Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Simon Roach. Cllr Kippax was attending online.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on the 12^th of January 2026

The minutes of the meeting held on the 12^th January were confirmed and signed.

To consider the Audit and Governance Action Tracker.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Capital Strategy provided an update. There was a reference group held over the past several months and was felt that it was time to end. Thanks were given to the officers and members of the group for their contributions and was largely satisfied with the direction of systems and procedures. There was a concern about the risk approach and there was an opportunity to use a draw down contract for renewal as a test case which would be useful to try and work out what they had in place and if it was strong enough. There were concerns about contract management which they had asked the officers to go back and check to make sure the systems were robust.

The Vice Chair, Cllr Spencer Flower, concurred and added that the support from officers had been excellent and believed they had done the job that the group was set up to do.

The Corporate Director for Finance and Commercial introduced a number of items that had draft answers which would be circulated to members and brought back to the next meeting.

To disclose any pecuniary, other registrable or non-registrable interest as set out in the adopted Code of Conduct.  In making their decision councillors are asked to state the agenda item, the nature of the interest and any action they propose to take as part of their declaration.

If required, further advice should be sought from the Monitoring Officer in advance of the meeting.

No declarations of disclosable pecuniary interests were made at the meeting.

Representatives of town or parish councils and members of the public who live, work, or represent an organisation within the Dorset Council area are welcome to submit either 1 question or 1 statement for each meeting.  You are welcome to attend the meeting in person or via MS Teams to read out your question and to receive the response. If you submit a statement for the committee this will be circulated to all members of the committee in advance of the meeting as a supplement to the agenda and appended to the minutes for the formal record but will not be read out at the meeting. The first 8 questions and the first 8 statements received from members of the public or organisations for each meeting will be accepted on a first come first served basis in accordance with the deadline set out below.

All submissions must be emailed in full to [email protected] by 8.30 am on 18^th February 2026.

When submitting your question or statement please note that:

· You can submit 1 question or 1 statement.

· A question may include a short pre-amble to set the context.

· It must be a single question and any sub-divided questions will not be permitted.

· Each question will consist of no more than 450 words, and you will be given up to 3 minutes to present your question.

· When submitting a question please indicate who the question is for (e.g., the name of the committee or Portfolio Holder)

· Include your name, address, and contact details.  Only your name will be published but we may need your other details to contact you about your question or statement in advance of the meeting.

· Questions and statements received in line with the council’s rules for public participation will be published as a supplement to the agenda.

· All questions, statements and responses will be published in full within the minutes of the meeting. 

There were no questions from the public.

To note the minutes of the Audit & Governance Hearing Sub-committee (if any meetings have been held).

There were no meetings held.

To receive a report by Lisa Cotton, Corporate Director, Transformation, Customer and Cultural Services.

The Head of Transformation and Design introduced the report. Since the last update the program remained stable but had made improvements to clarifying roles and to areas of concern. They had taken a phased approach to organisational change to ensure they were safe and controlled.

Governance had a clearer member led oversight on the changes involving Cabinet setting the direction, Audit & Governance providing scrutiny of risk and governance maturity, and Place and Resource Scrutiny checked accountability and a cross-party member steering group which was internally supported by a programme board to oversee delivery, risks, issues and benefits. Over the past 6 months they had refined the reporting cycle and the next update would come to cabinet in April.

Workforce risk had been reduced following the launch of the transformation management office and the customer and business support hubs. These services were bedding in well but there was remaining pressure as teams adjusted and processes stabilised. Risk was being mitigated by bringing together the routes that we were asking customers to contact us through and actively reducing duplication of tasks.
Technology risk around the new HR and finance system was still high but were in a position where it was far more understood through the strengthening of specialist roles and introduction of new ones in support. There would be further updates on governance in future reports for these systems.
The financial risk remained high, for 25/26 £6.7m of the £10m target was forecasted for delivery, but there was still some remaining low confidence in relation to third party spend reduction. For 26/27 the delivery plans relied on timely service changes to make sure the workforce was tracked accurately and was critical that momentum was maintained by being strengthened through dependency tracking being tighter and better managed.

Queries were raised such as additional assurance around data assurance, sequence of technology change. A lot of work to adopt sector led working being learned from other organisations rather than redesigning. Managing automation pilots had tight governance surrounding it and had ethics and morals around how automation was used. Migration of legacy content had enabled moving forward in the management of data with a rolling deletion policy to make sure only needed information was kept.

Cllr questions:

-          Data migration was working well with officers to make sure they were aligned.

-          Very used to organisations going through IT migrations so Grant Thornton will make sure they are able to work with the system.

-          The Transformation Board asked for a list of the activities that would save us money and whether each of those activities was on track. It was asked that only exception reporting was brought forward, if the report was on track, then leave it alone but bring forward the ones that are not on track.

Noted.

To receive a report by Sean Cremer, Corporate Director, Finance and Commercial.

The Corporate Director for Finance and Commercial introduced the report. Scope for this was Dorset Council and the Dorset Council pension fund. The report showed the Council was effectively hindered by the backstop arrangements and the maximum opinion in insurance is hampered by that happened a few years ago which was a national matter. Therefore, the opinion on the closing balance carried forward to the following year, but this would be the last year the backstop lingered in the accounts. Views from Grant Thornton would lead to a clean bill of health, and there were hundreds of pages of detail regarding findings and were continuing to identify improvements which were welcomed.

The Engagement Leader from Grant Thornton introduced the documents. The documents regarding Dorset Council and Dorset Pension fund were brought up to date. Appendix 2, recalled a verbal update was brought at the last meeting regarding an additional paper, and had been incorporated into the final report so there was nothing new and was just a final complete document. The pension fund was on its last year of unwinding.

In appendix 4 and 6 was the letter of representation which was signed by senior management to make sure that all information had been disclosed to the auditor and covers areas such as fraud.

Dorset Council’s audit, appendix 1, was presented at the last meeting but there were 3 key areas highlighted to be finalised. The first was around final work regarding concluding council leases. Big changes last year in authorities leasing standards which effectively brought on additional leases not previously held by the council.  Valuation of the Council’s property assets had been taken to an external professional valuer and expect to take very different assumptions which can lead to sizable swings in the balance but has been given additional levels of scrutiny with additional expertise being used. In relation to the health and safety investigation there was a meeting with the police to gain a helpful update allowing additional work to be completed. Was pleased to say no audit tests revealed there were no other issues, and all three areas have been concluded. Disclaimer opinions still retain on the council. The council valued property every 5 years so was not subject to the value of the current year so will take a while before some property comes back around for valuation. There would be discussion with colleagues on what the period of recovery will look like to get there as soon as possible.

Decision: The Committee agreed and noted the recommendations set out in the report.  

Reasons for Decision:  

In accordance with the national backstop deadline of 27 February 2026 for the completion of the 2024/25 audit, the Committee was asked to approve the recommendations which provided a disclaimer of opinion on the financial statements for 2024/25. 

To receive a report by Sean Cremer, Corporate Director, Finance and Commercial.

The Corporate Director for Finance and Commercial introduced the report. It was the usual pack of information covering the revenue budget capital, debt management and other financial management. The revenue forecast at £4.4m overspend which resulted in an £866,000 improvement. The table on page 330 breaks down the movement within the directorates, Adults and Housing was seeing a high level of demand which was offset by some improvement in the children’s directorate and in place. Not taken external borrowing at the level originally though. The position was improving going into Q3. The papers went through cabinet and reprofiled the capital program, so the reports were slightly out of date.  

Answers to Cllr Questions:

-          Do tend to see the large overspend forecasts in Q1 and Q2 but as pressure comes through, there had been opportunities to hold back discretionary spend from other directorates. To take a more sustainable way forwards started with the budget set at the beginning of the year, effectively how many services people receive from the council for how long continued pressure. Took decisions straight out the Q1 position around holding vacancies and restricting non-essential spending, setting out that the control measure will remain in place until such a time at which they can be released. Already looking toward, the 27/28 budgeting process to make sure there is a certain degree of funding.

The committee noted the report.

To consider the work programme for the Committee.

The work programme was noted by the committee.

To consider any items of business which the Chairman has had prior notification and considers to be urgent pursuant to section 100B (4) b) of the Local Government Act 1972. The reason for the urgency shall be recorded in the minutes.

There were no urgent items.

To consider passing the following recommendation:   

Recommendation   

That in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude the public from the meeting for the business specified in item(s) No 12a because it is likely that if members of the public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in paragraph(s) 3 of Part 1 of schedule 12A to the Act and the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information to the public.   

The public and the press will be asked to leave the meeting whilst the item of business is considered. (Any live streaming will end at this juncture).   

Reason for taking the item in private

Paragraph 3 - Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).   

Proposed by Cllr Spencer Flower, seconded by Cllr Ryan Holloway.

Decision:

That the press and the public be excluded for the following item(s) in view of the likely disclosure of exempt information within the meaning of paragraph 3 of schedule 12 A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended).

To receive an exempt report by Sally White, Assistant Director SWAP.

The committee noted a report on ICT Assurance Mapping.