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The decisions as the council's minutes record them. A plain-language summary follows once it has been written.
RESOLVED:- That the Governance and Audit Committee Terms of Reference be noted.
RESOLVED: That the Work Programme be approved.
RESOLVED:- (i) That the Governance and Audit Committee considered the Audit Wales review attached at Appendix A. (ii) That the Governance and Audit Committee considered the response to the review’s recommendations at Appendix B
RESOLVED:- · That the GAC receive regular updates from the Chief Executive giving qualiatative evidence of the success of actions taken to address the the resultant Audit Wales planning report. · That access to relevant training for the GAC Lay members will be provided. · That the Chair of the Governance and Audit Committee will liaise with the Chair of the Democratic Services Committee regarding the issues raised at this GAC meeting. · That the Chair of the GAC will meet with the Chair of the Standards Committee and the Chief Officer for Customer and Governance to discuss the overall, responsibility for delivery of, and the engagement with matters arising from the Audit Wales report. · That the GAC will ensure that what has been reported and discussed at the GAC meeting will be raised at the Joint Training event with the Chairs of Scrutiny. · That the Governance and Audit Committee considered the Audit Wales review attached at Appendix A · That the Governance and Audit Committee considered the response to the review’s recommendations at Appendix B
RESOLVED:- That the Audit Wales Annual Audit Plan 2023-24 be noted.
RESOLVED: - That the Governance and Audit Committee considered the report and obtained satisfactory explanations regarding any areas of concern.
Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Becca Martin.
Matters Arising: Minute 35 - Chairs Statement regarding recent events printed and published in the local media: - The Chief Officer for Customer and Governance was not in a position to provide the judicial review briefing note at this point. Minute 36 – Minutes of the previous meeting - The Chief Officer for Governance and Customer, Chair of Governance and Audit Committee (GAC), Chair of Democratic Services, Workforce Development have met since the last GAC meeting in January and there were a number of actions taken forward. Where appropriate relevant actions will be reported back to the GAC and Democratic Services Committee. Minute 39 – Governance and Audit Committee Work Programme - The Workshop to cover the objective of the GAC Committee and their relationship with Scrutiny Committees has been scheduled. Minute 40 - Wrexham Council Self-Assessment:- The following was clarified: · The new Asset Management System was in place and no further work regarding the insurance element has been done as yet. · The Chair will have a discussion with the Chair of Democratic Services regarding the number of Children Service Committee Members that have attended mandatory training, especially safeguarding and will report back to Members. Minute 43:- Compliance with Local Code of Governance and Annual Governance Statement Action Plan Update:- · It was confirmed that the Council Plan had been adopted in December 2023. · Group Leaders have development with the WLGA and external support on Monday 12 February 2024. RESOLVED: - That the Minutes held on 23 November 2023 be signed as a correct record.
Councillors must say when they have a personal link to something being discussed, such as a job, a property or a family member. A prejudicial interest is one strong enough that the councillor usually leaves the room and takes no part.
Declarations are read from the minutes once they are published.
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Members were reminded of their responsibility under Paragraph 11 of the Members’ Code of Conduct, to declare the existence and nature of any personal interest in respect of any of the business to be transacted at this meeting. The following declarations were made:- Independent Lay Member Jerry O’Keeffe – personal and non-prejudicial – The independent Lay Member disclosed his interest to the Chief Officer for Governance and Customer. The independent Lay Member remained in the meeting taking part in the discussion and voting thereon. The Chief Officer for Governance and Customer confirmed that it was the responsibility of Members and Lay Members individually to make their declarations.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED:- That the Governance and Audit Committee Terms of Reference be noted.
The Chief Officer for Governance and Customer informed Members that the Governance and Audit Committee Terms of Reference was work in progress and will be reported to the Constitution Working Group and then to the Council. RESOLVED:- That the Governance and Audit Committee Terms of Reference be noted.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED: That the Work Programme be approved.
Members were informed that:- · It was confirmed that there had been delays in the audit process regarding the approval of the Statement of Accounts for 2022/23. · Members were assured that the Statement of Accounts 2023/24 was on schedule and will be reported at the July 2024 Committee meeting. RESOLVED: That the Work Programme be approved.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED:- (i) That the Governance and Audit Committee considered the Audit Wales review attached at Appendix A. (ii) That the Governance and Audit Committee considered the response to the review’s recommendations at Appendix B
The Chief Executive submitted a report (CE/01/24) that presented an account of external regulation and inspection received since the last summary report (September 21st 2023). The report will enable the Governance and Audit Committee (GAC) to fulfil its Terms of Reference in relation to considering an overview of reports issued by external regulators and inspectors so that it can ensure that the Council has provided an effective response to any relevant recommendations. The Head of Service, Performance, Improvement, Partnerships and Scrutiny introduced the report and highlighted the main points within it. Members asked a number of questions which were responded to accordingly, and the following points were highlighted during the detailed debate:- · It was confirmed that the Corporate Joint Committee (CJC) in North Wales had not yet appointed Lay members to their sub-committee. · A Member enquired about the following: a) If there had been an update regarding the formation of the Corporate Joint Committee in North Wales. b) Should each Council’s GAC have someone appointed to the CJC GAC? c) If the Committee needed to consider the governance implications of the CJC for Wrexham Council. · Members were informed that the Chief Executives and Leaders were in charge of the setting up of the CJC and at present there were financial implications that needed to be considered and resolved. · A Member suggested that a summary report regarding the current position of the CJC to be distributed to Members. · A Member enquired about the specified Scrutiny response turnaround time to the GAC because such delays could result in the GAC losing the opportunity of catching significant issues sooner before they evolved. · Scrutiny adhered to audit protocols that included regular scheduling of scrutiny meetings, joint workshops and chair intervention where relevant. · The Chief Officer for Social Services gave assurance that the training and supervisory issues raised in the inspection report on Wrexham County Borough Council Domiciliary Support Services were being addressed. · Members were informed that committee members at the Safeguarding, Communities and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee were satisfied with the Local Authority improvement check letter detailed in Appendix A1 of the report. · The improvements and recommendations relating to the ‘Cracks in the Foundations’- Building Safety in Wales detailed in Appendix A3 were mainly on track. · The Chief Officer for Economy and Planning informed Members regarding the expertise of the Department’s Building Control Manager and assured them that a succession plan was in place commencing from the junior level. · The new requirements for professional competence registry was considered to be one of the main risks and plans were in place to deal with it. · It was confirmed that the Organisational Development Workforce Strategy was currently being developed. · An explanation was provided regarding national and regional types of work carried out by Audit Wales. · The Chief Officer for Planning and Economy gave assurance that his Department was in pretty good shape and gave credit to the Building Control Manager and the Building Control team. RESOLVED:- (i) That the Governance and Audit Committee considered the Audit Wales review attached at Appendix A. (ii) That the Governance and Audit Committee considered the response to the review’s recommendations at Appendix B
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED:- · That the GAC receive regular updates from the Chief Executive giving qualiatative evidence of the success of actions taken to address the the resultant Audit Wales planning report. · That access to relevant training for the GAC Lay members will be provided. · That the Chair of the Governance and Audit Committee will liaise with the Chair of the Democratic Services Committee regarding the issues raised at this GAC meeting. · That the Chair of the GAC will meet with the Chair of the Standards Committee and the Chief Officer for Customer and Governance to discuss the overall, responsibility for delivery of, and the engagement with matters arising from the Audit Wales report. · That the GAC will ensure that what has been reported and discussed at the GAC meeting will be raised at the Joint Training event with the Chairs of Scrutiny. · That the Governance and Audit Committee considered the Audit Wales review attached at Appendix A · That the Governance and Audit Committee considered the response to the review’s recommendations at Appendix B
The Chief Executive submitted a report (CE/02/24) asking the Governance and Audit Committee to consider the Audit Wales ‘Review of governance arrangements with a specific focus on the Planning Service at Wrexham County Borough Council’. The Head of Service, Performance, Improvement, Partnerships and Scrutiny introduced the report and highlighted the relevant points within it. The Engagement Director for Audit Wales explained that the planning review was a change to the original scheduled one; where Audit Wales had planned to cover the Welsh Quality House Standards and that the Planning review had been included following discussions with the council. The Performance Lead for Audit Wales thanked the officers and Members who had been involved with the Audit Wales Planning review and provided them with more detail of what the review entailed, what was outside the scope and the key findings from it. In particular:- a) The ongoing delays in adopting key strategic documents had created significant risks for the council and relationships between some members and officers were fractured; and as a result, the Planning Service was hindered in fulfilling its role as a key enabler across the Council. b) The report presented three recommendations relating to: (i) Officer and Member relationships; (ii) Understanding roles and responsibilities; and (iii) Corporate risk management. c) It was explained that the report had been cleared by the Council for factual accuracy and that the purpose of the report was to allow the Governance & Audit Committee to meet Term of Reference (33) and to ensure that the Council has provided an effective response to the recommendations. Committee members considered the report and during the debate the following points were highlighted: · Concerns were raised regarding the recommendations 1, 2 and 3 where it was highlighted that there were no consequences resulting from behaviour issues and there were no sanctions imposed due to non-attendance of mandatory training or instances where a breach of the Code of Conduct could arise. · It was advised that should officers complain about bullying and harassment then they needed to be made more aware of the correct procedures and to be assured that if followed they would not experience any personal consequences to themselves; and that action should be taken against perpetrators if the investigation found culpability. · It was clarified that the role of Audit Wales was to review the process of the Council’s arrangements around its decision making. · The Council will have policies and procedures in place to address matters in relation to compliance with the Code of Conduct and what should happen if that Code was not followed. · The Legal Officer and other regulators will investigate Code of Conduct compliance issues. · It was not unusual for an officer to advise that a planning decision was not appropriate at a Planning Committee and if there were differences occurring between the Members and Officers then it would need to be raised with the relevant Officers involved. · The responses to the Audit Wales organisational response form has been considered and the response plan has been agreed internally by Wrexham Council. · The thoroughness of the actions and implementation of the recommendations raised within the Audit Wales planning review was the Council’s responsibility. · Audit Wales would verify if actions and responses to the recommendations were relevant and if there was an action owner allocated to the recommendations. · The GAC role was to ensure that response to the Audit Wales recommendations were adequate and on track. · During a previous GAC meeting a significant item had been raised regarding member conduct and that the mitigation actions centred on seminars and embedding ways of working values and behaviours. The Performance Audit Lead for Audit Wales confirmed that it would be the officers’ responsibility regarding the mitigated actions because it was part of their internal processes. · A Member acknowledged that all 56 members needed to take responsibility to improve the issues that had been raised within the report and that it will take a lot of work building relationships and to deliver on the recommendations. · Reference was made to point 19 of the report where it was apparent that some members were demonstrating a lack of understanding of planning issues. · There was no statutory data linked to the Local Development Plan (LDP). · Members were encouraged to attend the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) training covering Leading Good Governance and Assurance on 11th March 10.30am. · Transparency could be improved and Members were assured that the Development Management Department had procured and was in the process of installing new software which would enable all interested parties to download the details of all planning applications; which could have potentially caused a level of frustration to Members. · The Performance Audit Lead explained that: a) There were tools in place to deal with recommendations one and two of the report such as the Constitution which covered the Code of Conduct, policies and procedures. b) There were two key words in the report which were ‘adhere’ and ‘demonstrate’. c) The recommendation was demonstrating the adherence that was currently there and demonstrating the intent what was currently there as well. d) The current software was outdated and did not allow delegated planning decisions to be quickly published due to it involving significant manual work. · It was explained that the Development Control Management team were not withholding information. · The Development Management Control Department was carrying vacancies and this had affected the turnaround of some planning applications. · Members were assured that the issue regarding the inadequate planning software had been explained to the relevant Committee. · The findings and recommendations of Audit Wales’ report was disappointing however, these were concerns which been raised by GAC over the past several months. · The issues regarding the Local Development Plan (LDP) should be resolved because it has now been adopted. · GAC needed to be assured that: a) The Members training and workshops were effective. b) There was buy in from Members to address the issues raised within the report. c) Consequences should follow where processes were not followed. · A Lay Member enquired if they could attend Member training sessions. · There needed commitment from Members to attend the training with an open mind and commitment to listen to the advice given and implement action. · It was not uncommon in a planning committee setting for Members to have a different view to officers because it was a democratic viewpoint but where there was a distinction in respecting the advice and the technical guidance received from officers thee had to be planning reasons for doing so. · The Chief Executive provided an update regarding the work that has taken place regarding the Council’s response to the Audit Wales recommendations and will provide an update and evaluation on the progress made to the Committee. · Members were assured that the Council will undertake commissioning work in the autumn that would pick up the remaining gaps where the relationships between Members and Officers had not improved or not progressed · It was recognised that more work was to be done regarding the recommendations highlighted within the Audit Wales report. · New legislation has been introduced that puts a duty on group leaders and highlights how the internal protocols could be strengthened. · There needed to be a response from member group leaders to commit to the highlighted issues, address the values and behaviours and repair the fractured relations. · The values and behaviours workshop on Monday 11 March was for all group leaders and champions, groups and officers. · A Member highlighted some instances when members were not taking on board professional advice especially when there were inconsistencies regarding planning application decisions. · The Council had sought external support to embed the corporate values and behaviours across the organisation. In April 2023, the Council commissioned the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) to deliver officer and member sessions to facilitate this work. Despite this offer members declined some sessions. · Clarification was given regarding the instances where Members undermined professional officers and fractured relationships between Members and Officers. · A Member highlighted that committee members had a responsibility and duty to the community and wider areas to represent their views regarding planning applications. · There was an issue regarding the quality of training for members and the key was the provision of good training particularly for planning committee members. · It was advised that Group Leaders reviewed the memberships on committees to ensure that those members were fully committed to attend the relevant training and understood their role on those committees. · The Chief Officer for Economy and Planning highlighted that the critical point was the difference of the role of a Member who sat on the planning committee compared to being a local champion. · Members were fulfilling a judicial role on a Planning Committee and their role was to make a decision for the benefit of the County Borough as a whole. · The Leader explained that the Nolan principles had to be taken into consideration when making decisions and raised concern that some Members felt that they had not been listened to. There will be differences of opinion but it is how people act in those circumstances. · It was acknowledged that the training had to be improved and that proper processes had to be applied accordingly. · A Member highlighted that: a) It was fine to disagree with officers providing that the recommendations put forward were linked back to the material planning considerations and the reasons why the Members were not accepting officers’ recommendations. b) Officers’ decisions needed to be based on material planning considerations with relevant arguments put forward. · The Chair raised concerns regarding staff welfare when there were instances when they were being undermined on their professionalism. · The majority of committee members approved the recommended measures aimed at addressing the problems raised by Audit Wales. RESOLVED:- · That the GAC receive regular updates from the Chief Executive giving qualiatative evidence of the success of actions taken to address the the resultant Audit Wales planning report. · That access to relevant training for the GAC Lay members will be provided. · That the Chair of the Governance and Audit Committee will liaise with the Chair of the Democratic Services Committee regarding the issues raised at this GAC meeting. · That the Chair of the GAC will meet with the Chair of the Standards Committee and the Chief Officer for Customer and Governance to discuss the overall, responsibility for delivery of, and the engagement with matters arising from the Audit Wales report. · That the GAC will ensure that what has been reported and discussed at the GAC meeting will be raised at the Joint Training event with the Chairs of Scrutiny. · That the Governance and Audit Committee considered the Audit Wales review attached at Appendix A · That the Governance and Audit Committee considered the response to the review’s recommendations at Appendix B
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED:- That the Audit Wales Annual Audit Plan 2023-24 be noted.
The Engagement Director for Audit Wales introduced the report and highlighted the main points within it. Members considered the report and during debate the following points were highlighted: · The audit work was currently progressing and Audit Wales intend to present the audit of Financial Statements report 2022-23 at the next committee meeting. · A Member enquired about the increased Audit Wales fees for 2023/24 and requested a breakdown of the rates. · Members were informed that a fee scheme would be displayed on the Audit Wales website. · Members were assured that legislation would not allow Audit Wales to charge more than the full cost. RESOLVED:- That the Audit Wales Annual Audit Plan 2023-24 be noted.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED: - That the Governance and Audit Committee considered the report and obtained satisfactory explanations regarding any areas of concern.
The Chief Officer for Finance and ICT submitted a report (COFI/02/24) requesting that the Governance and Audit Committee would consider the Head of Service Audit and Technical’s Interim Report for April to January 2024. The Head of Service and Technical introduced the report and highlighted the main points within it. The following was discussed:- · That the number of audits scheduled within the audit plan for 2023 seemed to be on target and acknowledged that there were more audit reviews scheduled compared to the previous year. · It was identified that the payroll, creditors and procurement reviews were covering NFI matches instead of being part of the rolling programme. · Officers explained the reason behind changing the payroll, creditors and procurement audit reviews to cover NFI matches and gave assurance that a comprehensive approach would be applied to all of them. · The Driving at Work audit report, with target dates for responses to recommendations will be reported to the Executive Board on 20th February which formed part of the Council Wide fleet Strategy. · A Member highlighted that asset management was not listed in the Internal Audit Plan and enquired when that area was last reviewed. · Officers confirmed that the last asset management plan was carried out during 21/22. · The Head of Service for Internal Audit and Technical assured Members that there were a number of audits in progress but they were at various stages and that despite the current economic situation the resources for internal audit were sufficient. · The Internal Audit Department had the ability to buy in specialist resources, and there were no concerns regarding setting the internal audit plan. RESOLVED: - That the Governance and Audit Committee considered the report and obtained satisfactory explanations regarding any areas of concern.