Agenda and draft minutes

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of this Committee held on 29 July 2025.

RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the meeting held on 29 July 2025 would be redrafted and presented to the next meeting with the following amendments:

·       Councillor Carolyne Culver’s questions in Item four of the minutes to be captured regarding personnel issues such as sickness, fire and rehire, and exit interviews

·       Councillor Culver’s questions regarding any cost benefits analysis of centralisation of staff would be included.

·       Councillor Culver’s questions in Item seven and Councillor Iain Cottingham’s explanation of Exceptional Financial Support, and the points raised regarding the borrowing headroom would be included.

·       Councillor Culver’s question and the response received regarding the Going Concern document would be included in the minutes.

·       Councillor Culver’s question and the response received regarding the benefits of a potential merger with Vale of the White Horse and South Oxfordshire District Council would be included in the minutes.

·       Councillor Culver’s question and the officer’s response received in item seven in the minutes on transformation would be included in the minutes.

To remind Members of the need to record the existence and nature of any personal, disclosable pecuniary or other registrable interests in items on the agenda, in accordance with the Members’ Code of Conduct.

There were no declarations of interest received.

Purpose: To consider the Forward Plan for the next 12 months.

The Committee considered the Governance Committee Forward Plan (Agenda Item 4).

Members noted that the Constitution Review Task Group was not included on the Forward Plan.

Officers stated that the Constitution Review Task Group continued to meet, and there were some changes to the Constitution. Any changes to the constitution must go to the Governance Committee before going to Council.

Officers indicated that if the Committee had any concerns regarding Constitution updates that they felt should be prioritised, then Members could contact the Chair of the Constitution Review Task Group.

Officers noted that the program of the Constitution Review Task Group had previously been brought to the Governance Committee as part of the Forward Plan.

Action: The Constitution Review Task Group to be included on the Forward Plan. A report on Constitutional Updates was due to go to Corporate Board, and it may be at the next meeting of Governance in November 2025.

Action: Constitution updates to be included on the Forward Plan as a twice-yearly standing item.

Action: The Constitution Review Task Group work schedule to be included in the next Governance Committee.

Action: The Governance Committee proposed that the Constitution Review Task Group consider making the Constitution one searchable PDF document, rather than separate webpages.

RESOLVEDthat the Forward Plan be noted.

Purpose: To update the Committee on the status of the Internal Audit work as at the end of Quarter One 2025/26

The Committee considered a report (Agenda Item 5) concerning Internal Audit Update Report Quarter 1 2025-26.

Members had a number of questions, and Julie Gilhespey responded as follow:

·       There were underlying issues affecting the homelessness process

·       There had been issues and delays with the new housing system generating invoices for rent. It was not working with Agresso, and the financial data was not mirroring across both systems. This was a known issue by the time of the audit and was still a work in progress.

·       All software needed to interface with Agresso. Software to enable interfacing can be written internally, as systems from different suppliers may not interface initially. West Berkshire was not unique in having issues with interfacing.

·       The rent backlog had no impact on vulnerable clients. The impact was on internal financial records and how they were recording the information and there was no impact on clients.

·       There was a period where no invoices were generated automatically, however clients were aware of their rent obligations, as that was a separate process.

·       There was a delay in some invoices being issued. This affected people if they did not wish to make or had not made any payments. The Council did not request some of the income promptly.

·       The rent backlog was a known issue, and it had taken time to find alternative options, and take remedial action. By the time of the audit, the invoices and remedial action were almost up to date. However, the rental system on the housing system was not live. Issues identified by the audit will be followed up after six months, as is normal practice. 

·       Some of the recommendations from the audit focussed on improving and updating debt management processes and debt recovery. Part of that would include how they liaise with tenants and clients as part of that process.

·       When purchasing a new ICT system, unless it has been tested with the internal systems the Council was reliant on the supplier and the quoters for the contract regarding system compatibility.

·       It was unlikely that an IT issue would not occur again, as no supplier could guarantee 100% that their product would work with all of the software at the Council.

·       Offline testing had showed that there was an issue with invoicing. A number of options were considered to rectify the issue, and while a solution was being sought, the Council fell back to using the previous process.

ACTION: Project management task and finish group to be informed about the project and the issues as there could be important constructive feedback and learning.

·       The Council had been in contact with the supplier and had received an upgraded version that was being tested. It should be live soon.

·       The Volker Highways contract was due for renewal next year. The audit recommendations were to give advice or consideration of things for the new contract and what should be included.

·       The different audit stages were described in detail.

·       The dedicated home to school transport was looked at  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Purpose: To highlight the corporate risks that need to be considered by the Governance Committee and to outline the actions that were taken to mitigate those risks.

The Strategic Risk Register Q4 2024/25 will be to follow.

The Committee considered a report (Agenda Item 6) concerning Strategic Risk Register Q4 2024/25.

Members asked a number of questions, and received the following responses:

·       In Part II of the meeting, additional detail would be included that would show the different risks on the matrix.

·       The Part I agenda was available to the public and included access to the heat map. They were able to see a description and the details of the nature of the risk such as financial loss or compliance.

·       The analysis of risk management was an iterative process, some of the risks were ongoing, and some were risks that had to be mitigated as far as possible.

·       The report mentions 16 risks, five extreme and 13 high. This was an error, it should have stated 11 high risks, and the mistake would be rectified.

Action: That the error in 4.8 stating that there were 13 high risks would be amended to state 11 high risks.

RESOLVED that the Committee note the Strategic Risk Register Q4 2024/25.

RECOMMENDATION: That members of the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items as it is likely that there would be disclosure of exempt information of the description contained in the paragraphs of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 specified in brackets in the heading of each item. Section 10 of Part 10 of the Constitution refers.

RESOLVED: That members of the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the under-mentioned item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as contained in Paragraphs 3, 5, and 6 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information)(Variation) Order 2006. Section 10, Part 10 of the Constitution also refers.

(Exempt under paragraphs 3 and 5)

(Paragraph 3, 5, and 6)

The Committee considered an exempt report (Agenda Item 8) concerning Strategic Risk Register Q4 2024/25.

RESOLVED that that the recommendations in the exempt report be agreed.