To consider the Annual Governance Statement for 2010/11.

The Chief Officer Finance and Commercial presented a report about the Annual Governance Statement for 2010/11.  The Statement was one of the two key documents for the Committee and was prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2003.  The main areas covered included on-going improvements to the Council’s governance and control processes such as risk management; key systems; and the controls which were introduced to cover the new arrangements with the recently established Shared Services Partnership. 

The Council was required to conduct a review of the effectiveness of the governance framework and the system of internal control at least annually. This was dealt with through the Statement which was submitted for review and approval by the Committee.  It would then be included within the Council’s Statement of Accounts. The Statement also provided information about how the Council’s governance framework and system of internal controls could be reviewed and continuously improved. 

Concerns were expressed about the adverse impact that financial cuts would have on the Council’s services, such as education where the improvements achieved since last year’s OFSTED report could be undermined.  The Chief Officer Finance and Commercial said that areas such as this would need to be carefully monitored with resilient procedures put in place, in view of the significant cuts being faced by the Council.  The Chairman said that he would like to see the rating for Children’s Services to become better than ‘adequate’.  Councillor Miller mentioned that one of the Scrutiny Task and Finish Groups would be looking specifically at this area.

Governance within parish and town councils was referred to and the impact arising from those which had decided to leave the Herefordshire association of Local Councils (HALC).  The Assistant Director Law, Governance & Resilience said that HALC provided an important service to all local councils and also offered advice about governance issues to those who were not members of it.  The large number of local councils in the County made it unviable and impractical for the Council to become involved with them individually.

A question was asked about the PACT meetings. The Chief Officer Finance and Commercial said that the success of the meetings had been somewhat variable but that the Council was embarking on a process of establishing the ‘nine localities’ approach.  Work had been carried out over the past year with the Council’s partners to develop an improved approach to meeting the needs of local communities. The aim was to gain a better understanding of communities and to encourage service providers to work better together to develop localised service delivery, community leadership and community engagement leading to empowerment.  Each of the nine localities had been allocated a senior manager as lead officer and during forthcoming months the new arrangements would be developed with Local Ward Members.

Having carefully considered all aspects of the Statement, the Committee agreed with the proposals put forward by the Chief Officer Finance and Commercial.

RESOLVED THAT

the draft Annual Governance Statement 2010/11 set out in the report of the Chief Officer Finance and Commercial be approved for inclusion in the Statement of Accounts for 2010/11.