Agenda item

The Interim Director of Finance presented the Annual Governance Statement (AGS) 2020/21 and in doing so highlighted that the AGS formed part of the annual closure of accounts process and provided a corporate overview of the processes and procedures adopted by the Council to manage its affairs.

The preparation of an Annual Governance Statement (AGS) was necessary to meet the statutory requirements as set out in the Accounts and Audit (England) Regulations 2015. The Council’s AGS included the review of effectiveness of the Council’s governance arrangements, commentary on significant governance issues in 2020/21, and the up-to-date information on their resolution status under the ‘progress’ column in the AGS document.

It was noted that one of the Governance Recommendations which were highlighted in the external auditors’ Section 24 report and the Interim Auditors’ Annual Report 2020/21 pertained to the need for Members to be provided with key financial reports, including the Treasury Management Strategy which was not reported to the Committee in 2021/22, and risk monitoring updates. Officers stated that this would be considered by the Committee in the remaining meetings of this municipal year.

Following the presentation, Members asked a number of questions and commented on aspects of the Statement and the following was noted:

• Members requested that references to ‘robust financial management’ be removed from the Annual Governance Framework Statement for 2020/21 on the basis that the document referred to the financial year 2020/21, with only the appended sections in the tables referring to the progress that had been made since.
• Members commented that some of Council’s Corporate Plan key performance indicator (KPI) measures were still not available to view on the Council’s performance dashboard on the Council’s website. Officers responded that some KPIs were still to be added to the dashboard, including council tax collection rates and volume of customer service calls. In the meantime, the Interim Director of Finance undertook to provide Members with data on key finance measures including collection rates for council tax and business rates.
• Members expressed concern that the number of strategic KPIs currently proposed might be excessive and commented that it was preferable for the Council to reduce the number of strategic KPIs to a smaller number and to the areas in which the Council had greater power to influence outcomes such as housing – for example KPIs on housing repairs turnover and on number of people in temporary accommodation were cited as examples of key KPIs that might be used. Officers responded that a review of Corporate KPIs was being undertaken to determine the strategic relevance of the measures currently on the dashboard.
• Members were informed that the provisional local government finance settlement was expected to be released in the week commencing 19^th December 2022, which would provide information as to central government allocations to local authorities for 2023/24.

RESOLVED

(1)  that the arrangements for compiling, reporting on and signing the Draft Annual Governance Statement be noted;

(2)  that the Draft Annual Governance Statement was reviewed and commented on, including any areas which should be considered; and,

(3)  that subject to changes identified above, the Draft Annual Governance Statement be agreed and approved for signature by the Chief Executive Officer and Leader of the Council for inclusion in the Statement of Accounts.