Agenda item

The report was noted for information.

Officers from Audit Wales provided an overview to the circulated report. Members commented on the following and made a request for clarity to,

·        The use of acronyms and abbreviations detailed within reports, not being understood by members.

·        Further clarification to the use of BI, and it is full terminology.

Audit Wales went on to provide an overview to the circulated report, in particular the findings of the work undertaken. Ongoing programmes of work where the Auditor General must assess the extent of which bodies have acted in accordance with the sustainable development principle. Primary Question the review looked to answer was how the Council has acted in accordance with the sustainable development principle when setting its new well-being objectives.

Members attention was drawn to appendix 1 of the report, which sets out positive indicators that illustrate what good would look like for the authority in setting well established well-being objectives. Not all indicators were reviewed in the process.

Overall, the conclusion is set out on page 44 of the report, where the council were found to have applied the Sustainable Development Principle and conducted extensive engagement when setting its well-being objectives but will need to further develop its monitoring arrangements. Members were informed further developments in monitoring arrangements would need to be actioned. Examples presented to the Committee from the findings and to demonstrate the positive outcome were:

·        the understanding of future trends and needs and the longer-term status as set out in the Corporate Plan, which was deemed a useful exercise. Engagement with internal and external partners, organisations etc. was deemed effective which had assisted in shaping the well-being objectives.

·        The third positive outcome noted, was that each well-being objective had its own responsible lead, led by individual Directors. Cross cutting themes and the importance to these were also highlighted.

Members were told, several areas for improvement areas including:

·        More to be done to fully understand how and when the Council’s partners will support the delivery of its WBOs and to clearly articulate this in Service Recovery Plans.

·        The Council should develop a clearer understanding for how it is using its resources to deliver its WBOs. Doing this will strengthen the relationship between its resources allocation and delivering on its priorities.

·        The arrangements for monitoring delivery of WBOs need to be further developed. Particularly around ensuring that the current suite of measures is more outcome focused as this will help it to improve how its measures progress on the cross-cutting WBOs.

The areas for improvement had formed the basis for the recommendations being found on page 48 of the circulated report pack.

The Chair went on to ask for clarification to the use of abbreviation Power B1 within the report. Audit Wales confirmed Power BI was a piece of software used to visualize performance information and present such information in an alternative format. The Chief Finance Officer informed the Committee that a new data team had been established within the digital services department to action Power BI. The committee were also told BI stood for Business Intelligence for clarification. The Chair also went on to make clear reference to careful interpretation used within reports i.e., presenting useful information and then using words like, however.

Officers went on and brought the Committees attention to page 56 of the agenda report pack and the Councils response to the recommendations, which were presented to Cabinet on the 20^th of September 2023 and approved at this meeting. Each response can be seen in bullet form against each recommendation outlined by Audit Wales.

The corporate plan for the next financial years 2024 onwards is currently being revised. Officers stated this would be a good opportunity to address the first bullet point, The Medium-Term Financial Plan is being conducted in parallel with the revision of the corporate plan for 2024 onwards. Officers added that it was already recognised that the current Corporate Performance Management framework does not contain an adequate basket of outcome measures.

Members went on to congratulate Audit Wales on the report and note the positive outcomes for the Council.

Resolved:

The report was noted for information.