The Member’s role in improvement and assurance

What is members' role in improvement and assurance?

All members have a responsibility to oversee and assure effective governance and accountability.

• The Executive (Cabinet) / Policy and Resources Committee reviews performance, finance and risk reporting at a strategic level, including:
  • delivery of corporate plan objectives
  • compliance with statutory requirements and national outcomes frameworks 
  • delivery of the medium term financial strategy
  • corporate health indicators (for example, staff turnover, grievances).

Reporting should be regular: good practice would be at least quarterly.

• The Executive (Cabinet) / Policy and Resources Committee holds itself to account for delivery against performance targets, standards and benchmarks.
• In authorities with the executive governance model and those with the committee system which choose to appoint them, overview and scrutiny committee(s):
  • review performance/ finance/ risk reporting
  • undertake pre-decision and/or budget scrutiny
  • call-in executive decisions
  • undertake scrutiny reviews in order to support policy development or consider and review strategic options.
• Overview and scrutiny committees hold the Executive (Cabinet) to account for the decisions and actions that affect local communities.
• The work of scrutiny is supported by the statutory scrutiny officer.
• When reviewing finance and risk issues, scrutiny will need to have regard both to the work of the audit committee but also to the executive’s own role in oversight and assurance.
• There is statutory guidance which sets out how effective overview and scrutiny should be conducted, and support and further guidance is available from the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny. For devolved areas, a scrutiny protocol provides further detail.
• The Appointments Committee recommends to full council the appointment of appropriately qualified statutory officers.
• The Audit Committee:
  • monitors and reviews the effectiveness of the authority’s internal controls, risk management and financial reporting holds internal and external audit to account
  • approves the internal audit plan, ensuring that it is informed by the strategic risks facing the authority. It oversees the plan’s implementation and ensures compliance with the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards
  • reviews internal and external audit reports and opinions and oversees management responses
  • assesses its own practice (an annual external review is recommended)
  • may include lay members to provide additional expertise
  • holds management to account in relation to the opinions of internal and external audit and for the implementation of their recommendations
  • is held to account by Full Council through an annual report, which should include reference to a self-assessment of its own performance.

CIPFA provides more detailed guidance, including terms of reference for Audit Committees.

The LGA provides a range of support for audit committees:

• Ten questions for audit committees to ask.
• Audit Committees: Leadership Essentials.
• Regional audit forums for audit committee chairs provide an opportunity to access training, share good practice and discuss common issues. Email for more information.

The Centre for Governance and Scrutiny has produced guidance on the respective roles of audit and scrutiny committees.

• The committee with delegated responsibility for governance:
  • reviews the draft annual governance statement
  • holds management (via the chief executive and lead member as signatories) to account for implementation of improvement actions identified in the annual governance statement
  • oversees regular reviews of the constitution.
• Standards Committee:
  • reviews the member code of conduct and arrangements for investigating complaints into member conduct to ensure compliance with the Nolan Principles
  • reviews the monitoring officer’s annual report
  • seeks the perspective of the committee’s Independent Person(s).

In many authorities the committee is also responsible for overseeing the development and implementation of programmes of member training, ensuring their appropriateness and take-up by members.  If this is not within the remit of Standards Committee, the authority will need to ensure that another member-level body has that remit.

The role of Standards Committee as part of the governance framework is distinct and should be separate from that of the Audit Committee which oversees the effectiveness of that framework.

• Full Council is the body charged with the governance of the council and while it may delegate some responsibilities it remains accountable and therefore should seek assurance. It does this by:
  • considering the s.25 statement of the chief finance officer of the robustness of estimates and adequacy of reserves before approving the budget
  • reviewing (at least) an annual report from each of the chairs of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee (where relevant), Audit and Standards Committees and holding them to account
  • appointing appropriately qualified statutory officers
  • consideration of the external auditor’s annual report also represents good practice and ensuring appropriate responses to public interest reports, statutory recommendations and advisory notices from external audit.
• Corporate statutory officers have a range of individual statutory duties to report to Full Council. These include, but are not limited to, the chief finance officer reporting actual or potential unlawful expenditure or an unbalanced budget (through a ‘Section 114’ notice), the monitoring officer reporting maladministration and the head of paid service reporting on the arrangements for the discharge of the authority’s functions.