Agenda item

The Chief Executive, Director of Finance, Assets and Information Services and Director of Legal and Governance will submit a joint report on the final Annual Governance Statement for 2015/16 and seeking approval to refer it to Council for consideration.

Further to minute 21 of the previous meeting held on the 20^th July, 2016, the Committee considered a joint report of the Chief Executive, Director of Finance, Assets and IT and Director of Legal and Governance on the final Annual Governance Statement for 2015/16, requesting the Committee to refer it to Council for consideration and adoption as part of the process for approving the 2015/16 Statement of Accounts.  A copy of the Statement was appended to the report.

In the ensuing discussion, reference was made to the following:

·         The final Statement was substantially the same as the draft submitted to the previous meeting and provided an assurance that the Authority had appropriate procedures and processes in place

·         The Service Director, Legal Services, who presented the report, emphasised that the Council’s Governance arrangements were fundamentally sound and no major issues were revealed.  There was, however, a light touch action plan (attached as Appendix 2) to capture some improvements suggested through the review process.  The Service Director briefly went through the plan and explained that this would form the basis for the Committee monitoring throughout the year.  An update of the Action Plan would be reported to the Committee in December, 2016.

·         It was noted that in relation to the recording of officer delegated decisions that the processes were now in place to ensure that this was in line with legislation.  It was suggested, however, that this action should not be considered complete until a review had taken place to evidence that the recording of officer decisions was working in line with the implemented processes.

·         Arising out of the above discussion, the Service Director Legal Services commented that there was no evidence to suggest that there had been any misuse of the officer delegated decision process.  Any decisions taken were required to be listed on the Council’s Website and the link to this would be sent to all Members

·         It noted that there was no reference to the Sheffield City Region governance arrangements.  It was noted, however, that the City Region had its own governance and audit arrangements although it was accepted that the Council was in a strong position to influence these through the support given in relation to internal control support functions such as HR, Risk Management, Health and Safety, Information Governance and Internal Audit that were delivered via a service level agreement.  It was suggested that reference to this be made via a small amendment to paragraph 3.19 of the AGS

·         It was noted that the link to the Council’s Risk Management site was not public facing and action would be taken to address this

·         In relation to the Panel to consider allegation of misconduct by Members it was reported that these Independent Panel Members were Messrs S Carvell, M Moore, and D Waxman.  These persons were appointed for the relevant provisions of the Local Government Act 2000 as amended by the Localism Act 2011 with regard to the investigation of ethical standards complaints.  The term of office was coming to a close and arrangements were being made to undertake a recruitment exercise to seek new/replacement members

·         In relation to Whistleblowing complaints, the Committee was reminded of the policy currently in place.  A review of the arrangements was to be reported to Committee in spring 2017 which would include an analysis of the use of the arrangements in the previous year.  It was noted that the number of referrals/complaints received was extremely small which could either mean that there were relatively few instances of ‘misconduct’ that needed reporting or that employees were reluctant to report issues (which could be for a variety of reasons).  The policy was, however, well-advertised both on the BMBC Intranet site and on staff notice boards in ‘break out’ areas.  It was important to realise, however, that the Whistleblowing arrangements were only one of a number or ways to raise issues

·         It was suggested that a training session be arranged on the Council’s Risk Management Framework arrangements.  This could possibly form an item for discussion at the Audit Committee Training Day scheduled for 2^nd November, 2016

RECOMMENDED TO FULL COUNCIL ON THE 29^th SEPTEMBER, 2016 that the final Annual Governance Statement 2015/16 be approved and adopted.