Issue - meetings

This report provides an update against the Annual Governance Statement (AGS) Action Plan which identified actions to be taken to address the significant governance issues identified in the 2022/23 AGS.

Progress against the agreed action plan is as follows:

BCP Council Assurance Review – robust arrangements to monitor and deliver the action plan are in place.

Dedicated School Grant (DSG) - The Council is part of the Department for Education’s Safety Valve programme focused on supporting those authorities with the highest deficits on the High Needs Block of their DSG.

BCP FuturePlaces Ltd - the Council took the decision to close BCP FuturePlaces Limited in September 2023. Lessons learnt concerning the arrangements for managing BCP FuturePlaces form part of a wider review of Council wholly or partly-owned entities. The specific governance issues in relation to BCP FuturePlaces and the actions identified have been superseded.

Delay in the completion of the 2021/22 External Audit - The 2021/22 external audit of the statement of accounts is not yet finalised. The draft Audit Findings report was taken to Audit & Governance Committee in November 2023; the main area of work not concluded was in respect of the Pension Fund due to a delay in receiving a response from the auditor of the Dorset Pension Fund. It is hoped this will be completed in early 2024. The audit of the 2022/23 financial statements is also delayed.

The value for money work for 2021/22 and 2022/23 has been completed.

Mandatory Training – the actions identified have been rolled out and completion rates had increased to 62% as of November 2023.

The update against the issues from the Financial Management Code self-assessment concluded that BCP Council was compliant with the Code. Two issues, 1 and 3 at table 2 below, are now addressed and the implementation of the new finance system will facilitate the full implementation of two further issues,4 and 5 at table 2. Full implementation of the remaining recommendation, 2 at table 2, is partially contingent on the delivery of the Corporate Landlord Model and is progressing.

The AGS is required to cover the year ending 31^st March 2023 but also “…to the date of the publication of the Statement of Accounts”. Up to the point of formal publication, which is after the External Auditor has reported the audit opinion, the Council must ask itself if any retrospective significant governance issues have been identified likely to have existed in 2022/23. 

Whilst a number of significant governance related reviews have taken place since the original AGS was agreed, no significant new governance issue were identified in these reviews. It is concluded therefore that all significant governance issues were either pre-identified or featured in the BCP Council Assurance Review already included in the AGS.  

The Head of Audit and Management Assurance presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'D' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

The report outlined progress on actions to be taken to address the five significant governance issues identified in the 2022/23 draft Annual Governance Statement (AGS). Members were referred to Table 1 of the report for a more detailed update against the action plan in relation to each issue. Members were also provided with an update against compliance with the Financial Management Code (FM Code). It was noted that the self-assessment reported in July concluded that the Council was compliant with the FM Code with some opportunities for further improvement remaining. Table 2 of the report provided a more detailed update against actions required in these areas of improvement.

RESOLVED that

a)    the progress made to address the significant governance issues on the BCP Council Annual Governance Statement Action Plan 2022/23 be noted

b)    the position in respect of compliance with the Financial Management Code be noted

Voting: Unanimous