Venue: Multi-Location Meeting - Council Chamber, Port Talbot & Microsoft Teams. View directions
Contact: Naidine Jones Email: n.s.jones@npt.gov.uk
No. | Item |
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Chairperson's Announcement/s Minutes: The
Chairperson welcomed all to the meeting. |
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Minutes of Previous Meeting Minutes: Members highlighted in relation to Item 6
Audit Wales – Closure of Accounts, it stated, additional work was required to be undertaken by the Finance team, the
accounts were found to be correct. Audit Wales did make a recommendation for
the Council to review the relevant policies and
procedures around the presentation of internal recharges. Officers
confirmed that the outcome of this work would be brought back to committee by
the end of this financial year. Members queried the process for the minutes of meetings. It was
explained that there was a standardised process across the Council for all
minutes. The minutes were a public
record of the decisions taken at the meeting not a verbatim record. A full record of the meeting was held on the
NPT website. These recordings are stored
on the website with no expiration date.
Members had the opportunity to bring any issues on the accuracy of those
minutes when raised at the subsequent meeting. Members referred to page 9,
Internal Audit Update Report 2024/25 and asked that a fuller more detailed
response be provided in future in with regards “Responses from
Directors/Heads of Service/Headteachers to Limited/No Assurance Internal Audit
Reports" |
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Forward Work Programme Minutes: The Forward Work Programme was noted. Members noted that a further report “Relationships between Standards
Committee and Governance and Audit Committee would be put on the agenda for the
February meeting of this committee. The report had already been considered and
approved at the last meeting of the Standards Committee. In addition, it was agreed that Officers would programme in to the
Committees FWP for members to undertake a Self Assessment on how effective and
productive they felt the Committee was.. Discussion took place on the amount of items for consideration at
meetings and whether there was an opportunity for more meetings to be programme
in. |
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Additional documents: Minutes: Audit Wales officers provided Members with
an overview of the recently published report - Digital by Design? Lessons from
our digital strategy review across councils in Wales, as detailed in the
circulated papers. They explained that the thematic report had
been produced following a digital strategy review in 2023 of each of the 22
local authorities individual Digital Strategy arrangements to secure value for
money and align to the sustainable development principles. The Committee
previously received the outcome of Neath Port Talbot Council review January
2024. The thematic report has identified five key
lessons relating to evidence, collaboration, resourcing, impact and
learning. They are seen as common areas
for improvement and represent the main opportunities for councils to strengthen
their application of the sustainable development principles and securing value
for money. Under the five key lessons identified in the
report, Audit Wales has included several practice examples for council’s to note. Officers highlighted that Neath Port Talbot
was identified as a practice example in three of the five key lesson areas and
that when the Neath Port Talbot audit findings were presented in January 2024,
there was only one recommendation highlighted in an overall positive report. Members were pleased to see NPT being
recognised as an exemplar of good practice and noted the progress that had been
made through the NPT Digital, Data and Technology strategy, which is reported
on annually to Cabinet, also addressing the recommendation highlighted above. Members subsequently asked if they could
have more information in relation to Artificial Intelligence. Officers explained that an All-Members
Seminar was undertaken last year on the Digital, Data and Technology Strategy
which included elements on Artificial Intelligence. Officers are in the process of arranging an All Member seminar with Democratic Services on Artificial
Intelligence use in NPT Council and an overview of the new MyNPT
resident account. Members thanked Officers for all their hard
work. |
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Self - Assessment 2023/2024 Additional documents: Minutes: Members received an overview of the
Self-Assessment 2023/2024, as detailed in the circulated report. It was explained that the document is user
friendly and the content written in a way that ensures that Officers are held
to account for the information they add to the report. Officers stated the
capacity within the team has now strengthened. The aim is to bring the annual
report to the Committee by September 2025. Members highlighted
that it is difficult to read the document if you are looking at it from a
mobile phone, or an iPad. Members asked in
relation to Leadership and Management, do Officers have regular appraisals with
staff and are they taking place. Officers stated
there is work to do to strengthen the appraisal process. Officers have had
sight of the staff survey that was undertaken last year and the percentage of
staff who believe to have had an appraisal is not as high as expected. Officers
mentioned there will be a report taken to Governance and Audit Committee in due
course. Members asked was
the procurement strategy approved in 2024. Officers stated that it was approved
in the Summer of 2024. Members asked in
relation to ‘In the summary of performance 23/24’, it states it has 63 aims
altogether, 42 were on track and 3 were off track, what has happened to the
other aims. Members also mentioned it states there is more work to do, does
that mean off track. Members mentioned
the detail of the elements and didn’t find the narrative to be compelling to
support the change, Members asked Officers to explain this. Members asked in
relation to the improvement action plan, will there be interim reporting of
progress against the individual actions, it would be helpful to see this
progress. Officers stated in
terms of the dashboards they do need to improve on that piece of work and to
hold individual workshops for each directorate. In terms of the
Corporate Plan, Officers have moved from 2022- 2027 version and are now in
2024-2027 version, continuing through the Corporate Plan there were five year
aims initially, Officers are carrying through those aims through the Corporate
Plan to meet the wellbeing objectives. The strategic priorities sit underneath
the aims. Officers explained they want to make sure that have a mechanism for
when they get to 2027. Officers explained
in relation to the 63 aims, this was looked over a year period, whereas a lot
of priorities are over 3-4 years. Officers mentioned they need to be clearer
with regards to the off track/more to do/on track. In relation to the Improvement
Action Plan, members referred to the Action Description which stated Develop a
Medium-Term Financial Strategy, 2021/2022 self-assessment to achieve by March
2023. Members asked was that March 2023, ongoing and well overdue or should it
be March 2025 which aligns with the rest of the dates in the document. Officers stated it was due by March 2023, but it is well overdue due to the lack ... view the full minutes text for item 5. |
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Private Report of the Head of Legal Services. |
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Report of the Head of Legal Services. |
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- Committee Resolved into Open Session - |