Agenda item

The Council must conduct a review, at least annually, of the effectiveness of its systems of internal control and prepare an Annual Governance Statement reporting on the review with the Statement of Accounts. This report sets out the Council’s Annual Governance Statement (AGS) 2022/23 for the period ending March 2023 and the Statement includes the Council’s significant challenges and risk, the governance arrangement and internal controls in place, and improvements required which are set out in the AGS 2023/24 Action Plan.

The Committee is asked to consider and approve: a) the draft Annual Government Statement 2022/23 and Action Plan; b) the Local Code of Corporate Governance; and c) the Governance Framework. 

Stephen Lawrence-Orumwense, Director of Legal and Monitoring Officer gave the Committee a presentation on the Annual Governance Statement 2022/23 (AGS) and Action Plan.

Councillor Jason Cummings, Cabinet Member for Finance noted the complexity of Croydon’s Annual Governance Statement (AGS) in comparison with other Local Authorities. The scale of actions from external reports incorporated in the AGS Action Plan reflected the historical issues in Croydon. There had however been significant improvements to the council’s governance arrangements, these were acknowledged in the Improvement and Assurance Panel (IAP) Exit Strategy report.

Officers noted the Committee had received reporting on the issues included in the AGS throughout the year and similarly the council’s internal control board continuously reviewed the various areas of improvement. The IAP utilised the AGS Action Plan and tracker to evidence the progress and embeddedness of improvements within the council. The future aim was to make the AGS a more accessible document once the legacy issues had been resolved. The AGS provided a useful overview of the council’s governance arrangements.

The Committee commented on the comprehensive reporting of the council’s governance arrangements, the helpful inclusion of colour coding, actions and impacts. It was suggested that future AGS reporting should include action’s prioritisation and risks to highlight areas which may undermine the work being done. Also where actions were in progress, some narrative of the steps needed for completion would be useful.

In response to questions from the Committee officers advised the AGS gave the Monitoring Officers opinion on the effectiveness of the council’s governance arrangements, it was for the Committee to decide whether to accept or reject this judgement.

Officers advised Corporate Directors and Heads of Service were engaged to account for progress on actions and to complete the document. Cllr Cummings commented that the process of capturing all the improvement actions together provided assurance that nothing would be missed.

The Committee queried amber (ongoing) actions where the completion deadline had passed and if plans were in place to progress these swiftly. Officers advised the Committee would receive regular updates on AGS Action plan, with the next update scheduled for the February 2024 meeting.

In response to questions, Officers advised the three key areas of higher risk were Housing, Finance and general transformational activities across the council. Many of the resolved initial recommendations had prompted subsequent actions requiring ongoing completion. 

The Committee raised concerns regarding improvements to Information Governance where the Freedom of Information (FOI) and Subject Access Request (SAR) targets were not being met, this was an area which had not been prioritised for many years. Officers advised the Information Management Internal Control Board met regularly and had oversight of all ongoing work to ensure compliance in this area. The risks attached to Information Management were noted with the Council current in receipt of an enforcement notice from the Information Commissioners Office. The retrospective nature of the document was noted and officers agreed to update the information management work and illustrate the culture change which had taken place in the next AGS update report. Internal Audits on Information Management areas including GDPR were expected to take place in 6-9 months.

The Committee raised concerns regarding the member enquiry case work programme’s implementation. Officers advised the backlog of enquiries and implementation issues were areas of focus for the Corporate Management Team and an update on this would be included in the February AGS Update report. Councillor Cummings advised members of the enquiries feedback panel where members could raise issues via their party representatives.

The Committee requested for the Information Management actions to be updated in the 22/23 Action Plan and for any past dated deadlines to be updated.

Officers advised work to identify overlap between the AGS Action Plan and the IAP Exit Strategy actions would be undertaken and confirmed IAP Exit Strategy actions would be included in future AGS Action Plan update reports.

The Committee RESOLVED, to approve:

a) the draft Annual Government Statement 2022/23 and Action Plan;

b) the Local Code of Corporate Governance; and

c) the Governance Framework.