Issue - meetings

Members considered the Combined Assurance Report for 2018/19.

120 different activities across the Council had been assessed.  These assessments had been conducted by Assurance Lincolnshire talking to service managers.  The findings were largely positive, with the remaining risks being amber or red.

One of the red activities was markets, and the other was resourcing for the Council Tax team.  The Council Tax team were trying to strike a balance between resource and demand.

All of the amber activities were known to Management Team, and plans and steps to address these were already in place.  Four areas of focus were identified:

1.    A review of strategic risks;

2.    Peer review held by Management Team early in 2020;

3.    Work on the findings of the governance review;

4.    A thorough induction for Members in terms of training and development.

The above may, or may not form part of the Annual Governance Statement Action Plan, as that was for significant issues.

The overall findings of this report led to a conclusion that the governance framework was operating effectively.

Following discussions between Members and officers, further information was provided:

·         The street cleaning service had a paid for element in addition to its standard offering; this paid for element had seen a drop in demand;

·         The problem on homeless prevention related to a new system that had been implemented and wasn’t initially able to provide detailed level of information.  This problem had now been rectified;

·         There was a dedicated Domestic Abuse Officer; however this role fell under the umbrella of safeguarding;

·         The work of Assurance Lincolnshire was useful as it was objective and impartial.  Also key to learning was annual service and business planning.  Any areas for improvement would be seen through the Progress and Delivery quarterly reports;

·         An example of trying to address issues outside of the reports process would be the additional resource allocated to the Planning Enforcement Team;

·         A more in depth list of staff members and their roles should be available to all Members, possibly through the Members’ Newsletter;

·         It was a known issue that communications needed to be improved in planning enforcement;

·         There was an appreciation of emerging risks at Team Manager level; each service area had its own emerging risks.  If these risks escalated then they would be brought to the attention of Management Team.

The risk strategy would be refreshed later in the year.

RESOLVED to approve the report and be assured that the findings illustrate that the Council’s governance framework was operating effectively.