Issue - meetings

Members considered the Authority’s Combined Assurance report for 2019/20.

The following points were highlighted by the Corporate Policy Manager:

·         This report would normally be tabled during the March meeting, but was ready earlier for this year;

·         The Combined Assurance report was an annual exercise undertaken by partners from Internal Audit.  It was a record of assurance measured against critical activities, IT, key projects and partnerships and others.  After speaking to the relevant managers, a level of assurance was given to different work strands.

There were 119 different areas across the report; 72% of activities in the report were performing well (green assurance), 25% of areas in the report were in need of attention (amber), and 3% were not performing well (red);

·         There were four items listed as ‘red’; none of these related to front-facing transactional services.  These four items were:

o   Strategic capacity – changes at Executive Director level;

o   Agri food sector – the project cannot currently proceed due to landowner restrictions;

o   Educational attainment – inability to raise local levels;

o   ICT Security and Information Governance – the arrangements were ineffective;

·         All of the ‘amber’ risks detailed in the report were known to management.  It would need to be ensured that sufficient actions were taken to address these risks;

·         The conclusion from partners at Internal Audit and WLDC management was that the findings were positive, and the governance framework was acting well.

RESOLVED to:

1)    Be assured that the findings illustrate that the Council’s governance framework was operating effectively;

2)    Approve the report.