The Senior Democratic Services Officer - Committees presented the report, noting that its purpose was to provide Members with an update on the Governance and Audit Committee Action Record.

The Chairperson drew attention to the item on Corporate Complaints from 15 March 2022. He requested an update on the specific matter of how school complaints were recorded.

The Senior Democratic Services Officer – Committees indicated that he had spoken to the Director of Education about this matter, and that there aren’t many, if any, complaints being made to schools. He proposed that an email could be sent to Members to update them on the current situation rather than bring a report to the Committee.

In response to this, a Member drew attention to concerns expressed at a public meeting about school transport in Cornelly and suggested this was the kind of thing that should be considered a complaint about schools.

The Chairperson suggested all these matters could be considered as part of the substantive agenda item on Corporate Complaints.

A Lay Member drew attention to the need to be clear about what is and is not an ‘ongoing activity’ and an ‘action’. An action can only be done once and cannot be an ongoing activity or business as usual.

Another Lay Member indicated that he was not sure the tracker was picking up all the actions discussed in meetings, and that there was a risk that actions were being lost.

He was pleased discussions last time about the prioritization of the audit plan had been followed through but, again, he thought it important that the action was drawn out, noting how it was resolved and whether it is closed. He added that the reconciliation of the days in the audit plan was talked about last time, that was a potential action, but it wasn’t captured in the Action Record. There could be benefits to having more detail in the Action Record going forward.

The Chief Officer - Finance, Performance & Change indicated that officers went through the minutes after every meeting of the Committee and then made sure they tracked through onto the Action Record. Officers tried to put things on the tracker that spread over more than one meeting so that they didn't lose sight of them, but she was happy to be advised by Members as to the best way forward.

The Lay Member came back to suggest that if there was scrutiny of the Committee, it would be necessary to evidence how Members were tracking and holding to account those with responsibility for matters within the purview of the Committee.

The Chairperson suggested the Senior Democratic Services Officer – Committees and other officers could consider the issues raised and make tweaks to the Action Record for the next meeting.

RESOLVED:

The Committee noted the Action Record and provided comment upon it, as appropriate.