Minutes:
The Chief Executive Officer presented the verbal update in respect of the Audit assurance of Safeguarding and Fire Evacuation. During consideration of this item the following was highlighted for Members’ attention:
· This update had been requested at the previous meeting of the Committee. The Corporate Management Team took all Limited and Moderate Assurance Audits extremely seriously and looked to ensure all recommendations were completed as soon as possible.
· In respect of the Safeguarding Audit, it was clarified that this was given a moderate assurance and not a limited assurance as suggested by Members at the previous meeting. In April 2022, it was noted that the Committee received a report updating Members on the status of the Safeguarding Audit and were informed that all actions had been completed. It was planned that a further Safeguarding Audit would be undertaken in 2023-24 and all outcomes of that audit would be reported to the Committee. Members were assured that Safeguarding measures and controls were taken seriously and it was confirmed that the Safeguarding Policy had recently been updated. Safeguarding training had also been rolled out to all Officers across the Authority.
· In terms of Fire Safety, it was again confirmed that the Health and Safety Training Records Audit, which had been undertaken in 2018 had been followed up. A report was presented to the Committee in October 2021 stating that all of the actions had been completed and addressed. However, it was acknowledged that the report did not appear in its entirety in the agenda provided for the October 2021 meeting and therefore this could potentially have caused confusion for Members. It was with this in mind that the manner in which audits and follow up audits were reported back to the Audit, Standards and Governance Committee would be explored in order to provide greater clarity for Members in the future. In addition to this, it was suggested that it may be worthwhile, should any audits be given Limited Assurance in the future,that a follow-up audit would be undertaken after 12 months in order to understand the status of the recommendations.
The Head of Internal Audit Shared Service also provided reassurance to Members that all recommendations in respect of the two audits had been completed and implementation of the recommendations had been evidenced by Officers.
Members were pleased that Safeguarding was being taken seriously, however concerns were expressed in respect of the public meetings and that robust measures in line with counter-terrorism guidelines were in place at these meetings.
Some Members queried ifSafeguarding training was compulsory for Members. It was noted that compulsory training was difficult to enforce amongst Members, but that some training had taken place online. The Chief Executive reported that compulsory training would be considered at the Member Development Steering Group. In addition to this, it was reported that it would be discussed as part of the New Member Induction Programme which was currently being planned.
RESOLVEDthat the Verbal Update on Audit Assurance of Safeguarding and Fire Evacuation be noted.