The above report was presented by the Corporate Policy and Public Affairs Manager and its purpose was to provide an update to the Governance and Audit Committee (GAC) on the regulatory tracker.

She stated that following feedback received on the Regulatory Tracker there was a focus on the link with Overview and Scrutiny Committees to ensure that the detail of the inspections and the actions on recommendations was adequately being covered. Therefore, she would arrange a meeting with Scrutiny colleagues to discuss and to ensure regulatory information is picked up in future forward work plans that are presented to those Committees.

As an example, she stated that if it is felt that there was limited evidence of progress there needed to be a clear mechanism for dealing with that or referring it to an Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The Corporate Policy and Public Affairs Manager also stated that there was a discussion required, in order to understand if going back two years in respect of the above was sufficient and as a result of this, the Estyn inspection from 2019 had been included as part of follow-up action.

She requested committee to treat the report submitted as a first progress report, with the summary report indicating the inspections and recommendations that have been added since that last report in November, as referred to in Appendix 1 to the report and as highlighted in paragraph 4.1.

It was stated that there was a new Care Inspectorate Wales report on the transformational Leadership Progress Programme Board and a possibility of 2 other reports on two of BCBC’s care homes.

Paragraph 4.2 of the report confirmed that 18 recommendations had been closed, including 8 from recommendations of new audits.

There were a considerable number of regulator recommendations for the Council, with 18 of these now having been closed. These were subject to RAG status. Some of these were of an urgent priority to complete, she added.

The Corporate Policy and Public Affairs Manager stated that it was hoped that the Committee would be reassured that the regulatory tracker had been added to the quarterly corporate performance management arrangements and would therefore be monitored through this process. She concluded her submission by stating that the regulatory tracker had been considered by Corporate Management Board on the 16 January 2023.

A member queried how and where he could find information relating to a particular report being submitted to the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committee within the regulatory tracker.

The Corporate Policy and Public Affairs Manager stated that while such a mechanism was not active at the time of the meeting, this would be something that she could link in with Officers on in order to try to implement this in the future.

A member queried who the lead officers on the Amber and Red categories would be and how it would be possible to identify officers responsible for the corrective plans and approval of recommendations, including related time scales for these. This was reinforced by the Chairperson who stated that the definitions for the Amber and Red categories needed to have specific timelines attached to them for their completion.

A lay member congratulated the lead officer for the work she had completed on the Regulatory Tracker and stated that he felt it would help the Governance and Audit committee to take charge or be able to discharge its functions in an improved way going forward. He queried the existence of an official definition between Red and Amber. He suggested that the definitions are annexed. He also stated it may be useful to have specific timelines for actions and recommendations, rather than keeping it open-ended as this would assist the committee for tracking purposes.

The Chairperson wished it noted that he endorsed the above comments. He also added it would be useful to know the names of the officers who would be responsible for delivering the recommendations and a timeline of when the recommendations would be completed, including target dates for completion.

The Corporate Policy and Public Affairs Manager responded stating that she would look at having these details included in the tracker following the discussion with scrutiny colleagues regarding the links with the Overview and Scrutiny process.

RESOLVED :          That the Governance and Audit Committee agreed the summary points and detailed regulatory tracker and raised  the above issues for follow up.