Meeting documents

No.

Issue

Action

1.

Business Continuity Management

Under the Civil Contingencies Act Local Authorities have a statutory duty to have plans in place to ensure they can continue to deliver critical services.

All Council Services must have up to date documented Business Continuity Plans, which have been adequately tested and are accessible to staff pre-designated as `Key' for the purposes of ensuring continuity of service provision.

a) A responsible officer or service will be identified to provide a lead on business continuity.

b) This officer/service will review the robustness of Service Continuity Plans and work with Heads of Service to ensure plans are documented, accessible, and tested.

c) They will report to the Support Services Director and Members on the state of Business Continuity.

2.

Capital Funding & Major Projects

The Council is exposed to significant risks in relation to the management of the Capital Programme.

On 21^st February 2006 the Council approved a capital payments budget for 2006/7, noted the indicative budgets for future years, and noted the continuing work on the Capital Programme Review which was approved at the Council meeting on 17^th November 2005.

The Bath Spa Project has continued to attract significant public interest during 2005/6.

a) The risk contingency position will continue to be monitored through the Budget & Financial Plan process by the Executive and full Council.

b) Part II of the Capital Review examining capital planning and monitoring processes and reporting will report to the Executive in July 2006. Implementation of agreed actions will be monitored.

Comment: Following the decision by the Council to take back control of the Project and appoint new Project Managers progress has been positive and the building is on track for completion in the early summer of 2006.

3.

Payroll

The Payroll System internal controls need to be enhanced to reduce the risk of overpayments, fraud, miscoding and poor budgetary management.

Areas for improvement include:

B7 Authorised Signatories

B7 Payroll Reporting

B7 Security of Personal/Sensitive data

B7 System Administration

a) The mix of preventive, detective and corrective internal controls need to be considered as a matter of urgency in relation to authorising payroll documentation and system reporting to ensure a robust system of internal controls is in place and operating effectively.

b) Action must be taken to minimise the probability of non - payroll staff having unauthorised access to payroll information / data.

c) Responsibilities have to be allocated to ensure an adequate separation of duties between processing and system administration.

4.

Safer Recruitment

The Children Act 2004 established a statutory duty on Local Authorities and other key partners to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children. Protection of children was the subject of much publicity in early 2006 which resulted in the Secretary of State for Education reissuing guidance which confirmed the mandatory requirement for schools and other employers in the education service to obtain a CRB check for new employees.

A Briefing Note was e-mailed to all schools and relevant Officers on 22^nd February 2006. This contained the updated sections to the Schools Personnel Procedures and Guidelines Manual in respect of:

1) Section 1.3 - Guidance on vetting procedure for staff working with children.

2) Section 1.7 - Criminal Records Bureau Guidance.

The Area Child Protection Committee (now Local Safeguarding Children Board) has also recommended to all agencies that they have CRB checks for all existing and newly appointed staff and that these are updated on a regular basis. All ACPC members agreed to promote this standard within their agency and report back to the LSCB on progress.

Improvements are still necessary corporately in respect of recruitment practice to safeguard

children and vulnerable adults -

B7 Obtaining CRB and List 99 checks.

B7 Obtaining up to date personal references from a reliable source.

1) Human Resources need to develop a Corporate Policy for `Protecting Children & Vulnerable Adults'. This should be prioritised.

2) The system administered by People Services to request, and communicate the results of CRB disclosures need additional controls to be put in place to ensure all applicable new starters are vetted within a reasonable timescale.

3) Schools should be asked to confirm that they hold for each member of staff employed since the establishment of the CRB (under Part V of the Police Act 1997) in March 2002 confirmation of a satisfactory disclosure being obtained.

4) The Council will obtain assurance that self governing bodies such as schools comply with Council Policies in relation to the protection of children and vulnerable adults.

5.

Information Management

An Information Strategy is required to ensure that the organisation has clear objectives on how it wishes to handle its information needs in conducting its business.

An Information Management Strategy should be put in place within the year along with corporate standards for how information is to be handled, stored, protected and used.

6.

Partnerships

Partnership working is a highly beneficial way of achieving objectives but they can also be highly complex and bring a higher exposure to risk for the Council. Improvements are therefore required to our governance and support arrangements to reflect this.

Governance Arrangements should be reviewed and improved through the development of the new Local Area Agreements and the key principles used as a model for all types of partnership. This will include improvements to Performance, Financial and Risk Management arrangements.