Issue - meetings

Further to the report contained in the agenda, Councillor John Ritchie, Portfolio Holder for Devolution & Local Government Reform and Chair of the BDC Dragonfly Shareholder Board, read out the following statement.

“On 13^th September 2024, the Council’s Statutory Officers attempted to take a

report to the Council’s Shareholder Board.  The report outlined several concerns and felt it important that these were raised with Members.  The Dragonfly Chief Executive requested the matter be withdrawn from the agenda in order to have time to respond to the issues raised.

Immediately following this, on 23^rd September 2024, the Dragonfly Chief Executive presented a report to the Dragonfly Board of Directors requesting a restructure of the senior management structure of the company, including the role of Chief Executive.  The report, which was approved by the Board of Directors, requested approval to commence consultation with staff the very next day (24^th September 2024).  As these decisions fell within Reserved Matters, this raised further concerns.  In view of this, and following advice from the Council’s external auditors Forvis Mazars, the Council’s Shareholder Board held an urgent special meeting on 30^th September 2024.

At this meeting, it was agreed an independent review of the Dragonfly companies should take place.  A scope for the review was drafted and shared with the Dragonfly Board.  Local Partnerships were requested to undertake the review due to their extensive experience in carrying out these types of reviews.  They are owned by the Local Government Association, the Treasury and the Welsh Government.

Local Partnerships commenced the review at the end of March 2025, with the final report received on 30^th May 2025.  The report was published in its entirety as promised by the Leader, without delay, on Monday 2^nd June 2025. Councillor Yates committed to undertaking the review and publishing it immediately upon her election as Leader earlier this year.

The review report is attached at Appendix 1 to the report in the agenda, and you will find a summary of the key findings on pages 4 to 6.

Paragraph 1.3 onwards outlines a summary of the key findings.  The review has identified several significant issues which relate to the following two areas of governance:

1)    Building blocks of good governance; they identified many instances where good governance is absent or not fit for purpose which are summarised below:

·       the lack of a clarity of purpose which causes confusion and conflict between Council and companies.  This is the foundation for all other issues

·       the lack of an up-to-date, comprehensive business plan, following on from the business case, which clearly defines how the companies will deliver the Council’s requirements and which the Council could use as a basis for monitoring performance, financial & physical

·       the lack of suitably robust governance framework including Company Board composition and skills

·       Shareholder Board prominence and not being part of the committee system

·       clienting capacity and capability within the Council and capability gaps in the companies and governance bodies

·       the presence of conflicts of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 107