Agenda item

The Committee had before it a report by the Interim Director of Corporate Governance which provided a summary of the significant maters raised at the May 2016 meetings of the Arm’s Length External Organisations (ALEO) Governance Hub.

The report recommended:

That the Committee –

(a)       considers the issues raised in both the report and minutes and identifies any areas of concern;

(b)       note the content of the report and the appended minutes;

(c)        arising from some of the discussion raised in the minutes, to instruct the Head of Human Resources and Customer Service to investigate the possibility of sourcing joint training for ALEO board members; and

(d)       to refer the individual minutes, with a specific covering report to be prepared by the responsible Head of Service, to the appropriate service committee to consider ALEO performance against agreed performance indicators and contract.

Councillor Greig sought clarification regarding branding of ALEO’s and how this related to monitoring of performance, wherein the Senior Democratic Services Manager advised that each ALEO were asked the same set of questions around risk, governance and performance which the Governance Hub scrutinised with the addition of Service Committee’s scrutinising the performance of the ALEO’s under their remits.

Councillor Samarai sought clarification regarding Bon Accord Care and whether they had in place an impartial internal audit function, wherein the Senior Democratic Services Manager advised that discussions were ongoing in this area with Bon Accord Care and the Risk Manager and that this item was included in the action plan for the ALEO to address.

Councillor Greig sought clarification regarding the figures used when determining that two Swimming Pools would be closed, wherein the Senior Democratic Services Manager advised that he would liaise with Sport Aberdeen and provide a response to members of the Committee.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)         in response to a question from Councillor Greig regarding branding of ALEO’s and how this related to monitoring of performance, to note that each ALEO were asked the same set of questions around risk, governance and performance which the Governance Hub scrutinised with the addition of Service Committee’s scrutinising the performance of the ALEO’s under their remits;

(ii)        in response to a question from Councillor Samarai regarding Bon Accord Care and whether they had in place an impartial internal audit function, to note that discussions were ongoing in this area with Bon Accord Care and the Risk Manager and that this item was included in the action plan for the ALEO to address;

(iii)       in response to a question from Councillor Greig regarding the figures used when determining that two Swimming Pools would be closed, to note that the Senior Democratic Services Manager would liaise with Sport Aberdeen and provide a response to members of the Committee; and

(iv)       to otherwise approve the recommendations contained in the report.