Issue - meetings

Annual Governance Report

Meeting: 28/11/2024 - Audit and Standards Committee (Item 7)

7 Annual Governance Report pdf icon PDF 113 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Sioned Harper (Senior Solicitor and Team Manager, Governance) introduced the report which outlined arrangements in place to maintain a strong culture and robust systems of governance across the organisation at both member and officer levels. She advised that there was no legal requirement to present this report to the Committee; however, it was considered good practice to support the Committee’s role to maintain oversight of governance and standards. She highlighted specific elements of the report including details of systematic approaches to legal and regulatory compliance, approaches to consideration of external inspections, data breaches, subject access requests, policy updates, training and organisational culture, and complaints made under the Members’ Code of Conduct.

 

Robert Zara praised the quality of the report. He emphasised the importance of the Committee’s role to maintain oversight of organisational culture and information governance, both of which had been covered in detail. He highlighted that County Council elections would be held in May 2025 and enquired about arrangements for the induction and training of newly elected councillors, including any mandatory training.

 

Sarah Duxbury (Director of Strategy, Planning and Governance) advised that there was an Induction Programme for new councillors which was being refreshed in readiness for the elections in May 2025. Some elements of the Induction Programme were mandatory, including sessions tailored for specific committees. For example, members sitting on the Regulatory Committee were given training to provide knowledge of planning considerations. The Induction Programme also included a focus on the Members’ Code of Conduct which was relevant to all councillors. 

 

In response to Councillor Barker, Sarah Duxbury advised that the Council had received an increased number of subject access requests in recent years. As a result, it had been decided to allocate additional resources to the Information Governance (IG) Team leading to the recruitment of five additional IG officers. This had improved the Council’s performance in responding to subject access requests which could often be time consuming to resolve. Other approaches such as process re-engineering and IT refinements would support the Council’s work in this area. Additionally, work had been undertaken with Children’s Services focusing on individuals’ life stories to spotlight alternatives to making subject access requests in specific circumstances.

 

Resolved:

 

That the Audit and Standards Committee notes the content of the report.