the Well Run Council theme regarding the Project Management which does monitor quality of information received. 

 

Counter-fraud.  The Monitoring Officer confirmed the organisation was very aware of the risk of fraud which is why it was on the Corporate Risk Register.   There is a Counter-fraud strategy and ensure checks were carried out during the recruitment process.  Controls are in place, but never complacent. 

 

Page 36 – Financial Planning and Performance Management.  There had been a change in the way information had been presented in particular Budget with staff engagement.  The council had made a significant shift in how it addressed the financial challenges going forward.  Positive comments needed to be strengthened in this area to reflect the work carried out by the Councillor Gwyneth Ellis, SLT and particularly Liz Thomas.

 

Officers responded that it would be difficult to comment without evidence.  There was to be a report by Audit Wales on the council’s sustainability and that could be the opportunity to improve the positive comments as suggested.

 

 

Appendix 2 –

 

Page 71 - The percentage of schools in the county using the Public Health Wales All School approach to Mental Health and Well-being Tool.  It is benchmarked locally but want to know why all schools are not using this tool?

 

It was a relatively new tool for schools and was an improving trend.  It was confirmed that if further clarification was required, Education Services could be consulted.

 

Page 109 – Statement of Accounts.  The statement of accounts were to be put before GAC in September 2024 and not in the spring of 2024 as statement in the report.

 

Page 109 – Stakeholder Survey.  It was clarified that the Stakeholder Survey was carried out annually and this year ran from September 2023 to February 2024.  It was open to the public, shared with businesses, trade unions, partners, and town and community councils.  It was governed by the list of required stakeholders under the Local Government and Elections Wales Act which determined who the Survey could be shared with. 

 

Appendix 3 –

 

Page 123 – Regeneration of Town Plans.  This was service specific and not one officers could give a response to and would find out the information and inform members following the meeting but to let GAC know that it was governed by grants and Welsh Government funded.  This had probably been the cause for any delays.

 

Page 122/123 – Planning, Public Protection and Countryside Services collaboration and partnership work.  Nigel Rudd had raised during the budget process about raising planning fees in Wales given that the planning fees had increased in England.  This was an opportunity under partnership and collaboration work that there are collaborative efforts being made across Wales in order to generate revenue.  It was hoped that exercise would be adopted as a matter of course when looking at collaboration. 

 

Officers confirmed that that particular action from the Service Challenge would be borne out of a particular conversation, specifically about specifically ecological work.  Other collaborative efforts were being looked into but the particular action in the report related to a particular challenge which came out of the Performance Challenge.  The suggestion made could be put forward to the Head of Service as expect he would be looking at fees and charges across the board.  Emlyn Jones, Head of Service was to be requested to respond to Nigel Rudd outside the meeting.

 

 

Appendix 4 –

 

How was the appointment of the Panel members undertaken and confirmed.  Iolo McGregor confirmed he would be meeting with the co-ordinator of WLGA imminently to look at the initial Panel makeup and that would then be put forward to Cabinet as they had the responsibility under the constitution to appoint the Panel.  Officers had fed in to the WLGA their preference that panellists do have a firm grasp and understanding of local government in Wales.  

 

Nigel Rudd requested clarification of the role of GAC in considering the report, still not convinced having heard your exchange that officers have a definitive role on that and I would welcome a formal view on that from the Monitoring Officer outside the meeting so we do understand the role of GAC clearly in connection with the way they receive this report within the council. 

 

Page 133 stated Panel report would be put before GAC in November 2024 and that would be the opportunity for the Committee to review the report made by the Panel, the response made by Cabinet and for GAC to make their recommendations upon it which would go forward to Council in January 2025. 

 

RESOLVED that the Governance and Audit Committee –

(i)            Considered the reports and agreed actions required to respond to any performance related issues highlighted within the reports.

(ii)          Reflect on key messages arising from the Self-Assessment and provided feedback on the draft scape for the Panel Performance Assessment contained in Appendix 4.