Agenda item

Pursuant to Minute No. 48 (Standards and Audit Committee 2016/17), the Customer, Commissioning & Change Manager reported progress on the outstanding audit recommendations in respect of procurement, data protection and FOI procedures and IT security.

Online training on procurement was being made available for staff, with priority being given to those staff involved in procurements in the near future. A checklist for sign-off of all procurements by a CMT level manager was being developed. Training for Members was being developed. Work was continuing to publish a contracts register on the Council’s website for all procurements over £5,000. The possibility of the Shared Procurement Service dealing with all procurements over £1,000 was being considered.

Arising from Members’ questions it was confirmed that using the Shared Procurement Service provided the Council with additional procurement expertise and that any risks of not having in-house specialists were mitigated by the service specification.

An Information Assurance Manager had been appointed, and online training on data protection had been completed by 59% of staff at the end of April. Use of the Information Assets Register would enable all IT systems and assets to be tracked. The Data Protection Policy had been updated, which was now subject of consultation, with the aim of having it approved in June.

Arising from Members’ questions it was confirmed that the online training automatically triggered annual refresher training for staff. Service managers were considering how to ensure all staff were able to complete the training, and the effectiveness of the training would be reviewed as well as considering other awareness raising activities on data protection. The Customer, Commissioning & Change Manager agreed to provide further detail to members of the Committee on the proportion of staff having completed the online data protection training by service area.

Online training on freedom of information (FOI) had been completed by 50% of staff at the end of April.

ICT policies had been reviewed and updated and work was continuing with Arvato to ensure improved IT security, including consideration of revisions to the service contract to ensure system vulnerability was adequately controlled. It was noted that the Council had engaged independent consultants to review its arrangements for managing IT and that the findings and recommendations would be considered by Cabinet.

Members requested that progress on the implementation of the audit recommendations in respect of IT security be reported to a future meeting of the Committee.

Pursuant to Minute No. 48 (Standards and Audit Committee 2016/17), the Director of Finance and Resources reported progress in respect of the outstanding audit recommendations on non-housing property repairs.

Agreement had been reached with Kier to undertake property condition surveys, starting with the largest properties, and to develop 10 year maintenance plans. The Senior Leadership Team would then consider options for the funding and prioritising of the maintenance plans.

Pursuant to Minute No. 49 (Standards and Audit Committee 2016/17), it was reported that all Careline staff in the Falls Response Team, involved in manual handling of people, had received appropriate manual handling training. Members requested that the Health and Wellbeing Manager attend the next meeting of the Committee in September to report progress on the implementation of the audit recommendations on health and safety.

* RESOLVED –

(1)     That the progress reports be noted.

(2)     That progress on the implementation of the audit recommendations in respect of IT security be reported to a future meeting of the Committee.

(3)     That the Health and Wellbeing Manager be requested to attend the next meeting of the Committee in September to report progress on the implementation of the audit recommendations on health and safety.