Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.    

There were no declarations of interest.

RECOMMENDED that the minutes of the meeting held on 24 January 2024 be approved and signed by the Chair as a correct record.

The minutes of the meeting held on 24 January 2024 were confirmed and signed as a correct record.

Purpose

The purpose of this report is to inform the committee of any Data Security Breaches and enable them to determine whether any trends appear and whether any further actions should be recommended.

Recommendation

RECOMMENDED that the Governance & Audit & Standards Committee notes the breaches that have arisen.

(TAKE IN REPORT)

Helen Magri, Corporate Information Governance & Data Protection Officer, introduced the report which informed the Committee of Data Security Breaches that had occurred since September 2023.

She explained that there was nothing significant to report and advised that trends in respect of breaches had remained similar to previous reporting periods. No breaches had reached the threshold for them to be reported to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

The committee noted that almost all breaches had been down to human error and enquired as to how such breaches could be mitigated against in the future.

In reply, the Corporate Information Governance & Data Protection Officer explained that staff training was important and that IT solutions had been introduced to assist.  This included 'mail tips' which flagged up a message when an email was sent to somebody outside of the council as a reminder to check that the correct information was being sent to the correct person and the use of file sharing within SharePoint to share files, rather than attach files to emails.

In respect of a specific case highlighted by the committee involving incorrect pupil details being sent to a school, this had occurred due to the two pupils having the same name.  This case had not reached the ICO threshold as the school was a 'trusted partner', the mistake had been identified immediately and mitigated by the school deleting the email.

RESOLVED that the committee NOTED the breaches that had arisen.

Purpose

To report significant performance issues, arising from Q3 2023-24 performance monitoring, to Governance and Audit and Standards Committee and highlight areas for further action or analysis.

Recommendations

It is recommended that the Governance and Audit and Standards Committee:

(i)         notes the report in the revised format; and

(ii)       agrees if any further action is required in response to performance issues highlighted.

(TAKE IN REPORT)

Paddy May, Corporate Strategy Manager, introduced the report which detailed any significant performance issues arising from Q3 2023-24 performance monitoring.

One of the key themes which the report highlighted was demand led services and in particular the high demand in adults and children's social care and housing.  These were reflective of national trends and presented challenges around costs, the workforce, risks and outcomes.  The council was undertaking strong work on preventative practices, which in time was predicted to reduce workload on demand led services.

Other key themes were recruitment and retention issues in the workforce and the Productivity Plans recently announced by the Secretary of State for DLUCH on 24 January 2024.

The council had until July 2024 to publish its plans, the focus around how the council will improve service performance and reduce wasteful expenditure to ensure every area is making best use of taxpayers’ money.

On 6 February a further announcement clarified the four areas expected to be covered by the plans:

1) transformation of services to make better use of resources;

2) opportunities to take advantage of advances in technology and make better use of data to inform decision making and service design;

3) ways to reduce wasteful spend within systems, including specific consideration of expenditure on consultants and discredited staff Equality, Diversity and Inclusion programmes – this does not include programmes designed to promote integration and civic pride, and counter extremism; and

4) barriers preventing activity that the Government can help to reduce or remove.

In response to a question, the Corporate Strategy Manager confirmed that the further guidance on Productivity Plans referred to in the report was still awaited.

In response to further questions the Corporate Strategy Manager:

·       Confirmed that the 'Homes for Ukraine' scheme had been extended, albeit in a slightly reduced form with a lower level visa, but this confirmation had not been received prior to the drafting of the report;

·       Explained that the recycling rate figure for October 2023 detailed within the report was provisional, pending confirmation from DEFRA;

·       Advised that the new KPI structure was discussed at directors board meetings and that year end would provide an ideal opportunity for their appropriateness and robustness to be reviewed with directors to inform the KPI's to be used in the coming year.

To ensure that members are fully informed, the Chair encouraged directors to provide commentary on each KPI item in future reports.

RESOLVED that the committee NOTED the report.

Purpose

The purpose of this report is to present the proposed Internal Audit Plan for 2024/25 to the committee for approval.

Recommendation

Recommended that the proposed Internal Audit Plan for 2024/25 be approved.

(TAKE IN REPORT)

Elizabeth Goodwin, Chief Internal Auditor, introduced the report which presented the proposed Internal Audit Plan for 2024/25 to the committee for approval.

RESOLVED that the proposed Internal Audit Plan for 2024/25 be APPROVED.

Purpose

The purpose of this report is to obtain the Council’s approval of the updated Treasury Management Policy Statement (attached) which includes the Annual Investment Strategy.

Recommendation

RECOMMENDED that the Committee note the recommendations in section 3 of the report that will go on to Full Council for approval.

(TAKE IN REPORT)

Helen Klemm, Finance Manager (Technical & Financial Planning) introduced the report which contained the updated Treasury Management Policy Statement which included the Annual Investment Strategy.

It was confirmed that there were no proposed changes from the previous year's Treasury Management Policy and it was confirmed that training around the topic would be provided to members in the coming municipal year.

In response to questions about short term investments, the Finance Manager explained that outside advisors were used to provide the credit rating and the council had a strict framework and limits on how much could be invested. Investments were monitored and reviewed in respect of their continued credit worthiness and compliance with the councils adopted Treasury Management Policy.

RESOLVED that the committee NOTED the recommendations in section 3 of the report which would go on to Full Council for approval.

In view of the contents of the appendices to the following item on the agenda the Committee is RECOMMENDED to adopt the following motion:

“That, under the provisions of Section 100A of the Local Government Act, 1972 as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) Act, 1985, the press and public be excluded for the consideration of the following item on the grounds that the appendices to the report contains information defined as exempt in Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972" The public interest in maintaining the exemption must outweigh the public interest in disclosing the information. Under the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) England Regulations 2012, regulation 5, the reasons for exemption of the listed appendices are shown below. (NB The exempt/confidential committee papers on the agenda will contain information which is commercially, legally or personally sensitive and should not be divulged to third parties.

Members are reminded of standing order restrictions on the disclosure of exempt information and are asked to dispose of exempt documentation as confidential waste at the conclusion of the meeting.

Item Exemption                                                                                Para No.*

9. Procurement Management Information                                           3

(Exempt Appendices 1, 2 & 3)

*3. Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information.

The Chair advised that proceedings would be kept open until such time that the committee wished to discuss the exempt appendices to the following report:

·       Procurement Management Information

At the conclusion of the consideration of the non-exempt report, the resolution to move into exempt session to consider the exempt appendices was not passed, as the committee did not have any questions specific on them.

Purpose

The purpose of the report is to provide procurement performance reports and supporting evidence to the committee in order that the committee may assess the council's performance in procuring contracts for goods, works and services on a legally compliant, value for money basis.

The report also updates the committee on progress developing procurement performance reporting.

This report is for noting.

(TAKE IN REPORT)

Richard Lock, Assistant Director, Procurement, introduced the report which provided evidence to allow the committee to evaluate the extent that Portsmouth City Council was producing contracts for goods, works and services in a legally compliant value for money basis.

He detailed the Procurement Bill which received Royal assent in October 2023 and the associated secondary legislation which was due to come out by April 2024.  Following this there would be a six-month implementation period and he offered to explain this further as part of the next bi-annual update.

In terms of spend transparency via Fusion, he advised the committee that the council was above the 95% target at 98% and whilst Children, Families and Education was below 95%, it was 100% when non relevant education funding transfers were removed from the statistics.

Spend processed via the CONTROCC system used by Adult Social Care had increased from 49% to 83% compliance and it was predicted that this would be fully compliant at the time of the next report.  Spend via SCALA, the finance system used by the port, was 100% compliant.

The next focus for procurement was the MOSAIC system used by Children's Social Care, although these transactions were relatively low risk.

In respect of direct awards, the committee was advised that new contract procedure rules were in place.  These had increased the delegated authority of directors to £150k from £100k and a large amount of self-imposed procedures had been removed in respect of direct awards for grants where regulations gave justification for making such awards.

The number of direct awards being reported had halved and he advised that there were no high-risk awards to report.

One medium risk was 'spot purchasing' by Adult Social Care, however this was the nature of contracts awarded by this service due to its reactive nature and the requirement to quickly address the needs of clients.  A simple mitigation was in place of publishing an advert to allow contractors to input into the process.  This approach was not unusual.

In respect of Contract Management KPI's, the target was to roil out to all contracts over £1m and this would equate to 80-90% of actual spend.  This would become even more important, as under the Procurement Bill, all new contract KPI's over £5m, apart from those which were exempted, would need to be published.

In response to questions, the committee was advised that:

·       In respect of KPI's, the previous report had focussed on a smaller number of higher value contracts and this was the reason why the number of contracts reported on in this period was much higher, but with a similar total value; and

·       In respect of the 0% compliance figure provided for transactions under the MOSAIC system, this reflected the fact that there were no entries on the Indeed contract monitoring system and did not mean that contracts had not been lawfully awarded.

RESOLVED that the committee NOTED the update report.