The meeting was scheduled to receive reports on the council's treasury management, customer feedback, and risk management. The meeting pack also included progress updates from the external auditors, KPMG, and internal audit. It also included a report on councillors who traded with the council during 2023/24.

Customer Feedback

The committee was scheduled to receive the Customer Feedback Report 2023/24.

The report pack included the report itself along with three appendices covering:

• Corporate Customer Feedback (Appendix A)
• Adult Statutory Complaints (Appendix B)
• Childrens Statutory Complaints (Appendix C)

The reports are intended to assure the committee that the council's response to complaints is effective and that services are learning from complaints and wider customer feedback to continually improve.

To demonstrate an effective approach to responding to customer feedback and complaint handling, the Council produces an annual report on complaint handling for Children’s Statutory Complaints, Adult’s Statutory Complaints and Corporate Feedback.

The report summarises the volume and nature of complaints and compliments received by the council between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024, and outlines a number of improvements made to council services as a result of learning from customer feedback.

The report highlights that the number of compliments has increased significantly in recent years.

Telford and Wrekin Council has seen a 120% increase in compliments in the last 5 years from 290 in 2019/20 to 639 in 2023/24 and a 13% increase since 2022/23 (566).

The report explains that the council has also seen an increase in complaints. It provides reassurance that the number of complaints is small relative to the volume of council activities and is in line with industry standards.

When considering the total number of transactions and interactions undertaken by the Council during the year, the data in this report clearly shows that the number of complaints received continues to be well within accepted customer service industry standards and appreciably under 1% of all transactions.

The report explains how the council became a member of the Institute of Customer Service (ICS) in January 2022 and is working to improve the customer experience. It also describes the council's Customer Insight Programme, which recruited 214 volunteer mystery shoppers in 2023/24 to review council services.

Treasury Management

The committee was scheduled to receive the Treasury Management 2023/24 Annual Report and 2024/25 Update.

The report pack includes the report itself and two appendices:

• Treasury Management Annual Report 2023/24 (Appendix A)
• Treasury Management Update 2024/25 (Appendix B)

The report summarises the council's treasury management activities in the 2023/24 financial year and provides an update on the treasury position for 2024/25 to 31 May 2024.

The report highlights how, during 2023/24, the council managed to keep borrowing below its underlying need as defined by the Capital Financing Requirement (CFR). The report explains this was achieved by using reserves and balances to fund capital expenditure.

In 2023/24 the level of Council borrowing was below its underlying need to borrow (the Capital Financing Requirement (CFR)), see Appendix A. This was due to positive cash flow arising from Council’s reserves and balances being available to support the treasury position.

The report states that the council's borrowing strategy for 2023/24 was to take advantage of lower short-term interest rates on temporary loans in anticipation that interest rates would reduce in the medium to long term.

The borrowing strategy for 2023/24 was to borrow temporarily when required and to take advantage of interest rates where possible and review opportunities for new longer term borrowing as appropriate. This was a continuation of the strategy adopted in previous years and maintaining high levels of cheaper temporary borrowing has contributed to surplus treasury management returns of more than £35m since 2015/16 which has reduced the impact of Government cuts and therefore helped to protect frontline services.

The report states that the council's investment strategy for 2023/24 was to ensure security of capital and liquidity balanced with delivering a commensurate rate of return. It confirms that the council held no long-term investments during the year.

The investment strategy for 2023/24 was primarily to ensure security of capital and liquidity balanced with delivering a commensurate rate of return.

The report notes that the council made a net benefit of £1.336m against the treasury management budget during 2023/24.

External Audit Update Report

The committee was scheduled to receive a progress update on the 2023/24 audit from the council's external auditors, KPMG (TWC 2023 24 EA progress update July 2024).

KPMG report that the 2023/24 audit is progressing well and that they are on track to complete it by their September deadline.

We are on track with our audit as reported in our 2023/24 Audit Plan.

They also explain that their approach to providing a Value for Money conclusion is in its early stages.

We are awaiting the completed Value for Money questionnaire from management to allow us to complete our risk assessment, to in turn conclude whether we consider there is a significant risk or not in relation to the three VFM Criteria of: Financial Sustainability, Governance, and/or Economy, Efficiency & Effectiveness.

Publication of Information on Councillors who traded with the Council during 2023/24

The committee was scheduled to receive information on Councillors who traded with the Council during 2023/24.

The report explains that this information will be published on the council's website to provide better transparency to the public.

However, in order to provide better transparency, additional details of any Councillors who have an interest in companies that benefit from trading with the Council will be taken to Full Council via the Audit Committee as a separate report each year and published on the Council’s website.

The report states that during the 2023/24 financial year, payments were made by the council to businesses where two councillors held an interest. The businesses and councillors are named in the report.

• Councillor Stephen Burrell - £428,000 was paid to Peace of Mind Homecare, of which Councillor Burrell is a Director.
• Councillor Carolyn Healy - £61,304 was paid to Red Kite Ltd, of which Councillor Healy is a Director.

Internal Audit Activity Report

The committee was scheduled to receive a report on Internal Audit Activity covering the period 1 April 2024 to 30 June 2024.

The report pack includes the report itself and one appendix:

• 2024/25 Annual Audit Plan (Appendix A)

The report summarises progress made against the 2024/25 internal audit plan during the first quarter of the year. The report notes that, of the 38 audits included in the plan, only one has been completed, with the remainder of resources used to complete outstanding audits from the 2023/24 audit plan and fulfil commitments due under corporate contracts.

From a total of 38 audits (not including Adult Social Care, as not yet agreed), only 1 audit has been completed (2%). The first quarter of 2024/25 has, largely, seen resources committed to completing work due under the 2023/24 work plan with some resources used to satisfy commitments due under corporate contracts.

The report states that the team are confident acceptable progress will be made on plan completion in the coming months.

The report details the findings of the ten audits conducted in this period. It shows that three reports were given a 'Good' audit opinion, five were 'Reasonable', and two were 'Limited'.

The report explains how internal audit continued to undertake commercial work for academies and town councils.

Work continues on the commercial contracts with Academies and Town Councils, We provide audit services to a total of 9 Academy Trusts and 2 Town Councils.

Corporate Risk Register

The committee was scheduled to receive the Corporate Risk Register.

The report pack contains the register itself and a front sheet explaining that the register has been updated to October 2023 (Front sheet for Corporate Risk Register).

The register identifies eight risks that could affect the council's ability to achieve its corporate priorities.

For each risk, the register includes the likelihood and impact of the risk, along with an explanation of how the council is mitigating the risk.

Definitions used in the risk register:

Likelihood of Risk Occurring

Likelihood	Definition
Very Low	May occur in exceptional circumstances
Low	Risk may occur in next 3 years
Medium	The risk is likely to occur more than once in the next 3 years
High	The risk is likely to occur this year
Very High	The risk has occurred and will continue to do so without further action being taken

Impact of Risk if it does Occur

Descriptor	Financial	Reputation	Physical	Environmental	Service
Very Low	None	None	None	None	None
Low	<£50K	Minimal/minimal media/social media	Minor	Minor locally	Internal disruption only, no loss of service
Medium	£50K-£1m	Extensive local media/social media	Violence or threats of serious injury requiring medical treatment	Moderate locally	Disruption/loss of service less than 48 hours
High	£1m-£5m	National media/social media	Extensive/multiple injuries	Major local	Disruption/loss of service less than 7 days
Very High	>£5m	Extensive national media (lead item)/social media	Extensive multiple injuries/death	Major	Severe disruption/loss of service more than 7 days.

The eight risks identified are:

1. Failure to discharge duty of care for a vulnerable child or vulnerable adult.
2. Inability to:
   • match available resources (both financial, people and assets) with statutory obligations, agreed priorities and service standards
   • deliver financial strategy including capital receipts, savings and commercial income
   • fund organisational and cultural development in the Council within the constraints of the public sector economy
3. Losing skills, knowledge and experience (retention & recruitment) in relation to staffing.
4. Significant business interruption affecting ability to provide priority services.
5. Inability to manage the health & safety risks in delivering the council’s functions (including building security and cyber security).
6. Inability to deliver effective information governance.
7. Inability to respond adequately to a significant emergency affecting the community and/or ability to provide priority services.
8. Inability to respond to impact of climate emergency on severe weather events including heat, cold and flood.

The register also explains why a ninth risk, relating to the inability to respond to the impact and implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been removed.