To consider a report by County Councillor Beverley Baynham, Portfolio for Corporate Governance and Regulatory Services.
This is the link to the Sway report
https://sway.office.com/OEgNYQcGh8KolEmq
Minutes:
Cabinet considered the performance report for quarter 2. The Portfolio Holder for Community Engagement and Regulatory Service reminded colleagues that partway through the quarter, the Council had re-invoked its business continuity plan. The need for some council services to focus purely on business critical activity meant that 46% (31 of 68) of Corporate Improvement Plan (CIP) objectives and 47% (62 of 133) of CIP Measures had not been reported against. For the68 objectives where data had been provided 27 were on track (10 off track) and of the133 reportable measures, 47 met their target (12 were off target, 6 were annual, and 6 had no target).
33% (7) of the 21 Public Accountability Measures (PAMs) that were reported against in quarter 2 met their target, which was adecline on Quarter 1 2021-22 performance at 42%. 4 measures were off target, and 10 had no data provided but a comment given.
Although Covid had continued to impact on service delivery, feedback from services showed that good progress continued to be made against planned objectives and measures as well as responding to the changing pandemic situation. The Leader and Portfolio Holders thanked staff who continued to provide services. The Leader congratulated Children's Services who were finalists in theInnovation in Children'sServicesAwardof the Municipal Journal Achievement Awards 2021, the Adult Services andTransformation and Communications teams who had been shortlisted in the Local Government Chronicle Awards 2021, in the Health and Social Care category. The Adult Services team was also shortlisted for its work supporting people with learning disabilities to live well in a place of their choice. The Transformation and Communications team was shortlisted for its work on automated and interactive health and social care data reports. Digital Services were commended in the category of Digital Transformationof the MJ Achievement Awards 2021, in recognition of the way the Council embraced new technology in a number of areas. The Leader suggest that the report should be presented to the next meeting with Town and Community Councils.
RESOLVED
1. Cabinet notes the contents of the report.
2. That Cabinet endorse a recommendation to re-target an Education measure for achievement by March 2023 instead of August 2021: 'By March 2023, we will have developed firm proposals for the future of the specialist centres'.
3. That Cabinet endorse a recommendation to change the implementation date of the following Audit Wales Recommendation to July 2022, in order to align with the development of the council's self-assessment report. (For the Council to aim to evaluate all projects and consider ways to demonstrate the impact the projects are having on local residents and communities in Powys. This includes for example; identify who has benefitted from the work; are projects having the impact that was planned; and/or is there data which helps to describe the impact of transformation work.)
4. That Cabinet endorse a recommendation to close the following nineRegulatory Recommendations on the Corporate Regulatory Tracker:
- Audit Wales Audit of Accounts Report (December 2020)
? The finance team should look to include appropriate time within its accounts production timetable to complete any required restatements or re-analysis of figures prior to the year-end.
- Audit Wales review of Transformation at Powys County Council (December 2020)
? The Council should build on and develop its ongoing engagement with stakeholders. Key stakeholders include Powys residents, partners, schools, businesses, Council staff and County Councillors. This is to help ensure people are aware of developments within the transformation programme, particularly in light of challenges and changes coming from the pandemic.
? We also recommend that budget holders are required to provide explanations to analytical Review queries once the year-end figures for the Expenditure and Funding Analysis figures are available. Explanations for significant year-on-year movements can then be provided at that same time as the draft Financial Statements are made available to us.
? The Authority should ensure that it allows sufficient time in its accounts closedown plans to ensure that key processes are completed prior to the draft statements being produced If it becomes apparent that these timescales are not achievable then management should look at the possibility of flexing its timetable in order to preserve the quality of the draft financial statements.
? We recommend that all entries relating to prior-year debtors and creditors are reversed out of the ledger in full and that at the year-end one posting is made in the ledger to record debtor and creditor balances. This should be supported by appropriate working papers to identify the transactions within the year-end balances.
? We recommend that debtors should only be recognised when there is evidence to support the existence and valuation of the amount included in the year-end balances and steps should be taken to obtain such evidence prior to the balances being recognised in the Financial Statements.
- Audit Wales Follow-up review of Scrutiny
? The Council should clarify the role of the finance panel and assure itself that it is lawfully constituted.
? Reconsider the function, role and composition of the Coordinating Committee in order to ensure that the Council has a means of coordinating its scrutiny work that is distinct from the scrutiny committees’ role in setting their own work programmes.
- HSE Investigation
? Letter Ref58; 4612975 - 15 Jan 2020 Notice of Contravention - Failure to make suitable arrangements as client for managing a project in regards Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM).