Agenda item

Members of the Committee considered the explanations and assurances provided by the Strategic Director and the Head of Service responsible for Passenger Transport Unit

(PTU) – Taxi Contracts that improvements had been made in service provision following two consecutive Unsatisfactory audit opinions.

Following two consecutive Unsatisfactory Internal Audit opinions, the Strategic Director for Environment and Sustainability, responsible for Passenger Transport Unit (PTU) – Taxi Contracts were invited into Governance and Audit Committee to provide assurances that appropriate improvements within service provisions and the control environment were made. 

The Strategic Director for Environment and Sustainability assured the Committee that since the Head of City Service had been in post following recruitment, regular meetings had been held with the staff involved that included routine team briefings. An action plan had been drawn up to resolve the outstanding issue, with the input of the Audit Team.  The Head of City Services also met with the Strategic Director for Environment and Sustainability fortnightly to provide updates; good progress had been made as a result of this, as referred to in Appendix 2.  There was some challenge from the service area over one recommendation relating to the third party tender Wales system that they considered to be outside of their scope of control, however the rest of the recommendations were accepted.

The Head of City Services advised that as a result of the recent restructuring of the area a service manager post had been filled.  The Audit team would also be providing a quarterly checking arrangement. Additional resource had also been added to the team, as there had been a significant new pressure on the team since covid and onward.

In relation to the work processes, IT systems had been enhanced and quality checks should be easier as a result. Any issues identified would be taken to the Senior Leadership Team meetings and escalated if there were any issues.

The Head of City Services had worked with his team to resolve issues such as those with the CTX system, which had been upgraded. In terms of workload the Head of City Services provided statistics relating to 2019 data in comparison to 2022, where there had been significant increase in service demand and expectation.

Comments of Committee:

Councillor Jordan referred to Appendix, point 2.11 (New), and asked if there would be any recommendations for the new issue.  The Audit Manager advised that this was a new weakness that came out of the follow up audit, however the Audit Team require that management take action to resolve issues, rather than making recommendations.

Dr Barry sought assurance that management would escalate issues. if a similar situation arose again. The Strategic Director for Environment and Sustainability agreed that this was important, and as part of the ongoing process, the first audit would trigger any concerns into an escalation process.  It was hoped however that with the extra review and resources in place any concerns would be flagged up in advance before it escalated in future.

Dr Barry also asked were there were any performance issues underlying the results.  The Head of City Services advised that this was not a factor, what was identified is that additional staff were required due to the amount of work involved. Whilst there was a combination of factors that underpinned the audit results, performance issues were not one of them.

Councillor Cocks referred to the potentially vulnerable young people in taxis and queried the current situation in terms of up to date clearance of taxi drivers.  The Head of City Services advised that all checks were up to date in relation to DBS checks, licences, etc. and that there as there were always changes in operators and the related documentation, this was an ongoing process that was part of day to day operations.

Councillor Cocks also considered the implications in relation to staffing and training issues and the potential for greater pressure on individual staff due to cutbacks in future, and sought assurance that these pressures were being monitored and addressed.  The Strategic Director for Environment and Sustainability agreed that this is key, and the new process of constant monitoring in place would ensure that this would not happen again.

Mr Reed asked the Strategic Director and Head of Service if the the weaknesses found by the audit team were accepted. The Strategic Director for Environment and Sustainability confirmed that the findings were accepted, although there was a minor issue relating to third party tendering which was not within the remit of the team.

Mr Reed then asked if the failings to the system being addressed with the support of the Audit Team.  The Head of City Services assured Mr Reed that they were being addressed in collaboration with Audit, IT and Social Care.

Councillor Mogford asked owned the processes, and the accountability.  The Strategic Director for Environment and Sustainability advised that Audit recommendations were dealt with at a Service Manager level, however the audit framework in place ultimately ensured that accountability was escalated and involved the Head of Service, and ultimately the Strategic Director for Environment and Sustainability. This was evidenced in the report being discussed at this level with the committee.

Cllr Horton referred to the CTX system and asked if using spreadsheets was a robust process to maintain information. The Head of City Services advised that spreadsheets were kept to support the management of the process in the CTX system. Whilst the system upgrade had increased functionality, the spreadsheets supported the overall process. Horton also asked if the system might fail due to the high-level of human interaction.  The Head of Service briefly explained the process which would make sure that there was no failure going forward. The Strategic Director for Environment and Sustainability explained that any anomalies would be flagged up by the system. 

The Chair mentioned that whilst it may have been beneficial to have invited the Team Manager to attend the committee, however further to Councillor Mogford’s query, the Chair felt that accountability should be with the Strategic Director. 

The Chair referred to comments in Appendix 2, para 1.02 that he considered should have been recorded as a red/critical weakness rather than amber/significant, and asked if the Strategic Director for Environment and Sustainability could give assurances that all the operators fulfilling the PTU contracts now had  the necessary licensing and checks in place. The Strategic Director for Environment and Sustainability advised that they were.

The Chair asked if there was an internal working group that could pick up some of these cross-service issues in relation to operators, such as Licensing. The Head of City Services advised that there was a lot of interaction between Licensing and PTU that included monitoring, and this collaboration had recently helped to resolve an issue regarding photographic ID.

The Chair also questioned who undertook the monitoring of the contracts in terms of PTU and Licensing.  The Strategic Director for Environment and Sustainability advised that it depended on the nature of the monitoring and recognised that the suggestion to formalise this through an internal working group was a good point raised by the Chair, and this would be considered for further development.

The Chair asked if City Services issued penalties for issues relating to PTU contracts.  The Head of City Services advised that if there were significant breaches, the contractor / operator would be removed and any appropriate action taken. 

The Chair also asked whether the Council had concerns as a statutory provider on the implications associated with providing services for vulnerable children, for example, if there was no escort and unlicensed driver.  The Strategic Director for Environment and Sustainability advised that were there had been incidences of non-compliance, these operators had been removed. 

Chair referred to the statistics in Appendix 2, para 1.03 and asked if the Committee could be given assurance that all escorts and drivers would have up to date DBS and training going forward.  The Strategic Director for Environment and Sustainability assured the committee that the robust systems that were now in place were designed to ensure that this was monitored on an ongoing basis.

Chair referred to Appendix 2.11 regarding an unlicensed driver who worked in both Caerphilly and Newport was being prosecuted for doing so in Caerphilly. The Chair queried if the driver had been excluded from Newport’s contract and how did this impact on Newport City Council who had a contract with the unlicensed drivers operator. The Head of City Services advised that whilst the driver had been prosecuted, the company was still operating in Caerphilly; whilst the incident in Caerphilly had been noted, the operator had not conducted any breaches of contract in Newport and therefore it was appropriate to keep the contract in place.

Councillor Horton asked how many contracts had been assessed under the monitoring taking place.  The Head of City Services advised that monitoring had suffered due to low resources in the past, however, monitoring would also now be undertaken by Licensing and schools. City Services were in contact with schools daily and if there was a serious issue that required the Council to pull a contract, then this would be done immediately. 

Dr Barry wished to see a documented process in place for schools to follow regarding to monitoring, so that reporting was not missed.  The Strategic Director for Environment and Sustainability advised that information through schools came through to City Services regularly however they would speak to Education to ensure that regular monitoring was taking place.  This was noted as a recommendation.

Councillor Jordan asked how far in advance the CTX System would flag up when a DBS check was due for renewal. The Strategic Director for Environment and Sustainability would look into this for the Committee.  

Resolved:

§  That Members of the Governance and Audit Committee accepted the explanations and assurances of the Strategic Director and the Head of Service, which would be confirmed by way of a second follow up internal audit. 

§  That an update report in three months be provided by City Services on its position including: facts and figures, DBS Checks for drivers and escorts and an indication of what continuation training was in place

§  That Head of City Services and the Strategic Director for Environment and Sustainability be invited to Governance and Audit Committee in Six months’ time to provide a further update.

§  That Council consider the development of a working group comprising of PTU, Licensing, Social Services and Education to facilitate monitoring.

§  That a process for monitoring and reporting issues is developed for use in schools.