Agenda

Including any notices of motion and any other items of business submitted as urgent for consideration at the meeting.

Members should declare any financial and non-financial interests they have in the items of business for consideration, identifying the relevant agenda item and the nature of their interest.

If any

Minute of Governance, Risk and Best Value Committee of 20 February 2024 – submitted for approval as a correct record

Minute of Governance, Risk and Best Value Committee of 19 March 2024 - submitted for approval as a correct record

Outstanding Actions

Work Programme

Business Bulletin

Motion By Councillor Lang - Safety of Council Operated Heavy Vehicles – referral from the City of Edinburgh Council

Annual Treasury Management Strategy 2024-2025 – referral from the City of Edinburgh Council

Capital Strategy Annual Report – referral from the Finanace and Resources Committee

Capital Theatres annual report – referral from Culture and Communities Committee

Edinburgh Leisure Annual Report – referral from Culture and Communities Committee

Award of Contract for Edinburgh's Winter Festivals - Referral from the Finance and Resource Committee

Edinburgh Integration Joint Board Chief Officer Update Report – referral from the Policy and Sustainability Committee

Internal Audit Annual Plan - referral from the IJB Audit and Assurance Committee

By Councillor Heap - PVG and insurance checks

1. Notes that an internal audit report on Supplier and Contract Management presented to the Governance Risk and Best Value Committee stated that:

“Contract management arrangements for a large healthcare provider were reviewed as part of the audit sample. It was concluded that supplier contract management arrangements were weak as there were no 1-1 supplier contract meetings due to the large number of suppliers, no KPI performance reporting, and no meeting minutes for supplier meetings. In addition, compliance activities such as PVG or insurance checks were stopped during the recent pandemic and, as at December 2023, have yet to resume” (emphasis added).

2.    Notes the answer to Written Question 11.1 on the last Full Council’s agenda which states
“assurances that PVG checks are and have always been routinely carried out for anyone who requires it and that processes are in place to ensure this happens prior to commencing employment. Again, appropriate checks are undertaken to ensure insurance requirements are in place.”

3. Notes that, given e-mailed confirmation from IJB officers that some “spot checks” were not undertaken and given a press statement that “Internal audit have highlighted that there is a requirement for the HSCP to improve frequency of spot checks and this will addressed [sic] within the action plan for improvement”, there is some uncertainty about what checks have and have not been carried out.
4. Notes with thanks the helpful clarifications provided to Councillors who have enquired about the issue, but believes clarifications should be put in the public domain
5. Requests officers issue within one week of the passage of this motion (if passed), a clarifying briefing to Councillors detailing

a)    The nature of the spot checks which were not done

b)    If any spot checks were not done, why not

c)    What risks, if any, were posed to staff and service users as a result of the issues around the spot checks

d)    What work has been done to establish whether there have been similar issues in other services

e)    The action plan referred to in the press statement

By Councillor Jenkinson - IT Service Availability

“Committee:

1)         Notes the system-wide IT outage on 11th April 2024 which affected both the learning and teaching (schools) and the corporate (non-schools) networks.

2)         Further notes that this planned outage impacted Wi-Fi, landlines, remote access, the Council’s website, the Orb, MS Teams, libraries, myHR, Verint, plus many other internal and external facing systems.

3)         Agrees that it is inappropriate to plan a system-wide outage during the online working day.

4)         Therefore requests a Business Bulletin update to the next meeting of GRBV detailing the business case, technical detail (if not commercially sensitive), impact analysis and any financial implications this planned outage had on the Council.”

The Committee is requested under Section 50(A)(4) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 to exclude the public from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they would involve the disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 12 of Part 1 of Schedule 7A of the Act.