Issue - meetings

Purpose of the Report

To put forward the Annual Governance Statement for 2020/21 for approval.

Decision

(1)         That the Final Annual Governance Statement for 2020/21 be approved.

(2)         That it be noted that the monitoring of progress on the significant issues identified over the coming year would be completed by the Audit Committee, with issues reported by exception to the Executive.

Alternative Options Considered and Rejected

None were considered.

Reasons for the Decision

The Annual Governance Statement was completed each year, as an assessment of how the Council had complied with its code of corporate governance.  For 2020/21, in addition to the usual considerations, the Annual Governance Statement had taken account of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The assessment for 2020/21 had concluded that two of the three significant governance issues from 2019/20 would remain, with revised aims and action plans. These were: (1) the Disaster Recovery Plan for IT arrangements; and (2) the re-profiling of Vision 2025, with its communication to a wider audience in the light of Covid-19 impact.  Both (1) and (2) had made significant progress during 2020/21, but they would need a revised focus as a direct result of the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.  

The review of impact of Covid-19 on the Council’s service delivery and embedding new ways of working for staff had been logged as a significant governance issue in 2019/20, but was no longer considered significant.  No other significant issues had been identified for inclusion 2020/21 Annual Governance Statement.