Agenda and minutes
PDF 376 KBVenue: Town Hall, Bootle
Contact: Ruth Appleby Democratic Services Officer
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Apologies for absence Minutes: An apology for absence was received from Councillor Cluskey.
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Declarations of Interest Members are requested at a meeting where a disclosable pecuniary interest or personal interest arises, which is not already included in their Register of Members' Interests, todeclare any interests that relate to an item on the agenda.
Where a Member discloses a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest, he/she must withdraw from the meeting room, including from the public gallery, during the whole consideration of any item of business in which he/she has an interest, except where he/she is permitted to remain as a result of a grant of a dispensation.
Where a Member discloses a personal interest he/she must seek advice from the Monitoring Officer or staff member representing the Monitoring Officer to determine whether the Member should withdraw from the meeting room, including from the public gallery, during the whole consideration of any item of business in which he/she has an interest or whether the Member can remain in the meeting or remain in the meeting and vote on the relevant decision.
Minutes: No declarations of any disclosable pecuniary interests or personal interests were received.
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Minutes of the meeting held on 25 May 2022 Minutes: RESOLVED:
That the minutes of the meeting of the Audit and Governance Committee held on 25 May 2022, be confirmed as a correct record.
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Constitutional Amendment – Cabinet Agendas Report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services Additional documents:
Minutes: The Committee considered the report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services which outlined a request by Councillor Sir Ron Watson that the Constitution to be amended to (i) remove the power of the Leader of the Council to veto formal requests by elected members for items to be included on the Cabinet agenda; (ii) remove the discretion of the Leader to limit the number of such items to be considered per Cabinet meeting, as set out in Chapter 5 paragraph 82 of the Constitution; and (iii) that a criteria for submission be established which would enable elected members to have items placed on the Cabinet agenda provided they fulfil the requirements set out in the criteria.
The report recommended that
(1) Council be requested to give approval for:
(2) subject to approval of (1) above, the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services be requested to submit a further report setting out the proposed required criteria for approval of elected member submission of items on Cabinet agendas.
Following long debate, the Chair officiated a vote and declared that the recommendations set out in the report be not approved by 6 votes against the recommendations and 2 votes for the recommendations.
RESOLVED: That
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Constitution Amendments Report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services Additional documents:
Minutes: The Committee considered the report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services which recommended updates to the Council’s Constitution.
The Chief Legal and Democratic Officer & Monitoring Officer presented the report requesting that the Overview and Scrutiny Protocol attached as Appendix A to the report, endorsed by Cabinet on 3 December 2020, be included in Chapter 6 of the Constitution; that a review of the Protocol for the Relationship Between Members and Officers (Appendix B) had been undertaken and required approval for inclusion in the Constitution; and a review of the Constitution had highlighted an inconsistency as outlined in paragraph 4 of the report.
Members of the Committee asked questions/commented on the following matters:
Appendix A – Executive /Scrutiny Protocol
1. Functions of Overview and Scrutiny. A request was made for the Executive / Scrutiny Protocol to be amended to include a recommendation that Chairs of Overview and Scrutiny Committees should not be Members of the majority political group; also, that to facilitate effective scrutiny, any restricted papers provided to Cabinet should also be made available to members of Overview and Scrutiny Committees.
Appendix B - Protocol for the Relationship Between Members and Officers
2. Public Relations and Press Releases – a request was made for elected Members to be given 48 hours advance notice of press releases except where immediate response is required.
3. Use of Council Resources – It was indicated that the community role of Councillors often involved requests for help by residents in matters that were not the direct responsibility of the Council and requested that a paragraph providing clarification on this be included in the Member/Officer Protocol.
RESOLVED: That
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Annual Report and Opinion of the Chief Internal Auditor Report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee considered the report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services summarising the work of internal audit during 2021/22 and providing the Chief Internal Auditor’s opinion on the overall control environment operating within the Council during the year.
The Chief Internal Auditor presented the report, indicating that this report was a key requirement of the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards. The report outlined that the opinion for the 2021/22 financial year was adequate with adequate prospects for improvement.
Questions and issues were raised on the following matters: Cherry House Children’s Home – request for a financial update; Staff Sickness absence levels; Member Development – clarification on designation of ‘mandatory’ courses; Commercial Development - Sandway Homes – lack of transparency and issues around governance arrangements; and delivery of the Audit Plan.
RESOLVED: That
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Treasury Management Position to May 2022 Report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services Minutes: The Committee considered the report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services which provided a review of the Treasury Management activities undertaken to 31 May 2022.
This was the first ongoing quarterly monitoring report provided to Audit and Governance Committee, whose role it was to carry out scrutiny of treasury management policies and practices.
RESOLVED: That
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Assurance Framework Report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee considered the report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services on a proposed Sefton Assurance Framework. A copy of the proposed framework was attached as an appendix to the report.
The Chief Internal Auditor presented the report indicating that the Assurance Framework provided a structured means of identifying and mapping the main sources of assurance in an organisation and co-ordinating them to best effect to help ensure that the Council’s Strategic Objectives were achieved.
A question was raised about two national climate change emergency reports provided to the House of Commons regarding the Climate Change Act objectives for 2050.
RESOLVED: That
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Corporate Risk Management 1. Report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services
2. Presentation by the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services on ‘Inflation Risk Facing the Council’. Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee considered the report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services which provided an update on the Corporate Risk Register.
The Chief Internal Auditor presented the report indicating that the ownership of the content of the Corporate Risk Register lay with the Strategic Leadership Board and that since the last meeting there had been two new risks in respect of Cost of Living and the ability to recruit to the current workforce structures added to the CRR and following the Children’s Services inspection by Ofsted, the four children’s risks had been comprehensively reviewed and updated. No risks had been de-escalated from the Corporate Risk Register to the Service Risk Registers.
The risks had been re-scored in accordance with the revised assessment guidance included in the Corporate Risk Management handbook which had been approved by the Committee in December 2020. The updating of the Corporate Risk Handbook due to be completed in June 2022 would now take place in September 2022 following the risk appetite work.
The Chief Internal Auditor indicated that although there had been substantial work undertaken over the past six years to embed risk management across the Council, further work was needed to be done to ensure that it was consistently and effectively embedded. Meetings had been held with Officers and Members to develop the Council’s Risk Appetite and it was proposed that the formal draft definition of the Council risk appetite would be drafted in June and refined before being provided to the Audit and Governance Committee in September 2022.
The Committee received a briefing by the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services on ‘Inflation Risk Facing the Council’ and the measures in place to mitigate the risk.
Questions / issues were raised on the following risks set out in the report:
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Financial Management Code Report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services Additional documents: Minutes: The Committee considered the report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services which reported that the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) had issued a Financial Management (FM) Code which aimed to ensure a high standard of financial management in local authorities.
The report indicated that an assessment of the Council’s current compliance with the code together with an action plan for improvement had been reported to Audit and Governance in March 2021.
The Service Manager – Finance presented the report and indicated that many areas of good practice in financial management were highlighted within the compliance assessment and the purpose of the report was to provide an update on progress in implementing the action plan for further improvements and also to identify additional actions to further improve compliance.
RESOLVED: That
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Risk and Audit Service Performance Report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services Additional documents: Minutes:
The Committee considered the report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services providing details of the performance and key activities of the Risk and Audit Service for the period 7 March 2022 to 6 June 2022.
The Chief Internal Auditor presented the report.
A question was raised about renewal of the Council’s insurance policy factoring in Sefton New Directions, Sandway Homes and Sefton Hospitality.
RESOLVED: That
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