Issue - meetings

Annual Governance Statement Action Plan Update

Purpose:

This report provides the Audit and Governance Committee with a progress update against the Annual Governance Action plan for 2024/25

Recommendation:

That the Audit and Governance Committee resolves to:

1. Note the progress update against the Annual Governance Action Plan 2024/25.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The purpose of the report was to provide the Audit and Governance Committee with a progress update against the Annual Governance Statement Action Plan for 2024/25

The Director of Governance and Regulatory Services and Monitoring Officer, introduced the report highlighting that:

The Annual Governance Statement Action Plan had been brought forward in June 2024 and had identified nine areas of focus for 2024/25.
Good progress had been made in all areas of focus.
Those areas of focus that were completed in the year included new service delivery models. The models included phase one of the Publica transition that had involved bringing back services into the Council. It was noted that the Constitution had been updated to reflect the changes, and phase two of the Publica transition had now been approved with a transfer date of 1 July 2025. The review of the Audit and Governance Committee had taken place and the Committee should be reviewed again in June 2025; one year on from the implementation of changes.
Those areas of focus where the plan was on track to be completed by the end of March 2025 were noted as: Freedom of Information, where response times had been reviewed. The complaints process, where the Local Government Ombudsman’s advice had been followed to move from a three stage complaints process to two stage process effective from 1 April 2025.
Those areas that were off target for completion but where actions were being taken to ensure delivery were noted as:
- Emergency planning, which had been moved back into the Authority and, from 1 April 2025, a duty rota and rest and response teams would be in place. Employees who held a role in Emergency Planning had all been trained.
- The work on emergency planning had meant that the review of Business Continuity had been held over into the following year.
- Risk Management had seen a new Risk Register come forward to the Committee, however the Risk Maturity Self-assessment still had to be completed and would be held over to the following year.
- The Financial Procedures review would be submitted to the Constitution Working Group and Council for approval in the next few months.
- It was noted that the implementation of the Action Plan in the area of Procurement had been delayed by the implementation of the Procurement Act 2023, and had meant that training would now take place in quarter one of the new Financial Year.
The Annual Governance Statement would look back at the previous year and identify new issues that needed to be added.

In discussion the Committee clarified the function of the Risk Maturity Self-Assessment. It was noted that this was in the Audit Plan for next year. Regarding the off-target areas of focus it was noted that it had been hoped that the actions would be completed by 31 March 2025, and as such these areas would be carried forward with more specific dates for completion in the new plan.

The Chair proposed noting the progress update against the ... view the full minutes text for item 51

Issue - meetings

Annual Governance Statement Action Plan Update

Meeting: 27/03/2025 - Audit and Governance Committee (Item 51)

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