Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

No declarations of interest were made by Members.

No members of the public were present.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on the 15^th December 2016 were confirmed.

We noted the Action List from the meeting held on the 15^th December 2016.  In doing so, the following points were noted:

·         Overview of Performance Management Arrangements: A progress report on improvement objectives will be presented in 6-12 months.

·         Youth services: It was noted that a response had been circulated clarifying that there had been a misunderstanding regarding a reduction in funding from Welsh Government (WG).

It was observed that the response referred to a full business case on how to maintain youth services for the future with community focus and queried if Audit Committee should look at the business case. The Chief Officer for Innovation and Enterprise responded that the business case is part of a comprehensive restructure and a report in the wider context of the whole directorate is due; a report, detailing the Youth Service element of the review, will be presented to Committee.

In response to a question, it was confirmed that all youth centres are under review, including The Zone in Caldicot.  Feedback suggests that single facilities are not valued by young people and it was added that the Aspire project, run in the Leisure Centre, is well attended and has better integration.  A Member asked what would happen to The Zone and the £70,000 WG grant to provide the facility. It was responded that this aspect will be part of the review and conclusions will be presented to Cabinet.  The Youth Service elements will be reported to this Committee when the business plan is finalised, particularly including budgets and outturns.

A further question was asked about timescales and it was confirmed that outline proposals will be available in March for decision making with more details after May 2017.

·         Roger Edwards Trust: It was reported that the Trust hasn’t met since the last meeting.   In the meantime, it has been confirmed that cheques are not released until the end of the year, when the accounts are published. The Trust will consider the request to release cheques earlier. 

·         Zero hours contracts: It was confirmed that a letter had been sent to County Councillor F. Taylor (and circulated to the Committee), responding to questions raised in the minutes of the last meeting.  The outstanding matters relating to employment practice in schools will be reported upon at the next meeting of the Audit Committee. 

·         Early Departure and Redundancies Costs: It was noted, with thanks, that the details had been circulated as requested. 

·         Exemptions to Contract Procedure Rules: It was reported that of the five outstanding exemptions, four have been received and authorised by the relevant Chief Officer. The fifth exemption is related to a service trial and the exemption has not yet been applied but may be used in future when the best option is known.

The Chief Internal Auditor presented the Quarter 3 Progress Report (to 31^st December 2016) with a purpose of providing assurance to Audit Committee and senior managers on the adequacy of the control environment, and the performance of the Internal Audit Team.  The following points were noted:

·         There have been 30 audit jobs; not all opinion related and 10 draft reports have opinions allocated (as defined in the report).

·         Regarding team performance, 98% of recommendations have been accepted by office managers and work is being undertaken to assure implementation.  Timeliness of reports is identified as an issue and is attributed to the workload of the Audit Manager who is responsible for quality control, consistency and reactive issues.  It was explained that 42% of the plan has been covered which is below the target of 50% but a small improvement on last year.  The team is on track to achieve 75% of the plan by year end.

·         A question was asked if there are any major concerns including workload and areas of greatest sensitivity.  It was responded that priorities have to be drawn because of the limited number of auditors to consider matters that include corporate and service areas, and will be reported to Audit Committee in March 2017.

            A question was asked about the Limited assurance opinions on school meals        and community led delivery and more details were requested.  It was     explained that audits and opinions are defined based on strengths and weaknesses measured against key control objectives.  If it is found that     control objectives are not in place, a financial risk is identified.  A Limited        opinion is awarded where weaknesses outweigh strengths.  An overview was   provided as follows:

                      i.        School meals: There was a lack of official documentation outlining responsibilities for schools and Property Services (which manages the service).  Income data was not monitored appropriately and there were differences not reconciled between school and Property Services systems.  Additionally, significant outstanding debts were not being followed up.

                     ii.        Events: A number of aspects required some improvement:

a)    Some contracts were not always signed although in place;

b)    Income reconciliation in terms of allocation and stock control of tickets;

c)    Record keeping of staff working at events;

d)    Issues concerning the contract tender; and

e)    Reconciliation of financial aspects of an event which were not received as promptly as expected.

A Member requested assurance regarding unsigned contracts.  It was confirmed that these were not always in place for some events and commitment to improvement has been given for future events.  The Chief Officer Innovation and Enterprise provided assurances and context, that the recommendations are wholly or partially addressed.  It was explained that these types of events are at the heart of the council’s commercial strategies and is necessary to balance income generation and risk.  The council acts as the event promoter and receives 100% of the income generated.  This is a high risk position but also potentially high reward and it is necessary to clearly set this position out. The Committee  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Wales Audit Officer reported on the Corporate Assessment Follow on Review of Human Resources.

It was concluded that there has been good progress in planning, managing and engaging the workforce.  There is good support from the HR team and ICT systems are being developed e.g. return to work interviews and sickness information.  There is evidence that the Council is acting on feedback from staff; it has held its first staff and has also established Monminds.

The Corporate Assessment report’s proposals for improvement needing further work were summarised as follows:

·         Engage more effectively with staff to ensure the Council’s values are clearly evident across the organisation;

·         Ensure that the planned revisions and changes made to ‘Check In Check Out’ deliver a clear process of assessing and improving the performance of all staff and that department, team and individual objective setting is in line with the Council’s corporate objectives; and

·         Develop the Council’s workforce planning arrangements by including accurate data and key management information around workforce issues and statistics, reporting regularly to Senior Leadership and Management Teams to enable effective monitoring of progress and management of these issues on an ongoing basis.

The HR Corporate Assessment identified the following new proposals for improvement:

·         P1 Develop further workforce data to include staff establishment, contract status, vacancies, agency use, age, gender, and grade/pay distribution, to better inform future workforce planning activity.

·         P2 Improve oversight and ongoing implementation of the staff appraisal process. In particular:

1.    Ensure staff appraisal completion is uploaded onto the Council’s Hub to accurately reflect the numbers of staff in receipt of an annual appraisal; and

2.    Increase the appraisal completion rate.

·         P3 Further develop HR ICT systems to better support operational managers and improve recording of sickness and disciplinary matters.

·         P4 Improve the evaluation of HR improvement actions to better measure the impact and outcomes.

The Management response was presented and the following points noted:

·         The first two proposals follow on from previous proposals for improvement and strengthen arrangements. 

·         It was agreed that the authority is good at measuring activities but not outcomes, and a change in management practice is required to provide evidence that the changes to systems, policy and guidance results in a change in management practices e.g. better sickness levels, less grievances etc.  The intention is to improve HR practice and responses, and to work much closer with managers to identify and address concerns.

·         The proposals were welcomed and will be reported upon in the Annual People Report in July 2017.

A Member queried, if managers don’t have profile information of their workers, how redundancies (and any particular demographic thereof) can be monitored. Additionally, the point that senior managers and members find it difficult to assess if progress has been made was questioned.  It was asked if there was confidence in the progress made and whether or not managers can be challenged on underperformance.  It was also queried if there will be demonstrably better outcomes when they are reported in July.

It was responded that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The Forward Work Programme was received noting that it only extends as far as the election in May.  A twelve month plan will be prepared with standard items for Committee Members to understand the annual work cycle.