Agenda and minutes

13.1     The Committee RESOLVED to agree the minutes as a correct record of the meeting held on 8 July 2022.

14.1     Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Geary.

14.2     It was noted that Councillor Redstone was in attendance as a substitute for Councillor Geary.

Disclosures by all members present of personal interests in matters on the agenda, the nature of any interest and whether the member regards the interest as prejudicial under the terms of the Code of Conduct.

15.1     There were none.

Notification of items which the Chair considers to be urgent and proposes to take at the appropriate part of the agenda. Any members who wish to raise urgent items are asked, wherever possible, to notify the Chair before the start of the meeting. In so doing, they must state the special circumstances which they consider justify the matter being considered urgent.

16.1     There were none.

17.1     Reports referred to in the minutes below are contained in the minute book.

Report by the Chief Internal Auditor

18.1     The Committee considered a report by the Chief Operating Officer which set out the Internal Audit team’s work during Quarter 1.

18.2     The Committee RESOLVED to note the report.

Report by the Chief Finance Officer

19.1     The Committee considered a report by the Chief Finance Officer which provided the annual overview of Financial Management Code compliance.

19.2     The Committee discussed the self-assessment scores noting the work completed with neighbouring local authorities to achieve consistency in the south east.

19.3     The Committee RESOLVED to:

1) request that the 2023 CIPFA Financial Management Code report includes a short narrative regarding the reasons for the self-assessment scores and an index of criteria within the report; and

2) note the annual overview of Financial Management Code compliance.

Report by the Chief Operating Officer

20.1     The Committee considered a report by the Chief Operating Officer which presented the Strategic Risk Register.

20.2     The Committee noted that Risk 7 (Schools) had been removed from the Risk Register and (Schools and ISEND) had been added.

20.3     The Committee discussed the benefits of conducting a ‘deep dive’ into a specific risk on the risk register to review the framework, processes and governance around Strategic Risk Management.

20.4     The Committee RESOLVED to:

1) note the current strategic risks and the risk controls / responses being proposed and implemented by Chief Officers; and

2) request a session for the Audit Committee to conduct a ‘deep dive’ into the Strategic Risk Management framework to explore the processes and governance using Risk 12 Cyber Attack as an example risk.

Report by the Chief Operating Officer

21.1     The Committee considered a report by the Chief Operating Officer setting out a summary of the discussion at the second meeting of the Committee’s MBOS Sub-Group.

21.2     The Committee discussed the MBOS project entering into User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and the impact of Payroll Parallel Run (PPR) as a critical stage of the project.

21.3     The Committee RESOLVED to note that the Committee’s MBOS Sub-Group has regularly reviewed the Council’s Modernising Back Office Systems (MBOS) programme.

22.1     The Committee considered its current work programme of forthcoming items.

22.2     The Committee RESOLVED to note the Programme.