Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Councillors Jane Bryson and Donna Hales.

To note any urgent items of business which the Chairman has consented to being considered under the provisions of Section 100(B) 4(b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

There were no urgent items of business to consider.

Members should declare the existence and nature of any Disclosable Pecuniary Interest and Non Statutory Interest as defined by the Members’ Code of Conduct in respect of:

a)  any business on the agenda

b)  any urgent additional items to be considered

c)  any matters arising out of those items

and if appropriate, withdraw from the meeting at the relevant time.

There were no declarations of interest made.

To consider the minutes of the last meeting held on 20^th January 2022

Members were advised that the Minutes of the Audit and Corporate Overview Scrutiny Committee held on 20^th January 2022 would be presented to the next meeting.

Committee considered the List of Key Decisions and items to be considered in private document.

Moved by Councillor Chris Kane and seconded by Councillor Graham Parkin

RESOLVED that the List of Key Decisions and items to be considered in private document be noted.

Committee considered a report which provided an update on progress on the 2021/22 Internal Audit Plan.

Appendix 1 to the report provided a summary of 8 reports issued between the end of August 2021 and the end of January 2022, and showed for each report the level of assurance given and the number of recommendations made / agreed where a full response had been received. 

Out of the 8 reports, 6 had been issued with substantial assurance and 2 with reasonable assurance.

Appendix 2 to the report provided full details of the audits completed and audits in progress in respect of 2021/22.  However, some audits would need to be deferred to the 2022/23 financial year.

The Chair and the Portfolio Holder for Finance and Resources thanked the Internal Audit Consortium Manager and her team for the audit work carried out during the Covid pandemic.

Moved by Councillor Tom Munro and seconded by Councillor Chris Kane

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

Committee considered a report which provided a summary of internal audit recommendations made and implemented for the financial years 2018/19 - 2021/22 to date. 

Internal Audit made recommendations to improve the governance, risk and control processes in place.  It was important to monitor the implementation of these recommendations to improve the control environment and to reduce the risk of fraud and error

Appendix 1 to the report provided an analysis of the number of recommendations made and implemented for the financial years 2018/19 – 2021/22 to date.  The table also summarised the number of recommendations that had been implemented and those that were outstanding.  No high priority recommendations were outstanding, however, there were 4 medium priority recommendations from 2019/20, and 2 from 2020/21 still outstanding.

Moved by Councillor Graham Parkin and seconded by Councillor Chris Kane

RESOVLED that the report be noted.

Committee considered a report which provided a progress update in respect of implementing recommendations arising from the external review of internal audit.

Appendix 1 to the report detailed the recommendations made by the external reviewer, the proposed action and an update of the progress achieved so far. 

Some recommendations had already been implemented and others were in progress.  A number of the recommendations would be implemented from the 2022/23 financial year in order to avoid changing systems mid–year and also to provide time to train staff. 

The main focus of the recommendations related to ensuring that internal audit continued to increase their focus on risk and align to the Council’s risk appetite.

In order to do this, Internal Audit had aligned its assurance levels and recommendation priorities to the risk levels within the Council’s Risk Management Strategy.  The likely impact of this was that there would be more low priority recommendations as the Council’s risk appetite, as defined in its Strategy, was higher than Internal Audit’s current definitions.  A medium internal audit recommendation would be more significant than at present.

All Internal Audit’s documentation had been reviewed and updates had been made to the scoping document, audit test schedule and report template, to further embed risk management throughout the audit process.

A further update on progress would be presented to a future meeting of the Committee as part of the 2021/22 Internal Audit Annual Report.

Moved by Councillor Graham Parkin and seconded by Councillor Chris Kane

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

In 2018, CIPFA produced some practical guidance for Local Authorities and Police, which included a self-assessment of good practice.

The self-assessment provided a high-level review that incorporated the key principles set out in CIPFA’s Position Statement and publication. 

Where an audit committee had a high degree of performance against the good practice principles, then it was an indicator that the committee was soundly based and had in place a knowledgeable membership.  These were the essential factors in developing an effective audit committee.

In November 2019, the Committee undertook a self-assessment with an action plan being presented to the January 2020 meeting.  Unfortunately, due to the pandemic the action plan was not followed up.

It was now proposed that the new Audit and Corporate Overview Scrutiny Committee undertake the self-assessment and a new action plan be produced.

TheChair noted that questions 19, 23 to 25 of the self-assessment were important and it should be identified in a brief but precise Action Plan how feedback from Members not on the Committee would be obtained.  He added that an Annual Report of the Committee should be undertaken and presented to Members at Annual Council.

Moved by Councillor Tom Munro and seconded by Councillor Graham Parkin

RESOLVED that (1) the CIPFA guidance for Local Authority Audit Committees be noted,

(2) following the completion of the self-assessment as undertaken at this meeting, an Action Plan be presented to the next meeting of the Committee.

(Head of Finance and Resources/Governance Manager)

Councillor Tom Kirkham left the meeting at this point.

Committee’s approval was sought in relation to accounting policies that would apply in the preparation of the Statement of Accounts for 2021/22. 

The accounting policies adopted by the Council determined the accounting treatment that was applied to transactions during the financial year and in the preparation of the Statement of Accounts at the year end.  They determined the specific principles, bases, conventions, rules and practices that would be applied by the Council in preparing and presenting its financial statements.  The accounting policies were published within the Statement of Accounts document in accordance with the Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting and incorporated the requirements of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

The approval of the accounting policies to be applied by the Council demonstrated that due consideration was being given to which policies to adopt and apply, and that those charged with governance were fully informed prior to the commencement of the Statement of Accounts preparation of the policies that were being adopted.

The accounting policies were set out at Appendix 1 to the report.

Moved by Councillor Chris Kane and seconded by Councillor Graham Parkin

RESOLVED that the accounting policies as detailed at Appendix 1 to the report be approved.

Committee considered a report in relation to the Quarter 3 outturns (October to December 2021) for the Council’s Ambition targets 2020-2024.

Out of the 31 targets:

•        19 (61%) were on track

•        1 (3%) continued to be affected by Covid 19

•        4 (12%) had been placed on alert (as unlikely to meet their outturns in 21/22)

•        7 (22%) achieved previously.

Out of the 48 performance indicators:

•        29 (60%) had a positive outturn

•        5 (10%) had a negative outturn

•        7 (15%) continued to be affected by Covid 19

•        3 (6%) were within target

•        4 (8%) did not have data available

At the pre meeting, the following questions had been raised with regard to the targets on ‘alert’, and responses had been provided as per below;

CUS.07 - Reduce average relet times for standard voids (council properties) to 20 calendar days by March 2021 and maintain thereafter

Quarter 3 Report update for the meeting:

The current relet time for a standard void is 84 days.  In addition to the operational improvements being made.  A report is going to the Employment Committee for a new post of Void Manager a post which for the first time would be responsible for the end to end process across both Housing Repairs & Management.  This post will be focused on reviewing the current processes to ensure any delay is minimised and performance improved.

Question 1 - with regard to the Voids Manager post, who will be their line manager?  Will their role involve working for housing management and repairs?

Response from Assistant Director for Property Services and Housing Repairs;

The Voids Manager will be line managed by Assistant Director for Property Services and Housing Repairs as the post is funded from the Repairs budget.  They will report to the Head of Housing and Enforcement and the Assistant Director for Property Services and Housing Repairs because they will be managing the voids process from end to end across both service areas.

Question 2 - it is noted that 20 working days for a standard/minor void is a long established target.  Is the target still fit for purpose today?  Is it realistic and how does it compare to other local authorities?  What work is being undertaken to review this?

Response fromAssistant Director for Property Services and Housing Repairs and Head of Housing and Enforcement;

The 20 working days for a minor void is a target that both relevant AD’s remain committed to achieving however the target date should be reviewed as it is unachievable at this present time.

Bolsover are part of a benchmarking group and what has always been apparent is that it is not as simple as monitoring turnaround days although there is obviously some value in this because other organisations undertake very different levels of repairs to properties whilst void.  We have visited high performing (In terms of turn around) organisations with our tenants who were horrified at the lack of work undertaken.

That said both  ...  view the full minutes text for item ACO65-21/22

Committee considered the remainder of their work programme for 2021/22.

It was noted that the ACOSC meeting on 26th May 2022, would actually be the first ACOSC meeting of the new municipal year 2022/23.

The Chair requested that the Action Plan in relation to the self-assessment undertaken at this meeting be included on the work programme for the April meeting and also a draft Annual ACOSC report.

The meeting concluded at 1505 hours.