Agenda item

The Head of Law and Regulation presented this item. The purpose of this item is to note the contents of the report and endorse the recommendations to make the constitutional changes, which reflect the new legislation affecting the Governance and Audit Committee. The Local Government and Elections Wales Act will bring changes to the Councils’ internal governance.

The changes in terms of audit have come into effect on 1 April 2021. The first change is the change of name to ‘Governance and Audit Committee’ to reflect enhanced terms of reference and expanded responsibility. The second change is to add to the statutory terms of reference to include additional responsibilities in terms of complaints handling, as well as a role relating to performance assessment going forwards, under the legislation.

In appendix 2, the new terms of reference have been set out to incorporate the statutory changes. Council will be asked to make those constitutional changes at the next meeting at the end of June.

The opportunity has also been taken to update the role descriptions for the chair and members due to these constitutional changes. The change to the complaints handling procedure will start immediately, and that will be in the forward work programme from now. Regarding the performance assessment aspect, we are awaiting further guidance from WG. It aims to provides a self-assessment process for service delivery, which will replace the previous annual report system in place. This is a more flexible self-assessment process and will include a peer review by an independent panel. Democratic Services are currently unclear about how this will work in detail. The Committee will need to produce the first assessment report by 2022/23, so it is likely to be deferred to September 2022, after the next elections. Flintshire have volunteered to be a pilot council, and the Committee can learn from their experience. Once this new process is in force, Governance and Audit Committee will play a role in overseeing the self-assessment process in terms of improving service delivery.

Another change to come is the composition and membership of the Committee. As from next May (2022), there will be a legal requirement to ensure that at least a third of the committee members are independent. That is intended to strengthen the external scrutiny of the Council’s audit process. Between now and next May, we will need to go through a recruitment process to recruit new lay members. In addition, as the chair has served two successive terms of office, a new independent chair will also need to be recruited. Democratic Services are recommending to start this process now, as there is a long and rigorous procedure of recruitment and interviews.

Discussion including the following:

·         The Chair remarked that, currently, the Audit Committee oversees the risk process. Can we confirm that this new Act does not bring any new powers regarding risk for the Audit Committee?

o   The Head of Law and Regulation replied that there is no change to risk. Under the 2011 Act, there are statutory roles and responsibilities for audit, but the Council has discretion to provide additional roles. It is already in the terms of reference that Audit Committee has oversight of the Council’s risk processes, and the Committee need to be satisfied that the Council has robust measures in place to deal with risk. However, the identification of corporate risks and dealing with these remains an issue for Cabinet Members. 

·         Members asked how the recruitment process will happen in a politically balanced way, and who will oversee this?

o   The Head of Law and Regulation explained that the first element is the role description, which sets out what we are looking for; this is the basis on which applications are being assessed. This will be put out for external advertisement. Officers will then create a shortlist of applicants. We would then look to set up a politically balanced panel to interview the applicants, supported by officers who regularly advise this Committee. These recommendations would then go to Full Council for appointment.

The Head of People and Business Change commented that, regarding performance, the intention is to work with the Committee to determine what this will look like for the Council, rather than presenting Committee with the finished article. Over the next few months, the plan is to bring forward some ideas with help of WLGA. 

Agreed:

The Committee endorse the recommendations of the Democratic Services Committee.