Agenda item

2.30

Report by the Chief Legal Officer and Monitoring Officer (AG6)

Audit & Governance Committee approved the Annual Governance Statement (AGS) for 2014/15 in July 2015.  This included six actions to be followed up by the relevant corporate lead and/or directorates in 2015/16.  This report is the progress report on these actions as at the end of December 2015.

The Audit & Governance Committee is RECOMMENDED to note the progress on the actions.

Audit & Governance Committee had approved the Annual Governance Statement (AGS) for 2014/15 in July 2015.  This included six actions to be followed up by the relevant corporate lead and/or directorates in 2015/16. The Committee had before them a report (AG6) which considered whether the 6 Actions had been completed or whether more work would be needed on them in 2015/16.

Kathy Wilcox, in introducing the report highlighted the Action against each of the six actions as set out in Annex 1 to the report.  She confirmed that as at the end of December, progress had been made on all of the actions.  Some of the actions were now complete or would continue to be monitored as part of business as usual.  Where actions were on-going consideration would need to be given to including those as actions in the 2015/16 Annual Governance Statement along with other changes which would impact on governance in 2016/17.

Action 1, Data Quality was on-going from the two stage plan set out to Audit & Governance Committee in November.   A formal project was being created for data quality improvement and the main work would commence from April 2016.  Further information was being sought from suppliers of priority 1 systems about mechanisms for ensuring data quality.

Action 2, the Commercial Services Board terms of reference and governance arrangements had been reviewed and revised terms of reference and responsibilities were being rolled out.  A business case training programme had commenced this week and the implementation of a contract management system was also being progressed.

Action 3, Business Continuity – this needed to continue to be monitored in light of changes to services but there was increased awareness of the importance of business continuity across the organisation.  Directorate level business continuity exercises were continuing.

She further reported that an update on Action 4, the externalisation of Human Resources and Finance Services was covered in item 9 later on the agenda. The update on Action 5 set out that the corporate risk register had been reviewed by CCMT and updated accordingly.  AWG considered the risk register on 4 February 2016. Action 6 related to Supported Transport for Children.  Progress continued and the project will continue in 2016/17.  A final update on the six actions would be provided to Audit & Governance Committee on 20 April 2016 and reflected in the 2015/16 Annual Governance Statement.

In relation to Action 2 (Commercial Services Board) Dr Jones expressed concern that although the Board had now been in place for years, he remained unconvinced that the Board was progressing as quickly as it should. 

Lorna Baxter explained that the board had not been properly embedded due to lack of engagement and support.  The Board’s terms of reference and governance arrangements had now been reviewed and revised terms and responsibilities were being rolled out, including a new Gateway Review Panel.

A new Contract Management System had now been approved by CCMT. Contract Management training was also due to take place, with over 100 people having been identified for training.

Mr Dyson added that the Audit Working Group was due to receive a presentation on the Commercial Services Board and that he believed the Committee would benefit from the same.

In response to questions surrounding who would be trained, Mr Dyson confirmed that representatives from all directorates would be trained, together with senior officers.

The Committee then had a discussion around Action 3 (Business Continuity) and the recent ICT outages and the resulting effect on business continuity.  Members expressed concerns that there had been two major outages in recent months and questioned why this had happened twice, whether business continuity plans had kicked in and raised concerns over security and ‘the cloud’.

Mr Witty, Ernst & Young offered to investigate the possibility of E&Y providing some training for Members on cloud computing and the inherent security risks.

Mr Dyson confirmed that the Business Continuity Plans had kicked in effectively and that the Business Recovery target had been hit.

RESOLVED:  to note the progress on the actions, subject to the Committee receiving a presentation on operation of the Commercial Services Board in April.