Issue - meetings

The Committee had before it a report by the Chief Finance Officer which (1) provided the Committee with the opportunity to provide comment on and approve in principle, the annual governance statement; and (2) requested agreement that assurances on the government framework could be provided to Aberdeen City Council and NHS Grampian.

The report recommended:-

That the Committee –

(a)          Comment on the draft annual governance statement, as set out in appendix 1; and

(b)          Additionally, on the proviso that no significant weaknesses impacting on the IJB’s governance framework are identified in the assurances received by Aberdeen City Council, NHS Grampian and the IJB’s Internal auditors: Instruct the Chief Finance Officer to complete the governance statement and provide responses to Aberdeen City Council and NHS Grampian that reasonable assurance can be placed upon the adequacy and effectiveness of the Aberdeen City Integration Joint Board’s systems of governance.

Alex Stephen advised that last year’s formatting had been retained but additional improvement activity had been included to reflect the Board’s second full year of operation. Mr Stephen provided an overview of the IJB scheme of governance and noted that an action plan was in place to monitor implementation. He added that additional sources of assurance would be provided by ACC and NHSG following approval of their annual governance statements and explained that if any significant changes had been made, these items would be brought back to the Committee for further consideration.

Thereafter there were questions and comments on (1) the possibility of referring to the Fairer Scotland Duty within the action plan; (2) the list of improvement actions, with particular focus on the review of risk registers; and (3) the importance of not losing focus on person centred care at a local level in search of achieving national metrics and targets.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)           to request that reference be made to the Fairer Scotland Duty within the action plan; and

(ii)          otherwise instruct the Chief Finance Officer to complete the governance statement and provide responses to Aberdeen City Council and NHS Grampian that reasonable assurance could be placed upon the adequacy and effectiveness of the Aberdeen City Integration Joint Board’s systems of governance.