To consider the progress report.

Emma Duncan, Monitoring Officer and Deputy Director of Law and Strategy, said that the report showed the progress made on the action plan. The Committee had approved the action plan when it was presented as part of the Annual Governance Statement in July 2021. The action plan was divided into a number of key areas where governance risk and resilience were assessed, with the key points being:

·         A continued focus on ethical values, integrity and respecting the rule of law to include continuing work on the new Code of Conduct, workshop sessions for Members on the wider governance framework, a review of the Member/Officer Protocol and revisiting our procurement processes.

·         Strengthening the strategic framework with a new outcomes based Corporate Plan emanating from a robust evidence base and consultation and engagement with our residents and communities, with enhanced reporting and tracking capability.

·         Managing risks and performance more effectively with a review of our risk assessment framework, a new performance management system and implementing the Property Company Governance Action Plan.

·         Reinforcing our Overview and Scrutiny function to give better oversight on key strategic priorities.

·         Building up the Council’s links with residents, communities, and businesses through a new approach to engagement to deliver better outcomes.

Emma Duncan said that all Members had now been trained on the code of conduct and the recent Corporate Peer Review would contain some recommendations on how scrutiny could be improved. A significant amount of work had been done on the Corporate Plan and the new performance monitoring framework, which would allow outcomes from the Corporate Plan to be assessed. In leadership, there was a new people strategy and leadership development programme being created. Most actions were now complete, where actions were not complete there was an explanation which provided an update on the action. A report on procurement had recently been considered by Cabinet and a recommendation would be coming to the Committee on this.

Councillor L Jones asked how the success of the action plan could be monitored, particularly after any outstanding actions had been completed. She felt that there was not the required level of resource behind the overview and scrutiny function for it to be effective.

Emma Duncan responded by explaining that the framework showed a selection of behaviours. Members had done a survey on scrutiny and officer relationships and it was important that a culture of good governance was created. Key areas for improvement would be identified so that changes could be made to the scrutiny process. There was a six month check from the Local Government Association which would also highlight and review progress that had been made. On overview and scrutiny, Emma Duncan said that this would be picked up in the Corporate Peer Review and resource was something that would need to be considered. The next update on the action plan would be in July 2022, where it would be outlined how many actions had been completed and if anything needed to be taken forward for the following years Annual Governance Statement.

Councillor Sharpe asked if RBWM would know how it was doing compared to other local authorities, particularly as the Local Government Association was involved with the process.

Emma Duncan said that self-assessment was important, RBWM was at the start of its journey. The council did not have large scale teams and needed to be supported by cultural changes. Members needed to be on board and supportive of changes to the scrutiny function for them to work.

Councillor Sharpe commented on the potential for new councillors to be elected in 2023 and that this could cause issues in continuing the good work that had already taken place.

Emma Duncan said that change was always a risk, she looked to engage with Members throughout the year to ensure that all understood the governance framework.

The Chairman asked if there was communication with other Berkshire local authorities.

Emma Duncan explained that there was a Berkshire Monitoring Officer group where good practise was shared along with other engagements and networking on a national level.

Adele Taylor said that the governance framework outlined how RBWM did things, the framework was supported by statutory officers, internal and external auditors. Members could identify risks and bring them to the attention of officers. There was a link between the Annual Governance Statement and the Statement of Accounts and this was why they were considered by the Committee at the same time.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Audit and Governance Committee noted the report identifying any specific matters which should be brought to the attention of Council or Cabinet.