A report by the Chief Executive updated Members on progress with the delivery of the comprehensive work programme to improve corporate governance.  The report highlighted progress against the 10 Key Lines of Enquiry (KLOEs) approved by the Committee at its meeting on 16 November 2011(Minute No. 13 refers).  It also updated Members on progress with the on going cultural change programme and the resultant communications activities.

Cultural Change and resultant Communications Progress

• Since the last Committee meeting on 18 January 2012 further developments had been made with regard to the cultural change milestones proposed by Anna Klonowski.

An updated status report was available at Appendix 1 to the report to illustrate this progress.

• A series of eleven Destination Excellence events had been held on 12 and 13 January 2012 and over 4,000 Council staff attended. These were delivered to share the vision and values of the draft Corporate Plan.  They also provided the opportunity to inform staff what needed to be done to achieve this vision.  Just over 1,000 staff completed feedback forms at these events.  A summary of the main themes of this would be posted on the Council’s intranet.

• A number of channels had also been launched for staff to raise any of their concerns about corporate governance.  These include the opportunity to book a session for a one to one meeting with Cabinet Members and the ability to raise issues through a secure email address.

• A staff questionnaire had also been launched on 16 January 2012 with on-line; paper versions made available to ensure that all members of staff had the opportunity to participate.  The closing date for this had been 30 January 2012 and the results would be made available as soon as possible and would be formally reported to an appropriate meeting.  These results would also be used to inform a series of staff focus groups commencing in February 2012 which would inform the emerging cultural change programme.

• Progress had also been made in engaging with external partners.  The corporate governance work taking place across the Council had been raised at the last LSP meeting as part of a wider review of partnership working.  A range of meetings would now take place with thematic partnerships in February 2012 at which partners would be requested to provide feedback on a range of issues relating to corporate governance.  This work would inform the review of a number of the KLOEs and also the Cultural Change Programme, the Member Development Programme and the proposed improvement framework.

• Overall the cultural development and communications activity was on schedule with Anna Klonowski’s proposed milestones and timetable as

illustrated in Appendix 1 to the report.

Key Lines of Enquiry (KLOE) Progress

• Work had continued with all KLOEs; it was expected that all products would be delivered within the agreed project timescales. 

A report illustrating progress for each individual KLOE was available at Appendix 1 to the report

• At this stage, only KLOE 4 (Review of Internal Audit) continued to be assessed as amber.  A procurement exercise was underway to commission external support for this review.  The outcome of which was exempt and was reported at Item 9 on the agenda (Item No. 35 refers). Once the commission was awarded it was anticipated that this KLOE would be assessed as green.

• An inventory of the key programme outputs and products from all ten KLOEs had now been completed and featured as an appendix in the Future Corporate Governance Improvement Framework report at Item No. 5 on the agenda (Minute No. 33 refers).

The Committee also had regard to the Corporate Governance Programme Risk Register that was appended to the report as Appendix 3.

Members considered the progress made against each milestone reported in Appendix 1.  They declared that they were impressed with the very good progress that had been made, the quality of the work and the commitment shown.  They requested that their thanks and a “well done” be communicated to those Members of the Council and members of staff who had been instrumental in this.

RESOLVED:

That the contents of the report and its various appendices as well as the progress made by the Corporate Governance Improvement Team be noted.