1.       CROSS-CUTTING ISSUES AND IMPLICATIONS

2.      INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

2.      

2.1     The Annual Statement of Corporate Governance for 2022-23 was considered and approved by the Audit Governance and Standards Committee in July 2022 before being signed by the Leader and Chief Executive. The statement contained an Action Plan for 2023-24. This report provides an update on the progress made against the Action Plan as set out in Appendix A.

2.2     The actions outlined in Appendix A arose from areas identified in the corporate governance statement as requiring additional action to maintain the Council’s governance standards.

2.3     Several areas were identified for action including:

o   Key Corporate Risks

o   Review of the Constitution

o   Training for Councillors and Officers to prepare for a four yearly election cycle

o   Nolan Principles refresh and Carbon Literacy Training for Members

o   Reviewing and Updating the Workforce Strategy

o   Ensuring public and stakeholder engagement on the Town Centre Strategy

2.4     Progress has been made across all actions as outlined in Appendix A. Introducing Triple Bottom Line accounting is an accounting framework which draws the attention of decision makers to include social, environmental factors alongside financial factors when making decisions. This can be summarised as the three Ps: People, Planet and Profit. The idea was instigated by the Leader and officers have begun progressing work to create a framework, many tools are already in place to ensure we have balanced decision making. This will bring those together alongside training to ensure we make decisions that are in the best interest of people, the planet and financially sound (profit).

2.5     Corporate Risks are regularly reviewed by the Corporate Leadership Team and Councillors as part of the quarterly financial and performance monitoring reports. Controls have been put in place to mitigate risk, however there remains a great deal of uncertainty.

2.6     The Workforce Strategy was overdue for a refresh/rewrite, a workshop has been held with the Wider Leadership Team with a particular focus on the workforce of the future and the way we work and plan to work, addressing issues such as recruitment and retention, productivity and culture as well as our role as an anchor institution in the Borough.

2.7     Democracy and General Purposes are reviewing the arrangements for Overview and Scrutiny and Policy Advisory Committees in light of the reduction in Councillors in 2024 and whether the current arrangements could be improved. To start the work a Member workshop has been scheduled for the 20 November 2023 to feed into a discussion and review by Democracy and General Purposes at their meeting that evening. The review will look at how we ensure decision making is transparent, inclusive and effective as well as its burden in terms of Councillor time and resource.

2.8     One session has been held for Councillors on Carbon Literacy and the feedback was positive from those who attended, in-line with feedback on timing of training and Member availability we are organising a second session on a Saturday in the new year. Training has also been organised on the Nolan principles for 1 February 2024 as an evening in-person session.

Code of Corporate Governance Update

3.   AVAILABLE OPTIONS

3.1     The Committee could decide not to consider the Action Plan update provided at Appendix A, however the Action Plan is a key part of the Committee’s governance remit. The Committee can also request further information to seek assurance on the progress of the Action Plan if required. The Committee is asked to review and agree the refreshed code of governance.

4.        PREFERRED OPTION AND REASONS FOR RECOMMENDATIONS

4.1     As stated in section 3.1 considering the Action Plan and code of corporate governance is a key part of the Committee’s governance remit. The Committee is asked to note the update provided on the actions developed as a result of the annual review of governance and approve the refresh of the code following officer review.

5.       RISK

6.       CONSULTATION RESULTS AND PREVIOUS COMMITTEE FEEDBACK

6.1     The Committee is invited to provide feedback on progress with the Action Plan.

7.       NEXT STEPS: COMMUNICATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DECISION

7.1     This report has been provided to update the Audit, Governance and Standards Committee and will be publicly available via the Committee papers on the Council’s website. Any recommendations for further action by the Committee in regard to the Action Plan will be carried forward.

8.        REPORT APPENDICES

The following documents are to be published with this report and form part of the report:

·   Appendix A: Annual Governance Statement Action Plan Update

·   Appendix B: Updated Local Code of Corporate Governance

9.        BACKGROUND PAPERS

None.