To receive and if so determined, to approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 9 February, 2016.

RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the meeting held on 9 February 2016, be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive a presentation of the Contracts Director.

The Committee received a presentation of the Director of Growth and Regulatory Services providing an update on the progress of the One Trafford Partnership. The presentation reminded Committee Members of the contract terms and governance arrangements, as well as highlighting the key milestones achieved so far. Members were also provided with an update on the partnership’s current performance, as well as the next steps to be taken. The Director of Growth and Regulatory Services agreed to circulate the programme schedule for the rollout of the LED lights to Members.

Discussions took place around how residents and Members should contact Amey to raise any concerns, as some residents had reported not received feedback to an issue they had raised. The Committee were advised that once the new CRM system was in place these problems would be resolved. Service requests should be directed to the Access Trafford email address, while the Amey Members’ email should be used for any complaints.

Members were advised that a dashboard providing detail on the key performance indicators would be available for Members in due course, most likely from the second quarter of the next financial year. This would allow for a 12 month bedding in period of the partnership, enabling Members to make a fair assessment of the progress to date.

The Chairman thanked the Director of Growth and Regulatory Services for the presentation.

            RESOLVED: That the presentation be noted.

To receive a report of the Corporate Director Transformation & Resources.

The Committee received a report of the Corporate Director Transformation & Resources. The report included an extract from the 2014/15 Annual Governance Statement outlining one of the significant governance issues identified for further development through 2015/16 – Reshaping Trafford. It provided the Committee with an update on developments in this area and further work planned.

The Committee discussed the Locality Plan as well as the new HR shared services arrangements. Members were advised that Greater Manchester Police and Trafford Council had now completed the design phase and submitted a full business case for creating a joint HR shared service centre based at Trafford Town Hall, which was due to begin operating in August 2016.

            RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

To receive a report from the Council’s External Auditor.

The Council’s external auditor, Grant Thornton, submitted the Audit Plan for Trafford Council for the year ended 31 March 2016 which outlined its audit strategy and plan to deliver the audit. Members discussed the review of IT as part of the audit and how this would be undertaken.

RESOLVED: That the external auditor’s Audit Plan for the year ended 31 March 2016, be noted.

To consider a report of the Audit and Assurance Manager.

The Committee received a report of the Audit and Assurance Manager providing the Internal Audit Charter and Internal Audit Strategy documents for approval following their recent review. The documents were previously updated in March 2014 in accordance with the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards, and were recently reviewed and updated to reflect a number of changes as outlined in Section 2 of the report.

Members were reminded that an external assessment of Internal Audit had to be undertaken at least every 5 years.  Work was ongoing to agree a timetable to ensure all participating Councils had received an assessment by the deadline of 31 March 2018 in accordance with the PSIAS. The Audit and Assurance Manager would report back to the Committee once this timetable had been agreed.

            RESOLVED: That the Internal Audit Charter and Strategy be approved.

To consider a report of the Audit and Assurance Manager.

The Committee received a report of the Audit and Assurance Manager providing the proposed Internal Audit Operational Plan for 2016/17. Members discussed how the service would mitigate the loss of two members of staff due to retirement, as well as the implications of the government’s recent announcement regarding the academisation of all schools.

RESOLVED: That the 2016/17 Internal Audit Plan be approved.

To receive a report of the Audit and Assurance Manager.

The Committee received a report of the Audit and Assurance Manager providing an update on Audit and Assurance Service work undertaken in relation to anti-fraud and corruption activity through the year. This had been briefly referred to in previous quarterly updates on the work of the Service.

Members were advised of the difficulty of assessing the direction of travel when discussing fraud; the use of new exercises and processes meant fraud which may have gone undiscovered previously could now be detected. The Audit and Assurance Manager confirmed that the counter fraud results would be available for Members later in the year.

            RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

To receive a report of the Audit and Assurance Manager.

The Committee received a report of the Audit and Assurance Manager providing an update on the strategic risk environment. This included arrangements in place to manage each of the strategic risks.

The Audit and Assurance Manager highlighted the risks which had been changed, removed and added, and proposed to continue to provide the Committee with biannual updates. Members were advised that, over recent years, Directorates were more involved with the risk register’s development, and that the Corporate Management Team provided their direct input.

In response to a question on the recent announcement on business rates retention, the Chief Finance Officer suggest that a presentation on the topic be provided to the Committee once more information became available.

            RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

To receive a report of the Executive Member for Finance and the Chief Finance Officer.

The Committee received a report of The Executive Member for Finance and the Chief Finance Officer detailing the outcomes of the monitoring of the Council’s revenue budget for period 10 (April 2015 to January 2016).

Members were advised of the favourable movement in the overall underspend which was now at £4.4 million. There continued to be an overspend in Children’s Services due to demand, but this was counteracted by the underspend in Adult’s Social Services. The 22 per cent overspend in Community Health & Wellbeing was as a result of central government’s in-year cut in the public health grant.

The Chief Finance Officer confirmed that the format of the Revenue Budget Monitoring reports would be assessed in due course.

            RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

To receive a report of the Audit and Assurance Manager.

The Committee received a report of the Audit and Assurance Manager which set out the updated work plan for the Committee for the 2015/16 municipal year. The report outlined areas considered by the Committee at each of its meetings over the period of the year.

It was noted that the work programme had assisted in ensuring that the Committee had met its responsibilities under its terms of reference and maintained focus on key issues and priorities as defined by the Committee.

The Audit and Assurance Manager confirmed that the annual report for the 2016/17 Accounts & Audit Committee work programme would be brought to the next meeting, and the Chairman encouraged Members to put forward any items they might want to add to the programme.

            RESOLVED: That the report be noted.