Cabinet considered the report regarding the proposed action plan following the CIPFA review of governance. 

The Lead Member for Finance and Ascot informed that his direct involvement with CIPFA started at a meeting with them on the 29th July 2019, so yesterday was the first anniversary.  One year on, a big chunk of his life and an interesting learning process, we have reached the beginning of the end of the review.  Legislation and best practice continued to change so he will never stop work to improve all aspects of governance.

He informed that at the June cabinet that timely and accurate financial information was essential to enable the Council to properly manage its business and to facilitate appropriate decision making. He also said, and repeated now, that on becoming Lead Member, frustratingly and unacceptably, this was not made available to me or Cabinet, leaving us exposed.

He had discussions with the Managing Director and supported his decision for an internal investigation of Financial Governance by CIPFA and took part in meetings with CIPFA to establish a structured work programme. This administration invited the review, has accepted the finding, has already acted on many of the recommendations and this evening Cabinet considered an action plan developed by our Director of Resources to address a number of outstanding issues.

There were two appendices to the report, Appendix 1 covered actions that were addressed by the interim CIPFA accountants during the 2020/21 budget build and appendix 2 was the action plan developed by the Director of Resources to resolve the outstanding issues. The action plan identified the issues, the proposed actions, when these will be completed, who will be responsible and what success would look like.

The report was robustly debated by Corporate O&S on Monday and they  proposed that the wording in the MTFS section on page 116 under the column headed, “what does success look like” should be changed to, “A clear and timely understanding of the resources the Council has to manage its services and address its priorities”. It was agreed to add the word ‘Timely’.  The action plan which is proposed to be reviewed by Overview and scrutiny quarterly.

The Director of Resources informed Cabinet that the report had been considered by O&S and their one recommendation had already been mentioned.  There was another of concern raised and this was around Clewer and Dedworth where the report mentions concerns about ward members at the time.  It was important to remind this meeting that that comment related to ward councillors who were no longer the ward councillors.  With regards to the proposed action plans appendix two timelines were questions and O&S were informed that they were realistic and would be delivered to. 

The Lead Member for Transport and Infrastructure informed that this had been a robust evaluation and investigation by CIPFA and has resulted in firm recommendations that were the right way forward.  The problems of the past had to be put behind us and we must move forward dealing with the current difficult position facing the country.

The Lead Member for Public Protection and Parking reiterated that his was a forward looking documents identifies what we need to do to move forward ad what has already been done to move forward.  A positive and constructive report.

Cllr Jones reported that she was happy that her suggested amendment had been accepted.   She also saw this as a constructive paper but just wanted to highlight Member oversight and Member training.  As per the peer review Member training on scrutiny was important, there needed to be challenge to Cabinet.  She gave the example of an O&S Chairman who did not accept a report going to O&S and said Members could go to Cabinet to discuss the report.  We needed friendly critical challenge. 

Cllr Price informed that she welcomed the Director of Resources comments about past Ward Councillors as she felt this had not been reflected in the O&S minutes.  The CIPFA comments did not relate to the current 6 ward councillors. 

Cllr Larcombe said he found the CIPFA report shocking and incomplete as it concentrated on finance and governance.  The organisation had not been funded sufficiently and had been weakened by lack of resources. The Leader had given his apologies and talks about a new way and people working together.  He said he still had issues such as the lack of organisation loss of memory and issues will not be fixed.  It has been expensive to have CIPFA do the review and issues such as flooding have still not been addressed. His ward floods regularly and has not been addressed as the culture fails to perform.  Drainage infrastructure not being looked at and fixed.  Where is the £43 million for the river Thames that was agreed by Cabinet three years ago.

The Lead Member for Public Protection and Parking said that the issue of flooding was being taken seriously but was not an issue for the CIPFA report.

Cllr Sharpe said that the report was comprehensive, actions have been taken to address errors and there was a change in the way the council now operated.

Cllr Baldwin mentioned that he needed to discuss the historical record, Cabinet had discussed forward looking and  how the past was the result of previous leader and administration.  He mentioned that Cllr Coppinger, Cllr Hilton, Cllr Carroll and Cllr McWilliams had failed to point out that they had all been appointed to Cabinet by the then leader and that they had failed to vote against him in a vote of no confidence at Council.  He said that if they wanted to make a fresh start they should be honest about their past records.

The Deputy Chairman of Cabinet, Adult Social Care, Children’s Services,

Health and Mental Health informed a factual inaccuracy by Cllr Baldwin as it has been recorded that he did offer criticism at the time.

The Lead Member for Housing, Communications and Youth Engagement said that Cabinet took a view that the authority would advance by understanding mistakes made and addressing the problems.  The new administration investigated the concerns and sought to address them.  ‘I told you so’ argument was not helpful and was trying to be right rather than constructive.  He made reference to his own experience of being removed from Cabinet and how this made him aware of actions and behaviours.

Cllr Davey said that he was saddened that it had not been mentioned that these issues had been brought up back in June that lead to the CIPFA review. 

Cllr Jones reiterated that there was a need for scrutiny training for current and future members and chairman of panels.

The Lead Member for Finance and Ascot said that he thanked Cllr Davey for raising the Clewer and Dedworth problem as this and other concerns helped spark the review. Cllr Baldwin seemed to have forgotten that the administration started the review and accepted the findings.  With regards to culture he refereed to items 3.8 and 3.9 on page 109 as this action states that values and behaviours were to be developed so we had a strong culture.  There had been cultural change as seen in the Financial Update report.  With regards to O&S training this had been covered in the Council meeting.

(the Leader of the Council and Chairman of Cabinet, Business, Economic Development and Property re-joined the meeting but due to his connectivity issues he said Cllr Carroll should remain in the Chair)

Resolved unanimously:  that Cabinet reviews the report and:

i) Approves the implementation of the proposed action plan

ii) Agrees that a quarterly progress report be considered by the

appropriate committee or panel