Agenda item
Annual Governance Statement
This report sets out the revised Annual Governance Statement for inclusion in the council’s accounts for 2010/11 as required by the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2003 (as amended).
Minutes:
This report set out the revised Annual Governance Statement for publication as required by the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2003.
Clive Heaphy informed the Committee that during the course of the year, Brent Housing Partnership (BHP) had been purchasing homes for temporary accommodation under the settled homes initiative backed by loans of more than £54m from the Council. Whilst the scheme appeared to be operating well, a number of problems had arisen in respect of out-of-borough purchases which suggested that in this particular area, internal controls including financial controls were not as robust as required. Work was being undertaken to strengthen the controls and ensure that no repetition could take place in the current or future years. He then set out a number of significant governance issues which had been identified, together with a summary of the actions taken to date, or being proposed for 2011/12 to deal with them. These included the following;
· The One Council programme had continued to progress during 2010/11 and robust governance arrangements were in place to manage the programme to ensure the delivery of efficient and effective services to the public. This remained the key area of focus for the Council going into 2011/12. In addition to staffing, the Council was also looking at all its services to identify possible further areas for savings and in that regard consultation with residents and all other key stakeholders would continue to be of significant importance as were equalities issues.
· The introduction of significant changes of a single accounting system (Oracle) to replace a multitude of departmentally based systems and the local government of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) had generally been smooth but not without its challenges.
· The Council had been progressing with the construction of the new civic centre, which was expected to be in use by March 2013. As well as significant financial benefits of between £2.6m - £4.3m per year through reduced rental, running and maintenance costs, there were also significant risks associated with the project, given its scale both in capital terms, rationalisation of the Council’s property portfolio and the changes to new ways of working.
· The Government’s decision to abolish the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme during 2010/11 had a significant impact on the Council as four schools had been allocated a total of £80million under the programme. Children & Families had identified a potential of approximately 188 unplaced Reception pupils for September 2011 and actions were being determined to avoid the Council failing to meet its statutory duty to ensure sufficiency of school places, but this represents a key area of challenge.
· Progress had been made in recovering deposits following the collapse of the Icelandic banks with the Council expected to recover about 80% of the £10m deposited with Heritable Bank. The position in respect of Glitnir was still being determined and may take much of 2011/12 to fully resolve.
· Progress had been made in developing more sophisticated models of the financial performance in Environment and Neighbourhood in particular, waste management and parking account.
· Children and Families reported a significant budget over spend both for the service for children with disabilities and children’s Social Care Placements and Special Education Needs (SEN) Statements. It was noted that measures to address the over spend would be taken through consultation with the Schools Forum during 2011/12.
· Joint action was being taken between Children & Families, Finance & Corporate Services, and Legal & Procurement, partly to assist the schools which had entered into leasing arrangements without the Director’s approval. Significant control failures identified in relation to the education capital portfolio, following the transfer of responsibility from Children & Families to the newly formed Regeneration & Major Works department had been largely rectified with clear governance arrangements and protocol were in place for head teachers and chairs of governors to follow.
In conclusion, the Director stated that steps would be taken over the coming year to address the above matters to further enhance our governance arrangements. He remained satisfied that the steps would address the need for improvements that were identified in the review of effectiveness and would monitor their implementation and operation as part of our next annual review.
RESOLVED:-
that the Annual Governance Statement be noted.
Supporting documents: