To receive a report from the Assistant Director, Governance and Monitoring Officer.

John Medler, Assistant Director, Governance and Monitoring Officer presented Members with the Combined Assurance Status Report, pages 101 to 120 of the Agenda refer.

Members were advised that the Combined Assurance Status Report provided a record of assurance against the Council’s critical services, key risks, partnerships and projects and supported the Council’s commitment to achieving good corporate governance.

Members were invited to put their comments and questions forward.

A Member queried whether the narrative was as consistent as it could be over the different workstreams and whether there were any synergies between the External Audit Report and the Combined Assurance Status Report.

A Member queried whether there were any comparators with councils of a similar demographic profile.  It was highlighted that there used to be a group of councils that were used for comparisons which was a useful benchmark to check against the Council’s performance.

A Member further queried on what the emerging risks coming through were on critical activities regarding alignment, page 120 of the Agenda refers and also why it was in the critical red rating.

The Internal Audit Manager responded that not everyone used benchmarking, however Assurance Lincolnshire worked across other districts in Lincolnshire and was happy to pass that comparison information on for Members to look at.

With regards to alignment, the Assistant Director, Governance & Monitoring Officer commented that this was used where services were working together more closely and operating with different processes and procedures, whereby it would be picked up as a risk within the partnership arrangement. 

A Member considered that the assurance framework was a good model, however referred to page 114 of the Agenda and questioned the red zero per cent rating for Deputy Chief Executive – Corporate Development.  The S151 Officer pointed out that it had been classed as red in the Emerging Risks on page 120 and suggested that the report be amended to show red on page 114. It was agreed that further work would be carried out to improve and develop the report and any feedback from Members was welcome.

A Member referred to the Key Messages ‘Strategic Partnership Working’ relating to the recruitment and retention of staff, page 117 of the Agenda refers, and suggested that it may need to be looked at as a red risk, not amber.  The S151 Officer responded that staffing and recruitment nationally was an issue and certain skill sets were unrecruitable so would be happy for this to move to red.

A Member queried whether there was a document outlining ELDC’s approach to recruitment and retention of staff.  The S151 Officer responded that there was a Workforce Development Strategy which had been approved through Executive Board.

The Internal Audit Manager further commented that recruitment and retention was included as part of the Audit Plan.

The Assistant Director, Governance & Monitoring Officer clarified that the Combined Assurance Status Report was the view of the Management and the Internal Audit Report was the view of the internal auditors. There were three reports in total, Management, Internal Audit and External Audit, therefore they all looked slightly different.

Following which, it was

RESOLVED:

That the findings illustrated in the assurance framework detailed within the Combined Assurance Status Report 2022/23 (attached at Appendix A) was operating effectively as part of the Council’s corporate governance arrangements be noted.