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The decisions as the council's minutes record them. A plain-language summary follows once it has been written.
RESOLVED: - I) That the Committee accepted this report as an update with regards to the outcome of CIW’s Performance Evaluation Inspection of Wrexham Social Services held in June 2022. II) That the Committee supported maintaining the work of the Accelerated Improvement Board in Children’s Service, whilst expanding its scope to include a focus on improvement areas in Adults Services with Improving Access to Services being the core goal of this work. III) That the Committee supported the current board to become the Social Care Improvement Board from the Autumn 2022.
RESOLVED:- i) That the Governance and Audit Committee considered the information included with this report to determine that the Council’s complaint management was compliant with all requirements and was effective in addressing customer concerns. ii) Agreed with the Complaints Lead what additional information was required for consideration by the Governance and Audit Committee.
RESOLVED – That the Work Programme be approved
RESOLVED – That the Governance and Audit Committee Terms of Reference be noted.
RESOLVED:- i) That Governance and Audit Committee reviewed the draft Self-Assessment Report. ii) That Governance and Audit Committee did not make any recommendations for changes to the Self-Assessment conclusions or actions.
Apologies for absence were submitted on behalf of Councillor Dana Davies, Paul Roberts and Jeremy Newton.
There were no declarations of interest.
During discussion Members highlighted the following points for accuracy: Item 29 Governance and Audit Committee Development Programme 2022/23- It was confirmed that Lay members will have access to the intranet at the end of this Committee meeting. Item 30 – Internal Audit Interim Report April – August 2022 To change substantial to substantive to the following sentence: A Member enquired about the degree of testing controls for the two major financial systems. It was confirmed that an Auditor carried the substantial tests on site. Item 31 - Any other items which the Chair decides are urgent To include values in the following sentence: A Member requested that the Chief Officer Finance and ICT to provide a report on the volume of Waivers and values. Matters arising:- The Chief Officer for Finance and ICT will circulate the remaining responses raised at the previous meeting to Committee Members. RESOLVED – That the minutes of the Meeting held on Monday, 21 November 2022 be signed as a correct record.
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Decision as recorded
RESOLVED: - I) That the Committee accepted this report as an update with regards to the outcome of CIW’s Performance Evaluation Inspection of Wrexham Social Services held in June 2022. II) That the Committee supported maintaining the work of the Accelerated Improvement Board in Children’s Service, whilst expanding its scope to include a focus on improvement areas in Adults Services with Improving Access to Services being the core goal of this work. III) That the Committee supported the current board to become the Social Care Improvement Board from the Autumn 2022.
The Lead Member for Adult Social Care, Councillor John Pritchard and Councillor Rob Walsh – Lead Member for Children’s Services submitted a joint report to provide Members with an update of the outcome of a Performance Evaluation Inspection of Social Care Services by Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW) in June 2022. The Lead Members in turn presented their areas of responsibility within the report and responded to questions accordingly. A detailed discussion ensued and the following points were raised: · In terms of governance Social Care Services had a Social Care Improvement Board where regular feedback on performance indicators and the set targets were reported back to them. · The Chief Officer Social Care explained that there were some levels of immaturity within the Social Care workforce because there was a requirement to recruit more permanent Social Workers that would require support and supervision at the beginning of their work journey. · Performance monitoring was carried out on a regular basis both to the Social Care Improvement Board and also to the Safeguarding, Communities and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee where they received a yearly report and regular feedback. · Overall the Social Care Inspection report provided a positive and constructive reflection of the work of the council at both officer and member level in Social Services in Wrexham. · Members were assured that there were Key performance indicators across the board in Children’s Service. · Key performance Indicators within Adult Social Care required developing and this issue will be addressed and measured in the New Year. · There were KPI’s that related to when the children had been seen by a Social Worker and the KPI’s included timeliness of assessments. · The Adult Social Care Service were currently developing KPI’s around access to service. · The KPI’s that were recently reported at the recent Safeguarding Communities and Wellbeing Scrutiny meeting will be provided to Members for information. · It was confirmed that there was a Lead Member who was a Member of the Social Care Improvement Board. · The Chief Officer Social Care explained the meaning of professional curiosity to Members. · Social Care Services would meet the criteria for Improving the skills of existing staff and professional curiosity by: a) Providing their Care staff with detailed inductions, training programmes around safeguarding and regular ongoing supervision. b) Working with colleagues within the training Department and providing departmental training where there were areas of concern. For example, the voice of the child. · Members highlighted that they were pleased to see the compliments about the Care staff within the report. · Care Staff dealt with a number of job related pressures and Members were assured that the Social Care Services would provide purposed supervision to support Care Staff where necessary. · There may be instances where there have been national and difficult stories advertised in the media and when this occurs the Social Care staff will hold debrief and well-being sessions to assist workers on how to deal with their feelings. · It was confirmed that the Care Inspectorate for Wales Inspection was a planned visit and that the inspection applied to all of the other authorities across Wales and the UK. · The Chief Officer for Social Care informed Members that Social Services were part of a national voice and that he was a member of the Directors of Association for Wales. Discussions were taking place on a regular basis regarding how to deal with the shortage of staff and the retention of existing staff. These issues have been escalated to Welsh Government Officials. · The Social Care Department offer Social Worker training schemes and will support up to eight trainee Social Workers each year. There was strong evidence that if Local Authorities supported trainee Social Workers then it was highly likely they would stay within the Service they were trained up in. · The Lead Member for Adult Social Care and the Lead Member for Children’s Services met regularly at a national level with other Lead Members throughout Wales to discuss the similar issues that the Social Care Service face at the time. · The Lead Member for Children’s Service has met with the Welsh Minister and has made him aware of the issues faced by the Social Care Service in Wrexham. · The priority for Social Care service was to recruit and to promote a stable work force because a stable work force would deliver better outcomes and that it was not always about the money it was also about professional ownership, capability and visibility of managerial change. RESOLVED: - I) That the Committee accepted this report as an update with regards to the outcome of CIW’s Performance Evaluation Inspection of Wrexham Social Services held in June 2022. II) That the Committee supported maintaining the work of the Accelerated Improvement Board in Children’s Service, whilst expanding its scope to include a focus on improvement areas in Adults Services with Improving Access to Services being the core goal of this work. III) That the Committee supported the current board to become the Social Care Improvement Board from the Autumn 2022.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED:- i) That the Governance and Audit Committee considered the information included with this report to determine that the Council’s complaint management was compliant with all requirements and was effective in addressing customer concerns. ii) Agreed with the Complaints Lead what additional information was required for consideration by the Governance and Audit Committee.
The Chief Officer for Governance and Customer submitted a report (COGC/105/22) that provided the Governance and Audit Committee (GAC) with an overview of the Councils processes and reporting procedures in relation to complaints to enable the GAC members to determine what information they required annually to meet their responsibilities in respect of the GAC Terms of Reference. The Corporate and Statutory Complaints Manager introduced the report and informed the Members that the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2011, as amended by The Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 had a revised requirement to include within the terms of reference arrangements for handling complaints, the GAC’s terms of reference were updated in May 2021. The process in which the Council deals with complaints was set out in the Corporate & Statutory Complaints Policy (Appendix 1) and the policy has been confirmed as being compliant with national standards by the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales (Appendix 2). The following was discussed: · That the Council followed the processes outlined within the Public Services Ombudsman’s for Wales Policy model. · The initial report of a missed bin collection was not considered through the Complaints Procedure. · It was only when there were instances of repeated missed bin collection failures and a subsequent informal complaint investigation by the Department where it still failed to be resolved then the issue would be escalated as a formal complaint. · The Contact Centre processed 6579 missed waste collection reports within 2020/21. Given the unique nature of the waste services if the number of complaints had been incorporated in with the rest of the figures then those missed waste collection reports would overwhelm the complaint reporting of remainder of the services. · The Council will signpost members of the public to ensure that any issues raised by them will go via the relevant processes. · The Ombudsman provided the Council with an ‘annual letter’ which contained a breakdown of her involvement during the year in complaints made concerning the Council. A report on this was presented to the Executive Board (8 November 2022) and the Governance & Audit Committee (21 November 2022), as per the requirements set out by the Ombudsman. · Wrexham County Borough Council was the second highest Local Authority in Wales where the Ombudsman had received complaints. · The Corporate and Statutory Complaints Manager assured Members that: a) Out of the total number of complaints received by the Ombudsman there were only four instances where the Ombudsman had intervened and concluded early resolution or voluntary settlement resulting in a low intervention level. b) There was nothing specific highlighted in the Ombudsman’s letter itself and the resultant complaint figures showed that Wrexham Council was open and transparent when they received and dealt with their complaints. · It was explained that the Ombudsman will receive a report from Wrexham Council that details the amount of complaints received and their outcomes on a quarterly basis. The Ombudsman will publish these details quarterly and annually where they can be compared across Wales. · Complaints were deemed as learning lessons and needed to be addressed so that improvements could be made. · The Ombudsman’s letter was addressed to the Leader of the Council to form a response and the letter had been shared with the Executive Board and the Governance and Audit Committee. · In future the Complaints Report will be reported to the Governance and Audit Committee prior to the Executive Board. · It was the first year that a Complaints report has been presented to this Committee and the Corporate and Statutory Complaints Manager enquired if there was any other information that the Members would like to receive. · Members were assured that the Complaints Team liaised with senior managers regularly within each Department in relation to complaint management to identify areas for improvement. · A Member advised that the following to be included within future complaint reports to the GAC Committee: a) Details of any significant non- compliance with processes across the Council; b) Trends or types of complaints that may have failure in management control e.g. staffing issues. c) Relevant independent opinions on the complaints process received from internal or external audit or inspections. · The Ombudsman had received a high number of code of conduct complaints across Wales but nothing particular had been identified for Wrexham Council. · The Head of Standards has offered to meet with Wrexham Council should it be required. · The Code of Conduct complaints were the responsibility of the Monitoring Officer who was the Chief Officer for Governance and Customer and the Officer also attended the Standards Committee meetings. · Members were informed about the process when complaints were raised by Community and County Councillors and how they were currently captured. · There were instances where Councillors would raise issues with Officers direct and it was highlighted that these needed to be documented, audit trailed and provided with relevant training so that Officers could log any issues raised from Councillors. · It was advised that Members needed to be encouraged to go through the Contact Centre when they raised issues so that performance could be captured and it would enable an interface between the complaints and the Council’s complaint standard processes. · The Corporate and Statutory Complaints Manager explained to Members: a) At what point in the complaints process when the Complaints team would be involved in dealing with a complaint; b) How a complaint would be triaged and how the ombudsman would obtain assurance on how the Council dealt with a complaint. · It was confirmed complaints data would be benchmarked in the near future. · Complaint reports relating to the customer wait times for the Councils telephone service discussed. It was confirmed that there were no complaint reports generated for this element but there were reports on customer call centre wait time. · It was acknowledged that no Member of the Public should have to wait a significant amount of time to speak to someone from the Contact Centre. · Members were informed that there was an online Myaccount where Members of the Public could contact the Council but this was not compulsory. · A complaint report has recently been presented to the Customer Performance Scrutiny Committee. · A Member requested a covering report that detailed: a) A comparison of complaints year on year to be compiled in future. b) Complaint subjects that would enable the complaint issues to be assessed accordingly. · It was confirmed that the Housing and Environment Departments received the majority of complaints and that housing repairs and housing lists were the most significant areas where complaints had been raised. · Members acknowledged: a) That the Complaints Department had limited resources and were congratulated on how the turnaround of complaints had been dealt with. b) The amount of compliments that had been received by Wrexham Council were positively acknowledged by the Members of the Governance and Audit Committee. · The complaints report was a source of evidence that was referenced throughout the Self-Assessment report and that the Self-Assessment Report included within this Agenda covered the period ending March 2022. RESOLVED:- i) That the Governance and Audit Committee considered the information included with this report to determine that the Council’s complaint management was compliant with all requirements and was effective in addressing customer concerns. ii) Agreed with the Complaints Lead what additional information was required for consideration by the Governance and Audit Committee.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED – That the Work Programme be approved
The Head of Service Audit and Technical presented the Governance and Audit Committee Work Programme and highlighted the following: · That there will be an additional Committee meeting taking place on 19th January 2023 and the main Item on the Agenda will be the Statement of Accounts. · A half hour training session on the new Internal Audit Planning Methodology system will take place before the January 2023 Committee meeting. · The two items scheduled for the Committee meeting in March 2023 will be rescheduled to the February 2023 meeting. · The new CIPFA guidance that focuses on the assessment of the Governance and Audit Committee and its self-effectiveness have been received. A two hour hybrid session will be arranged for the Members of the Committee to cover this element. RESOLVED – That the Work Programme be approved
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED – That the Governance and Audit Committee Terms of Reference be noted.
The Terms of Reference was submitted for information. RESOLVED – That the Governance and Audit Committee Terms of Reference be noted.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED:- i) That Governance and Audit Committee reviewed the draft Self-Assessment Report. ii) That Governance and Audit Committee did not make any recommendations for changes to the Self-Assessment conclusions or actions.
The Chief Executive submitted a report (CE/59/22) that informed Members that: · It was Wrexham Council’s first draft Self-Assessment Report as required by the Local Government & Elections (Wales) Act 2021. · It met the Act’s requirement for the Council’s Governance & Audit Committee to receive the Self-Assessment Report prior to it being finalised and published. The Head of Service Performance Improvement Scrutiny and Partnerships presented the report and highlighted the main points within it. A detailed discussion ensued and the following points were raised: · It was agreed that it would be beneficial for the draft Self-Assessment Report conclusions to be available to Members of the Committee earlier in the process, so that they would have more time to review it thoroughly. · A new Corporate Performance and Risk Management System was currently being procured and was expected to be in place for reporting from Quarter 1 2023/24. It was agreed that Members of the Committee will be given half hour training on this new system at the Committees prior to its introduction. · A Member enquired if the Council could afford to maintain its assets and their asset values effectively. The Chief Officer Finance and ICT informed Members that a new Corporate Land & Buildings strategy was under development and this Strategy would set the council’s approach. · Officers confirmed that recruitment and retention of the procurement team against the backdrop of a competitive employment market was not unique to Wrexham Council but that the workforce challenges have been effectively managed and that two new procurement officers have recently been recruited. · Members discussed the introduction of the new procurement reforms that included the emphasis on social value and the prioritisation of carbon reduction. · The Head of Service Performance Improvement Scrutiny and Partnerships informed Members that work was underway to redefine performance indicators in relation to decarbonisation, and that the work in the new Council Plan (2023-28) would incorporate social value and decarbonisation.: · It was explained that the self-assessment review, reflected ongoing engagement with the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) and our external regulators, such as Audit Wales. · The Audit Lead for Audit Wales explained that the Auditor General did not have specific duties in the self-assessment process (compared with previous duties around the council’s performance reporting) and that whilst Audit Wales would not contribute directly to the self-assessment review, it was expected that Audit Wales’ and External Regulators’ work would inform the Self-Assessment. · It was noted that the legislation required that once every five years, an independent panel will be set up to carry out an independent peer review on Wrexham Council’s Self-Assessment. The WLGA had estimated the cost for carrying out such a review as £20k. WLGA was leading on the approach to be taken in relation to facilitating peer reviews for all 22 Local Authorities, and it was anticipated that the review will commence next year. The Chair suggested that it would be beneficial for Wrexham to undergo an external peer review early in the 5 years, and that if there was a pilot exercise, it would be in Wrexham’s interest to take part. · The Chair noted the comments of the Customers, Performance, Resources and Scrutiny Committee, which had considered the draft report on 17th November and requested that in future there been sufficient time allowed between scrutiny and GAC to enable the full account of the scrutiny to be included in the GAC report to reduce duplication. · A Member enquired if there would be an element of challenge within the Phase 1 initial assessment review (April-August) and it was confirmed that this initial challenge involved Chief Officers, officers, Head of Internal Audit, Chief Officer Finance & ICT, the Chief Executive and the Monitoring Officer. · It was confirmed that there were elements of funding via the procurement activities and there were grants to fund specific projects but there was not a fully funded envelope of money to address the carbon neutral and Social value costs within Wrexham Councils Budget. RESOLVED:- i) That Governance and Audit Committee reviewed the draft Self-Assessment Report. ii) That Governance and Audit Committee did not make any recommendations for changes to the Self-Assessment conclusions or actions.