Minutes:
1. The verbal update on Management Actions was presented by the Chief Executive, Mrs Amanda Beer. A PowerPoint slide presentation was shared by the General Counsel, Ben Watts.
2. The three specific areas discussed during the Management actions update included:
a) The culture shift approach to Management Actions – Mrs Beer explained that, in addition to improving the completion of Management Actions by a specified timeframe, the Corporate Management Team (CMT) looked at embedding a greater focus on becoming a learning organisation. It was agreed by the CMT that an Organisational Learning Panel would be established. The panel would focus on the outcome of Internal Audits, complaints and other areas where the organisation received feedback on performance.
The CMT, Directorate Management Team (DMT) and Service Teams had focused on agreed timescales and shared learning from the ongoing work. It was intended that this approach to learning and development would continue after the backlog had been cleared.
The process of receiving the Management actions (which arose from audits) had become more robust and communications between Internal Audit and services directorates were more focused on the impact of the audit work. This was to ensure that outcomes were both meaningful and sustainable. It was confirmed that the context of this work was embedded in the Importance of Business Basics.
Governance and standards on Procurement had been re-written and
Financial Management had been revised.
The position of Freedom of Information requests had improved.
b) Progress against the completion of actions – Since the last
Governance and Audit Committee meeting, several further actions had been closed. It was confirmed that in the current reporting period, there were 32 late actions. Of these:
· 4 actions have been verified as implemented
· 4 actions have been closed, with Management accepting risk
· 1 action had been superseded
· 5 actions have revise dates (following discussions with Internal Audit)
The remaining 18 actions have information being considered by Internal Audit, with a view to implementation.
c) The outcome of the deep dive activity referenced in the last report to the Committee – following the initial paper brought to the Governance and Audit Committee, it was confirmed that both CMT and Internal Audit agreed that there were 5 areas where further progress could be made. Following a discussion and further review of the 5 actions by CMT in early March 2025, further learning in relation to how actions are agreed had been discussed, along with a firm commitment to progress in the timescales outlined.
Further deep dives would be conducted on the worst performing actions to continue improvement where needed.
3. In answer to Members’ questions and comments, the following was said:
a) The overall, long- term aim was to get 100% of the Management Actions delivered on time, although there will always be occasions where this is not possible, albeit for good reason. It was hoped that the current backlog would be cleared by the Autum of 2026.
b) In relation to the actions where Management had accepted risk, a validation process would be conducted with Internal Audit and then Members would be updated via the Microsoft Teams site, ahead of Committee meetings. This would enable Members to see the complete cycle of audit activity.
c) The Learning Organisation Panel was being set up by the Complaints Lead, Pascale Blackburn-Clarke, and was in very early stages of development. Nominees from Internal Audit, Analytics, Risk Management and the Complaints Team would be working with service directorates to look for themes across the organisation and create significant action plans to address and improve on these areas. The Terms of Reference was in the process of creation and would be shared with the Committee when complete.
4. RESOLVED to note the verbal update on Management Actions.