Items
No. |
Item |
1. |
Apologies for Absence
Additional documents:
Minutes:
1.1
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An apology for absence were received from
Councillor David Barker.
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2. |
Exclusion of the Press and Public
To identify items where
resolutions may be moved to exclude the press and
public.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
2.1
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No items were identified where resolutions may
be moved to exclude the press and public.
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3. |
Declarations of Interest PDF 129 KB
Members to declare any interests they have in
the business to be considered at the meeting.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
3.1
|
There were no declarations of interest made at
the meeting.
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4. |
Minutes of Previous Meeting PDF 132 KB
To approve the minutes of the meeting of the
Committee held on 24 February 2022
Additional documents:
Minutes:
4.1
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The minutes of the meetings held on 24
February 2022 were agreed as an accurate record.
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4.2
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The Chair read a statement to the Committee,
which was produced by Democratic Services Team Manager, Sarah Hyde.
This explained there was an error in the Annual Standards Report
which was presented to the Committee on the 24 February 2022. The
report stated there was {0} open cases although there was still 1
case going through the information gathering stage. The Acting CEO
and Assistant Director Legal and Governance had both been in touch
with the complainant to explain the situation.
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4.3
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The Assistant Director Legal and Governance
agreed to follow up on circulation of the Procedure for dealing
with standards complaints.
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5. |
Annual Audit Report 2020/21 PDF 2 MB
Report of the External Auditors, Ernst &
Young
Additional documents:
Minutes:
5.1
|
The Committee received a report of the
External Auditors, Ernst and Young (EY).
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5.2
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The Head of Strategic Finance explained the
report concluded the audit for the year 2020/21. The report summarised the position on the audit
opinion which was that there was a clear opinion.
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5.3
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Janet Dawson, EY, referred to the value for
money commentary section of the report. It was mentioned that there
were 3 main areas in which EY had explored throughout the year.
- Financial
Sustainability
- Governance
- Improving economy,
efficiency and effectiveness
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5.4
|
EY were satisfied the Council had sufficient
arrangements in place to manage how decisions were made around
these developments.
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5.5
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Members of the Committee asked questions and
the key points to note were: -
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5.6
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The Acting Chief Executive, Eugene Walker,
explained the Councils finances had become more pressured over the
years. The Councils budgetary position was announced early last
year in which the Council had accepted their position and worked
alongside external auditors so the situation could be monitored
appropriately. It was added that reports around the Council’s
budgetary position would be brought to future the Audit and
Standards Committees.
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5.7
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A Member of the Committee welcomed
regeneration in the city, although added concerns that since the
Council had agreed to sign a lease for properties in the West Bar
development, there could potentially be liable to pay rent for
those properties.
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5.8
|
A Member of the Committee was happy to see an
error of £2.4m was picked up by the external auditors.
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5.9
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EY were asked what
they thought were the Council’s main risks were for the next
12 months. EY believed the main financial challenges would be
around social care expenditure. EY added that they will continue to
monitor how the Council intended to save money.
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5.10
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EY confirmed there was transactions with two
previously undisclosed parties. These related partied were not
disclosed by Members on their annual declarations.
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5.11
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The Head of Strategic Finance explained the
importance of acting on errors found by EY, which were highlighted
in their report. He added the Council were already working with EY
to improve on these aspects for the following years. There was also
a formal response to recommendations report on the work programme
for June 2022.
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5.12
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RESOLVED: that (1) the Committee
noted the report (2) the Group Whips ensure their party
Members had their declaration of interest forms up to date and
correct (3) the importance of filling in declaration forms
correctly should be expressed in new Member training with examples
provided; and (4) the Monitoring Officer was asked to send
out a further reminder to members to review declarations, 6 months
after the elections.
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6. |
Compliance with International Auditing Standards PDF 197 KB
Report of the Head of Strategic Finance
Additional documents:
Minutes:
6.1
|
The Committee received a report of the Head of
Strategic Finance which drew together much of the work that had
been undertaken by the Audit and Standards Committee. It
demonstrated that the Audit and Standards Committee had complied to
meet the international standards on auditing.
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6.2
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The Head of Strategic Finance explained the
report was brought to the Committee on an annual basis.
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6.3
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The Chair added that a private meeting with
Members of the Committee and External Auditors should take place
next year.
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6.4
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RESOLVED: that (1) members of
the Committee confirmed that the report gave an accurate reflection
of the reports they had received and considered throughput the year
(2) Members also confirmed they now had an overview of the
Council’s systems of internal control so that they were
assured that they were fulfilling the requirement of ‘those
charged with governance’ under the International Auditing
Standards; and (3) that a private meeting be scheduled for
Members of the Committee and External Auditors.
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7. |
Education Healthcare Plan Update PDF 250 KB
Report of the Director of Education and
Skills
Additional documents:
Minutes:
7.1
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The Committee received a report of the
Director of Education and Skills.
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7.2
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The Director Education and Skills, Andrew
Jones, agreed to circulate a glossary for the acronyms referred to
in the report.
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7.3
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The Committee were informed that the
Council’s special educational needs (SEN) service was last
inspected in 2018, in which 7 areas of significant weakness were
identified. The service should then have been re-inspected 2 years
after, although the pandemic delayed that from happening.
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7.4
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The SEN service had now recently been
re-inspected, in February 2022 although the inspectors had not yet
published their findings. Therefore, information presented to the
Committee was following the 2018 inspection, and the
service’s self-evaluations carried out prior to the 2022
inspection.
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7.5
|
The SEN service’s self-evaluation
believed that progress had been made across all the services.
Although, it was added that more work is yet to be done.
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7.6
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It was mentioned that progress had been made
to 6 of the 7 significant areas of weakness. Although the
7th area, which was multi-agency transitions, was still
a weakness for the service and will be a main area to target and
improve. The service will still continuously improve the remaining
6 areas.
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7.7
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The Interim Head of SEN, Rosemary Ward,
highlighted there was approximately 4041 children and young people
that had Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) within the City.
That constituted to approximately 5% of the child population in
Sheffield.
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7.8
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In
May to July 2021, the compliance within the 20 weeks Education,
Health and Care Needs Assessment (EHCNA) process dipped from 32 to
18%, with 102 plans exceeding the statutory 20 weeks’
timescale. (National average compliance for plan completion is
between 55-65%). It was mentioned that had now risen to
61.8%.
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7.9
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The Committee were informed the SEN service had increased their
staffing from 16 to 22 full time equivalent Inclusion Officers.
There had also recruited to the 3 vacant manager posts therefore
there was now 5 locality managers in post. They had
recruited 2 new leaders, 1 for the Autism Team and 1
for HI/VI services. A new Principal Educational Psychologist were
also now in post. They had also recruited a Post 16
Manager.
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7.10
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The SEN service had reviewed how they audited
EHC plans. Following the Audit, they had decided to trial a buddy
system where 3 members of staff would audit EHC plans on a
triangulation system.
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7.11
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The
SEN service did not have sufficient specialist places for children
who need them, despite ongoing work with commissioners. It was
added that commissioners had increased the amount of specialist
places given to children over the previous year.
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7.12
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The Interim Head of SEN highlighted the new
performance management structures put in place to ensure
performance did not dip in the service again.
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7.13
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Members of the Committee asked questions and
the key points to note were: -
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7.14
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A Member of the Committee raised the
importance of understanding the acronyms and localities mentioned
in the report. ...
view the full minutes text for item 7.
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8. |
Customer Services Contact Centre Performance PDF 532 KB
Report of the Director of HR and Customer
Services
Additional documents:
Minutes:
8.1
|
The Committee received a report of the Director of HR and Customer
Services. The report provided an overview of 2021-22 year to date
performance for Customer Services Contact Centre. The report
identified issues that affected performance and identified future
developments and areas for improvement.
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8.2
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The Head of Customer Services, Paul Taylor,
explained that a similar report was presented to the Committee in
October 2021. It was mentioned that this report looked at quarter 3
for the financial year 2021/22 and quarter 4 up to the 28 February
2022.
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8.3
|
The Head of Customer Services stated that
performance in the Contact Centre had improved during March
although agreed that there was a lot of work that still needed to
be done to achieve a higher standard.
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8.4
|
The Committee were informed that the contact
centre was impacted following the pandemic which did influence
performance. Most of the staff did begin to work from home and that
was still the case for some members of the team. There was also
several members of staff assisting with the Council’s Test,
Track and Isolate team although it was anticipated that they would
return to the team at the end of March.
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8.5
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The Head of
Customer Services believed the staff were working efficiently and
was proud of how they dealt with high volumes of calls daily. It
was added that the performance figures highlighted in the report
was due to various factors such as delays with cross service
enquires and losing 4 front line advisors.
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8.6
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The Committee were informed that improvement
measures and future developments were highlighted under 5.1 of the
report.
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8.7
|
It was explained that there were new
technological innovations taking place which would improve the
customers experience, these were set to be trialled over the
upcoming weeks.
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8.8
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Customer Services were also looking to cross
skills two if the teams so that they were able to deal with
enquiries relating to the others team. This would reduce delays in
responding and relieve some pressure off the teams.
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8.9
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The Head of Customer Services referred to the
Local Government Association’s (LGA) peer review of the
contact centre, mentioned in the report. Following the review, the
LGA also stated that some grant funding may become available.
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8.10
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There was an ambition to deliver a customer
portal, that informed customers on the position of their enquiry.
This aimed to reduce the number of follow up calls. The LGA funding
would partly fund that project.
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8.11
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Members of the Committee would be welcome to
observe members of staff in customer services and also to test new
innovations if they wished.
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8.12
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Members of the Committee asked questions and
the key points to note were: -
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8.13
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A Member of the Committee raised concerns
around the pace at which the contact centre was improving. It was
mentioned that it was continuously being stated that new
developments would be put in place which would improve the
performance, although nothing seemed to really change or
...
view the full minutes text for item 8.
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9. |
Annual Housing Ombudsman Complaints Report 2020/21 PDF 261 KB
Report of the Director of HR and Customer
Services / Director of Legal and Governance
Additional documents:
Minutes:
9.1
|
The Committee received a report of the
Director of HR and Customer Services and the Director of Legal and
Governance.
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9.2
|
The
Housing Ombudsman had now issued annual Landlord performance
reports for 2020-21 but had only done so for those landlords that
had 5 or more cases determined during 2020-21. For all Landlords
with less than 5 determinations they had issued basic decision data
in a table. This was highlighted in the report.
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9.3
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RESOLVED:
The Audit & Standards Committee noted the
limited information published by the Housing Ombudsman in respect
of Sheffield City Council for the 2020-21 period.
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10. |
Work Programme PDF 56 KB
Report of the Director of Legal and
Governance.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
10.1
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The Committee considered a report of the
Director of Legal and Governance that outlined the work programme
for the remainder of the municipal year. Members were asked to
identify any further items for inclusion.
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10.2
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The Committee agreed to include an update on
SEND report to the work programme which would be brough to the
Committee around September/October 2022. As mentioned above at 7.22
of these minutes
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10.3
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The Committee agreed to include a report of
the Acting Chief Executive to the work programme as agreed above at
9.3 of these minutes.
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10.4
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RESOLVED: - that (1) the work
programme be noted; and (2) that the reports mentioned above
at 10.2 to 10.3 be included on the work programme.
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10.5
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Following the conclusion of items on the
agenda, the Committee received a report of the Head of Strategic
Finance. The purpose of this report was to provide Members of the
Audit and Standards Committee with information on the reallocation
of tasks following the retirement of the current Head of Strategic
Finance in March 2022.
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10.6
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The Chair thanked the Committee for their work
throughout the year and wished them well for the following
year.
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11. |
Dates of Future Meetings
To note that meetings of the Committee will be
held at 5.00 p.m. on:-
16 June 2022
21 July 2022
Additional documents:
Minutes:
11.1
|
It was noted that the next meeting of the
Committee would be held on 16 June 2022.
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