Agenda item

6.1

The Committee received a report of the Director of Policy & Democratic Engagement. The Governance Review Implementation Plan (GRIP) addressed issues arising from the six-month Governance Review which was presented to Full Council in May 2023 as part of the Annual General Meeting. The majority of the actions were for officers to undertake over the coming year and were predominantly practical actions to support the continuous improvement of the Council’s governance. The Governance Committee will receive regular updates on progress over the coming year. This was the first update for the Committee on initial progress.

6.2

The Head of Policy and Partnerships, Laurie Brennan, mentioned that the GRIP would be appended to each formal committee meeting agenda, so that Members had sight of the progress of the actions highlighted in the plan.

6.3

Members of the Committee asked questions and made comments and the key points to note were: -

6.4

A Member of the Committee mentioned they would be happy for the plan to remain in its current table format for the remainder of the year, as it was clear and gave Members sight of the progress against these actions.

6.5

A Member of the Committee referred to 4.1 of the GRIP, they stated that more work needed to be done on this which linked to policy committee remits which was a function to be explored further, as part of the Governance Committee’s work plan. The Member believed that some work had already begun outside of this Committee on this, therefore, this should be highlighted within the plan.

The Head of Policy and Partnerships stated that this work relating to policy committee remits had began an the intention was to feed that information back into this Committee at a later stage.

6.6

A Member of the Committee believed there was a column missing on the GRIP which represented Member and public engagement.

The Head of Policy and Partnerships mentioned that officers would carry out actions in an open and transparent way where necessary.

6.7

A Member of the Committee mentioned timeliness of Members receiving reports before a meeting. He stated how it made better discussion in meetings when receiving reports in a timely manner. Therefore, wished that report deadlines be embedded into the GRIP.

The Head of Policy and Partnerships mentioned that officers had already began to discuss this issue. He asked if Members would welcome a report relating to ‘report deadlines’ at the next formal meeting of the Governance Committee.

6.8

The Chair referred to the action at 4.2 of the plan. She added that a report was to be taken to the next meeting of the Strategy and Resources Policy Committee therefore this action had already progressed.

6.9

A Member of the Committee raised her struggles as a working Member to attend all the briefings in her diary. She previously asked that online sessions to be recorded for later viewing, although the suggestion was rejected.

The Head of Policy and Partnerships stated that this topic could be explored further as part of that item in the GRIP. He also stated that he would check with the Council’s legal service as to whether there were any legal implications with recording meetings.

The Interim General Council (David Hollis) explained that this topic had been raised with him recently and that he was looking into this issue further. He added that there were other factors to consider, such as the Council’s retention policy and whether then the recordings would be subject to Freedom of Information requests.

6.10

RESOLVED: That the Committee notes the progress against actions in the Governance Review Implementation Plan.