Wrthi'n llwytho
Y penderfyniadau fel y mae cofnodion y cyngor yn eu cofnodi. Bydd crynodeb mewn iaith glir yn dilyn pan fydd wedi'i ysgrifennu.
RESOLVED: 1. That the report be noted; 2. That Members send any further questions on the Education and Lifelong Learning Directorate Control Environment report, relevant to the committee’s terms of reference, to the Audit Manager.
RESOLVED – That the report be noted.
RESOLVED – That the report be noted.
RESOLVED – That the report be noted.
RESOLVED – That the report be noted.
RESOLVED – That the report be noted.
RESOLVED – That the report be noted.
RESOLVED – That the report be noted.
RESOLVED – That the outstanding actions be noted.
RESOLVED – That: 1. The contents of the Internal Audit and Investigation Team Progress Reports be noted; 2. The deferral of the 27 audits from the Audit Plan 2024/25, as highlighted in Appendix B, be approved.
RESOLVED – That the correspondence be noted.
RESOLVED – That the report be noted.
There were no apologies.
There were no declarations of interest.
The minutes of the meeting held on 10th September 2024 were approved by the Committee as a correct record and signed by the Chair.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
RESOLVED: 1. That the report be noted; 2. That Members send any further questions on the Education and Lifelong Learning Directorate Control Environment report, relevant to the committee’s terms of reference, to the Audit Manager.
The Committee received a report in response to its request for an update on the Education and Lifelong Learning control environment. The Committee had requested this update in respect of its role to: - Monitor progress in addressing risk-related issues reported to the committee. - Consider reports on the effectiveness of internal controls and monitor the implementation of agreed actions. - Consider the Council’s framework of assurance and ensure that it adequately addresses the risk and priorities of the Council. - Consider the Council’s arrangements to secure value for money and review assurances and assessments on the effectiveness of these arrangements. - Review the assessment of fraud risks and potential harm to the council from fraud and corruption. - Review the governance and assurance arrangements for significant partnerships or collaborations. - Review and assess the authority’s ability to handle complaints effectively and make any associated reports and recommendations. The Chair welcomed Mel Godfrey (Director of Education & Lifelong Learning), who highlighted the key points of the report. She emphasised that it reflected the complexity of the education system, which oversaw 129 schools in Cardiff, with the directorate split into four main areas: the inclusion service, services to schools, head of achievement and school building and organisation planning. Reforms to the education system as well as a lack of funding nationally made it a challenging situation, with one key change being the school improvement service. She explained that the directorate handled three sets of governance arrangements on a daily basis: governance and assurance of the directorate itself, governance and assurance of the schools, and governance and assurance of the school improvement service. Safeguarding and health and safety were key, as were standards of teaching and learning. Internal audit and assurance arrangements involved regular monitoring meetings and relationships with schools based on trust, and with risks monitored through the corporate risk register. The directorate risk register allowed for escalation of risks into the corporate register when deemed necessary. Estyn inspections were routine, and Cardiff held its own in the CSC. The joint inspection of child services included education and reported positive safeguarding and protection arrangements. Significant work was being done on directorate complaints, also with positive results. Some of these were complex and would take considerable time to resolve, but there was a good picture overall of school complaints over the last four years The Chair then opened the debate on this item. Those discussions are summarised as follows: Members queried the main areas of concern within the audit function and heard that these pertained to ICT and the catering service, both of which had been referred to audit colleagues and following the audit reports were under substantial review. It was important to respond in a timely fashion, and the report referred to a tracking system which was intended to deliver improvements on this. Members noted that more than a third of schools in Cardiff had set a deficit budget and noted a projected overspend of £4.4m, which was a relatively low percentage of the total budget. Officers acknowledged the considerable pressures on schools, with increasing costs and reliance on grants which did not necessarily reflect that, as well as the lingering impact of Covid. Learners coming through the system needed greater support, and remained front and centre of the directorate’s work, with officers working closely with finance colleagues and headteachers to manage budgets. The lion’s share of the overspend was due to the pressures of increased ALN and transport. ALN capacity was being built up but at the moment places were being taken up as soon as they were available. A number of reviews were currently looking at ALN, in terms of both mainstream and specialist provision, and hoped to report before Christmas. Members asked where the liability lay if a school were to run out of money, and heard that while it would be on the local authority’s balance sheet and was thus a key consideration in terms of financial resilience, the directorate’s job was to ensure schools didn’t go bankrupt by targeting their funding in an efficient and effective way. Work was ongoing on a daily basis to gather information in order to manage and address risks, and school improvement partners fed back in real time. Members queried whether a unified summary risk profile for each school could be provided to aid overarching assessment, and heard that while there was not necessarily a scorecard for each school, they were categorised leading to different responses, for example enhanced monitoring. Members queried how long schools tended to remain in the ‘causing concern’ category, and what early warning signs there might be. Officers explained that their responses were based on need, treating schools as complex, living arrangements rather than corporate entities. There was not necessarily an expected pattern or any single clear sign, so the governance and control framework and the intelligence gathered from school improvement officers and headteachers were key. Members advocated lobbying the Welsh government to consider a three year funding settlement, and heard that this was a consistent topic of engagement, not just by officers and directors but also by politicians. RESOLVED: 1. That the report be noted; 2. That Members send any further questions on the Education and Lifelong Learning Directorate Control Environment report, relevant to the committee’s terms of reference, to the Audit Manager.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
RESOLVED – That the report be noted.
The Committee received a report in response to its request for an update on the Resources control environment. The Committee had requested this update in respect of its role to: - Monitor progress in addressing risk-related issues reported to the committee. - Consider reports on the effectiveness of internal controls and monitor the implementation of agreed actions. - Consider the Council’s framework of assurance and ensure that it adequately addresses the risk and priorities of the Council. - Consider the Council’s arrangements to secure value for money and review assurances and assessments on the effectiveness of these arrangements. - Review the assessment of fraud risks and potential harm to the council from fraud and corruption. - Review the governance and assurance arrangements for significant partnerships or collaborations. - Review and assess the authority’s ability to handle complaints effectively and make any associated reports and recommendations. The Chair welcomed Chris Lee (Corporate Director of Resources), Tracey Thomas (Chief HR Officer) and Ian Allwood (Head of Finance), who gave a brief presentation outlining the directorate and key areas of internal and external audit assurance. Officers emphasised the value of close engagement with elected Members, trade unions, senior management teams and all employee groups. Key areas of work were the 2023-27 Workforce Strategy and the Major Projects programme, which included a review of the current SAP/ERP financial system. Value for money and compliance with corporate processes around complaints were essential. Overall, the directorate sought to enable the council’s objective to modernise and integrate public services, leading on governance, risk management and internal control. The Chair then opened the debate on this item. Those discussions are summarised as follows: Members explored how HR managed an organisation of Cardiff Council’s size and diversity, both in terms of its workforce and the types of services it offered. Officers explained that while some of its frameworks were relatively rigid (e.g. sickness absences), others like recruitment had very different requirements. It was important to not be so rigid that individual circumstances couldn’t be taken into account, and sanctions were generally not prescribed. Members asked whether there was authority-wide training in order to ensure consistency and enable departments to manage themselves. Officers responded that all policies and associated guides were on the HR A&Z, which employees could access, and there was mandatory training on disciplinary processes as well as attendance and wellbeing policies. If appropriate for the policy, checklists were included too. Members asked whether all staff received fraud awareness training and heard that they did, and that it had just been Fraud Awareness Week. Fraud training was regularly refreshed, with real world examples of issues like cybersecurity and phishing. Members queried the processes in place for monitoring staff productivity, and heard that there was no standard system as this wasn’t HR’s role. The council provided some 700 services in all, from waste management to social services, and it would not be feasible for one system to oversee all of this. Individual directorates needed latitude to vary their requirements depending on the nature of the work, with regular reporting on KPIs and financial monitoring information allowing them to assess overarching outcomes rather than individual productivity. Resources, for example, had a number of transactional services where it was easy to measure specific metrics, whereas other departments were more about professional advice, which was difficult to capture in a precise way. Regarding the SAP implementation, the Chair noted that changes to multifaceted services were always complex and queried the relatively short timescale for the full process. Officers noted that the current system had been in place since 2005, and with a number of processes having been put into other systems and a social care finance system in development it was the perfect opportunity to look at whether the council’s financial processes might be better suited elsewhere. The autumn 2027 timeframe would give them just under three years, with significant work having already been undertaken, and the key principle would be that processes would bend to the system used. Officers also welcomed the involvement of Internal Audit in this process as a constructive and critical friend. RESOLVED – That the report be noted.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
RESOLVED – That the report be noted.
The Corporate Director of Resources and Section 151 Officer, Chris Lee, presented a financial update including resilience issues, and gave a brief presentation outlining the current year 2024/25 monitoring position, the budget challenge for 2025/26 and the current position. He outlined a projected overspend of £6.3m and an overall efficiency savings target of £16.908m, noting that it was a similar position to last year but with higher pressures. The total budget gap had grown and would likely be £60m in 2025/26, and they continued to track ongoing risk areas, such as uncertainty over the public sector pay award, teachers’ pensions, capital financing and in-year monitoring. He noted that since the Committee’s last meeting, the UK government’s Budget had been released, with changes to National Insurance being identified as particularly important. Employer National Insurance had risen from 13.8% to 15% but the reduction in threshold above which employers had to pay it from £9,100 to £5,000 was more significant from the council’s point of view. The estimated impact on direct employees was somewhere between £10m and £12m, and more than £5m on commissioning budgets, of which £3m was adult social services and £1m was children’s services. Other potential impacts included increased costs of contractors, school catering and additional costs of businesses being passed on in increased prices. In more positive Budget news, he noted that the Welsh government would receive £774m for day-to-day spending for the current financial year. A large chunk of that (around £360m) would be spent on the public sector pay deal, but there would be a further £930m in 2025-26, some of which could go to local government. Settlement details were expected on 11th December but officers did not anticipate that it would close the budget gap. Cabinet was considering a range of options including efficiency, income and service changes, and a consultation exercise on service changes would take place after Christmas. RESOLVED – That the report be noted.
Rhan o fater a ddilynwyd ar draws 7 cyfarfod
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
RESOLVED – That the report be noted.
Julie Rees (Audit Wales) gave a quarterly update on the work programme and timetable, as of 30th September 2024. The Chair queried the progress of the capital programme management audit, and was assured that this had been issued in draft and should be finalised shortly. RESOLVED – That the report be noted.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
RESOLVED – That the report be noted.
The Committee received the draft audited statement of accounts, audit of accounts reports (ISA 260) and annual governance statement for the financial year 2023/24. The Chair welcomed Chris Lee (Corporate Director of Resources), Ian Allwood (Head of Finance) and Anil Hirani (OM Capital, Corporate and Treasury), who outlined the key points of the report. Officers noted that all the enclosed documents had come to the Committee for review previously, for example the draft Statement of Accounts in July. The documents had been through a thorough and robust process and the Committee’s feedback was welcomed and actioned where relevant, with this circulated separately to the Committee. It was important to receive wider feedback in the future from Members, to see how officers could continue to help in the Committee’s review of the accounts. Julie Rees (Audit Wales) outlined the key findings of the independent audit recommendations, noting that appendices 4-6 covered the council, the Harbour Authority and the Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan Pension Fund respectively. The reports identified no uncorrected misstatements in any of the statements. They also brought to the Committee a number of matters including the data provided to the actuary for their actuarial valuation, which impacted on the pension fund net liability. It was highlighted that consolidation of the Cardiff Capital Region City Deal (CCRCD) was based on the 2022/23 accounts due to the CCRCD accounts not being available. It was highlighted that two post-balance sheet events were reported on, namely the HMRC settlement of the landfill tax dispute (with the contingent liability removed accordingly and adjustments made within the 2023/24 accounts for the agreed settlement with HMRC) and noting that ISG Construction Limited had gone into administration. The Chair then opened the debate on this item. Those discussions are summarised as follows: Members noted that the information on political groups in the report needed updating, and were assured that this would be amended in the final document. Members explored the issue of school budgets and how the council could manage that risk most effectively, advocating clear guidance for schools in deficit positions, and noted the impact of increased capital financing. Members asked whether the external auditor was satisfied that the extent of the landfill tax issue was sufficiently flagged up in previous accounts, and heard that the contingent liability was identified as an audit risk for a number of years and responded to accordingly. It was clarified that contingent liability referred to a possible obligation which depended on an uncertain future event or could not be measured reliably, and the external auditor considered this to be a suitable classification. Members queried the impact of changes to the legal structure of the Cardiff City Region on the current year’s and next year’s accounts. Officers explained that as this structure would change from 1st April, it had no impact on the 2023/24 accounts, but they would consider what it meant for the ten bodies in the following year. RESOLVED – That the report be noted.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
RESOLVED – That the report be noted.
Julie Rees (Audit Wales) noted that the annual report of the Cardiff & Vale of Glamorgan Pension Fund would be considered by the Pensions Committee the day after this meeting, and thanked officers for their continuing support. RESOLVED – That the report be noted.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
RESOLVED – That the report be noted.
The Committee received a report on the risk management position at quarter two of 2024/25. Ian Allwood (Head of Finance) highlighted the detailed corporate risk register at Appendix B and noted that the report would be considered by Cabinet in December. The Chair asked whether the dashboard page could include more detail with regard to reduction dates and their slippage over time. Officers agreed that highlighting slipped dates, for instance in terms of financial resilience, was important, and individual ones could be identified in a paragraph of the covering report. They were trying to have each of the dashboards speak for themselves, and would have a new report from Q3 on a more usable interface for this information, to be trialled with directorates from January. RESOLVED – That the report be noted.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
RESOLVED – That the report be noted.
The Committee received a report on the Council’s Treasury Management Activities since 1 April 2024 and the position as at 30 September 2024. It provided Members with the mid-year treasury management report before submission to Council on 28th November 2024. The Chair advised that Annexes B & C of Appendix 1 were not for publication as they contained exempt information of the description in paragraphs 14 and 21 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972. Anil Hirani (OM Capital, Corporate and Treasury) explained that the treasury strategy aimed to meet agreed capital investment requirements and ensure sufficient funds were available for day-to-day funding requirements. He gave a brief overview of the wider economic factors that influenced the council, notably interest rates which had an impact on borrowing, and were expected to fall in the medium term but slower than initially expected. He added that £50m of new external borrowing had been undertaken in the first half of the year along with a further £50m in October, and the report detailed the rates and periods of this. It was an iterative process, and no limits set mid-year were in need of adjusting, though some capital expenditure plans were delayed due to the timing of projects. The Chair noted the risk regarding interest rates if entry into longer-term borrowing were poorly timed, and asked how this was mitigated. Officers responded that the need to borrow was a consequence of the council’s agreed long-term investment programme. Officers continued to work with treasury advisors to understand the timing of borrowing. There were risks inherent to short-term refinancing risk and the increased capital programme too, but they would take on all relevant advice and follow a pragmatic approach to ensure that the council had the funds it needed to manage day to day activities as well. RESOLVED – That the report be noted.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
RESOLVED – That the outstanding actions be noted.
The Audit Manager noted the resolved actions from previous meetings, referring to the action owner and an indicative timeline. RESOLVED – That the outstanding actions be noted.
Rhan o fater a ddilynwyd ar draws 8 cyfarfod
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
RESOLVED – That: 1. The contents of the Internal Audit and Investigation Team Progress Reports be noted; 2. The deferral of the 27 audits from the Audit Plan 2024/25, as highlighted in Appendix B, be approved.
The Audit Manager, Chris Pyke, presented the quarterly progress report providing the Committee with an update on the work and performance of the Internal Audit and Investigation Teams covering the period from 1st July – 30th September. He drew out a number of key aspects, noting that new global internal audit standards and their accompanying guidance would take effect from April, with one relevant consultation having finished in October and another concluding in November. The council had responded to the consultation on the CIPFA code of practice related to governance domain, and a briefing session on the standards as associated requirements and core knowledge would come to the Committee’s annual workshop in January. In January, the Committee would also receive an updated internal audit charter and strategy encompassing the new requirements, requiring a small adjustment to its terms of reference. He also highlighted the two annexes to the report, which updated Members on the work of Internal Audit and the Investigation Team respectively. The Chair then opened the debate on this item. Those discussions are summarised as follows: A Member referred to the landfill tax dispute and queried when Internal Audit and the Committee were made aware of the magnitude of the liability. Officers explained that over a number of years there has been a systematic and co-ordinated approach to seeking assurance on matters of internal control across the waste management service. In establishing the audit plan, there has been engagement with management and the Governance and Audit Committee, and management have attended Committee on a regular basis to discuss their directorate control environment and associated assurances. There have been briefings between officers and Members on control matters in waste management. The internal audit plan is prepared on an annual basis and is considered and approved by the Governance and Audit Committee each year. The quantity of any liability would not have been discussed with the Committee as there was no concrete figure until the settlement was reached, making it a contingent liability in the accounts. Members queried part of the report which rated the cybersecurity schools audit as insufficient with major improvement needed. Officers explained that this particular report looked at the corporate IT arrangements for service, covering various strands like the education technology investment programme, education and training and corporate governance and oversight arrangements. Members noted that schools formed a multi-party ecosystem alongside the managed service and third parties, and advocated minimising and mitigating risk to ensure a robust system. RESOLVED – That: 1. The contents of the Internal Audit and Investigation Team Progress Reports be noted; 2. The deferral of the 27 audits from the Audit Plan 2024/25, as highlighted in Appendix B, be approved.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
RESOLVED – That the correspondence be noted.
The Audit Manager explained that this was a compilation of correspondence from other committees, which he had reviewed and included links to those papers for information. He noted the importance of working in coordination with other committees and avoiding duplication. RESOLVED – That the correspondence be noted.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
RESOLVED – That the report be noted.
The Chair noted that there had been a request from Cllr Berman for an additional meeting to be organised in the new year specifically regarding the landfill tax dispute. The Committee discussed this request and were in agreement that the item should be considered as a significant substantive item at an ordinary meeting. RESOLVED – That the report be noted.
There were no urgent items.
The next meeting of the Committee was scheduled to take place on 28th January 2025.
Rhaid i gynghorwyr ddweud pan fydd ganddyn nhw gysylltiad personol â rhywbeth sy'n cael ei drafod, fel swydd, eiddo neu aelod o'r teulu. Mae buddiant sy'n rhagfarnu yn ddigon cryf i'r cynghorydd adael yr ystafell fel arfer a pheidio â chymryd rhan.
Caiff datganiadau eu darllen o'r cofnodion unwaith y byddan nhw wedi'u cyhoeddi.
Yn rhestru cynghorwyr presennol y cyngor yn unig. Nid yw aelodau cyfetholedig, swyddogion a chyn-gynghorwyr yn cael eu dangos.