Agenda item

6.1

Gillian Duckworth, Director of Legal and Governance attended the meeting and presented the report.

6.2

The Council is required to produce and have signed off, as part of its annual accounts, an Annual Governance Statement (AGS). The statement is intended to identify any significant control weaknesses and also to set out how the Council intends to address any weaknesses identified.

6.3

The AGS covered the 2019/20 period, so the majority of the impact of Covid-19 and how governance has changed will be covered in the 2020/21 AGS.

6.4

Areas of weakness included SEND performance.  A lot of work had been done to improve performance and this year had seen an increase in demand which has slowed progress, however, there was confidence that SEND performance was now showing an improvement.  The second area of weakness was a failure to meet ombudsman response time.  This would be referred to EMT to agree a strategy to improve performance.

6.5

The Chair asked who monitored ombudsman performance and Gillian Duckworth explained that there is a dedicated Ombudsman team within customer services but that it was Directors that were required to take action, EMT considered the reports and an annual monitoring report is submitted to Audit and Standards Committee.

6.6

Councillor Adam Hurst asked whether an organisation without a good reputation with the ombudsman was at more of a risk of maladministration.  Gillian Duckworth explained that each case was considered by the Ombudsman on its own merit, but there could be a reputational risk.

6.7

Councillor Mohammed Mahroof raised concerns around SEND performance and felt that the process needed to be sped up.  The Chair felt that this was an issue for Scrutiny Members to raise with the relevant Cabinet Member.  Gillian Duckworth noted that it was a serious issue which was why it was raised in the AGS.

6.8

RESOLVED: that the contents of the Statement and that this has

been signed by the Council Leader, Chief Executive and the Executive Director of Resources and that the statement forms part of the Annual Accounts, be noted.