The Audit and Standards Committee of Brent Council met on Wednesday 12 June 2024 and approved the Annual Governance Statement for 2023-24. The committee also approved the minutes from previous meetings held in September and October 2023.

Annual Governance Statement 2023-24

The committee formally approved the Annual Governance Statement (AGS) for 2023-24. This statement, required by the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015, evidences the council's good governance arrangements and underpins the delivery of its strategic priorities outlined in the Borough Plan. The AGS is based on seven core governance principles, including behaving with integrity, ensuring openness, defining outcomes in terms of sustainable benefits, determining necessary interventions, developing capacity, managing risks and performance, and implementing good practices in transparency and audit.

During the preceding Audit & Standards Advisory Committee meeting, an amendment was proposed and subsequently approved for inclusion in the AGS. This amendment addresses the need to improve the level and rate of audit actions implemented within original timescales. This reflects a focus on enhancing the effectiveness of the internal audit process and ensuring that identified actions are addressed promptly. The statement confirmed that no significant governance issues were identified during the 2023-24 reporting year. However, several improvement areas for 2024-25 were highlighted, including better utilisation of the Member Hub for information access, quarterly monitoring of reports submitted after deadlines, further enhancement of risk management by assigning clear roles and responsibilities for mitigating actions, developing a programme for coaching, mentoring, and leadership development with a focus on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI), and embedding a new performance framework and balanced scorecard approach.

The report also detailed progress on improvement actions from the previous year, noting the completion of the ASAC effectiveness action plan, ongoing work to embed succession planning and leadership development, the commencement of longer-term financial planning, and enhancements to monitoring and reporting of 'first line' controls. However, it was noted that the rate of implementation of 'medium risk' audit recommendations had seen a downwards trajectory.

The committee also approved the minutes from previous meetings held on Tuesday 26 September 2023 and Thursday 12 October 2023. These minutes covered the approval of the Brent Council Statement of Accounts for 2022/23 and the associated Audit Findings Report.