Agenda item

To receive an update on progress with the actions in the governance workstream of the Transformation Programme

Daniel Dickinson, Interim Monitoring Officer, introduced his report which provided the Committee with n update on progress with the actions in the governance work stream of the Transformation Programme following the agreement at the informal meeting of Scrutiny on the 7 July 2023 that three additional meetings would take place, providing an opportunity for deep dives on some key themes.

It was explained that the report provided an overview of actions in the governance and structures workstream, a number of the actions that fit within this workstream were completed before the transformation programme was established.

The Monitoring Officer gave an update in relation to Figure 1 - Governance and Structures Workstream and noted the following:

GS1 – Revisions to the Schemes of Delegations would be proposed at the Combined Authority Committee in October 2023 before a more substantive overhaul would be carried out.

GS2 – All Committee’s would have clear Terms of Reference and a training programme offered.

GS3 - Through discussions on role and purpose of the West of England Combined Authority, the question of Leader portfolios can be considered as and when appropriate.

GS4 - this had been implemented very quickly with a much more free flow of information to ensure that Cabinet Members from UAs can request briefings from senior CA officers as required.

GS5 – The Regional Monitoring Officers had continued to meet regularly, with networks having been built with other Combined Authorities Monitoring Officers.

GS6 - Material would be provided to new members as part of their induction process and all members will be offered the opportunity to meet with CA officers to discuss the role of Audit and Scrutiny Committees.

In response to questions asked by the Committee, the following was noted:

In relation to GS3, the structure of the Combined Authority differed from Unitary Authorities. Portfolio Holders could attend meetings of the Combined Authority but only as observers and would therefore have no voting powers.

In relation to GS2, questions had previously been raised about making the Terms of Reference for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the Audit Committee more defined so as to avoid any overlap and duplication.

In relation to GS4, there is a weekly meeting of the CEO’s of the Unitary and Combined Authorities. Any briefing requests made by the respective Authorities Portfolios would be discussed and considered at the meeting.

A future peer review would be undertaken to assess what progress had been made and what improvements can be continued.

The Chair commented that he considered there to be some operational and constitutional weakness and asked for more clarity of the approval routes to ensure that everyone was clear on the tolerances

The monitoring Officer explained that the general principles around decision making needed to be flexible enough to allow the Combined Authority to deliver its commitments whilst also having a robust process in place to ensure that decision making was open and transparent. It was noted that some of the financial authorisation limits had changed due to the Internal Governance Process.

Resolved:

That the report be noted.