Issue - meetings

Governance report and improvement plan

Meeting: 23/07/2024 - Council (Item 27)

27 Corporate Improvement Plan pdf icon PDF 74 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Council was reminded that, on 3 January 2024, SOLACE had been commissioned by the former Chief Executive and other statutory officers to undertake an Independent Governance Review of the Council. The scope of the review had been intentionally wide to encompass the entirety of the Council’s business, structure, processes, systems and culture.

Alongside this piece of work, SOLACE had also been commissioned to look specifically at Guildford’s housing landlord function.

Councillors noted that the main finding of the SOLACE reports was that the Council was at serious risk of failing in its statutory duty to deliver Best Value. The recommendations of both reports were designed to assist the Council to avoid such a failure, and to address the issues identified.

The reports had recognised the efforts that were already underway to improve the Council’s operation, and had recommended that the Council develop a comprehensive Improvement Plan encompassing all of the recommendations within the reports.

The SOLACE reviews had recommended that the progress of the Improvement Plan should be reported to the Council at six monthly intervals for three years. The Corporate Governance and Standards Committee had considered the SOLACE reports at its special meeting held on 15 May 2024. A copy of the relevant minute of that meeting, including the many comments made by councillors was appended to the report submitted to the Council. Officers had provided updates to the Improvement Plan and Housing Improvement sub-plan since the report to the Corporate Governance and Standards Committee in May, which were also appended to the report.

The Chief Executive had committed to provide more regular updates on our improvement plan and our progress, and had sent monthly updates to all Councillors in that regard.

Upon the motion of the Leader of the Council, Councillor Julia McShane, seconded by the Lead Councillor for Community and Organisational Development, Councillor Carla Morson, the Council

RESOLVED:

(1)  That the findings of the two SOLACE reports, attached as Appendices 1 and 2 to the report submitted to the Council be noted and endorsed.

(2) That the Improvement Plan, including the Housing sub-plan, attached at Appendices 3 and 4 to the report submitted to the Council be endorsed and adopted. 

(3) That the Council notes that the Improvement Plan (Appendix 3), along with the Housing sub-plan (Appendix 4), has addressed each and every recommendation and finding from the two SOLACE reports and, in some areas, has gone further.

(4) That the Council agrees that the intention of the delivery of the Plan is to enable Councillors to have confidence that we are delivering best value for Guildford’s residents and businesses.

(5) That the Council notes that the Chief Executive and Corporate Management Board will be accountable for the delivery of the plan.

(6) That updates be received by full Council on the delivery of the Improvement Plan, and progress on addressing the recommendations, every six months for three years.

(7) That, in line with the recommendations from SOLACE, an Independent Assurance Panel be appointed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27


Meeting: 15/05/2024 - Corporate Governance and Standards Committee (Item 3)

3 Corporate Improvement Plan pdf icon PDF 75 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee noted that, on 3 January 2024, the former Chief Executive and other statutory officers commissioned the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives (SOLACE) to undertake an Independent Governance Review of Guildford Borough Council (GBC). The scope of the review had been deliberately wide, to encompass the entirety of the Council’s business, structure, processes, systems and culture.

Alongside this report, SOLACE had also been commissioned to look specifically at Guildford’s housing landlord function.

The main finding of the reports, both of which were appended to the report submitted to the Committee, was that the Council was at serious risk of failing in its statutory duty to deliver Best Value. The recommendations of both reports were designed to assist the Council to avoid such a failure, and to address the issues identified.

The reports had recognised the efforts that were already underway to improve the Council’s operation, and had recommended that the Council should develop a comprehensive Improvement Plan encompassing all of the recommendations within the reports.

The SOLACE reviews had also recommended that the progress of the Improvement Plan should be reported to the Council at six monthly intervals for three years. 

The Joint Chief Executive and Head of Paid Service introduced the report and emphasised that he, the Joint S151 Officer and Joint Monitoring Officer, and all of the Corporate Management Board had accepted all the findings of the report, and that the situation that they described was not acceptable, and that residents and businesses deserved better.   The statutory officers had all agreed that there was a problem and were united in their determination to deal with it.  The proposed improvement plans were comprehensive and addressed every recommendation and finding.  It was intended that the improvement plans would continue to develop and, in line with the recommendations, progress on implementation would be reported, in public, to full Council every six months and, in that regard, an independent assurance panel would be appointed to provide support and challenge, including an independent view on progress every six months, which would also be published.

The Joint Chief Executive, in commending the report to the Committee, emphasised that it was about the basics, getting the right culture, the right structure, strategic direction and values, the right governance, appropriate financial controls in order and ensuring that the Council provided the services that residents and businesses deserved and in a way that was openly and transparently value for money.

The Leader of the Council also acknowledged that the people of Guildford deserved better from their council, and that the Executive was absolutely committed to putting right the long-standing issues which had been uncovered and that they welcomed the reports, and all of their recommendations.

 

During the debate, the following points were raised by the Committee and those in attendance:

Comments from non-Committee members:

·      In response to a question as to whether the proposals in the Housing Sub-plan in respect of addressing performance management issues were unique to the housing team, the Joint Chief  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3