Issue - meetings

The Cyngor Gwynedd Self-assessment (Draft) 2021/22 was approved, accepting the recommendations made by the Governance and Audit Committee and to recommend its adoption to the Full Council.

The report was submitted by Cllr Dyfrig Siencyn   

DECISION 

To approve the Cyngor Gwynedd Self-assessment (Draft) 2021/22, accepting the recommendations made by the Governance and Audit Committee and to recommend its adoption to the Full Council. 

DISCUSSION 

The report was submitted noting that this was the Council's first Self-assessment, which looked back at 2021/22. It was explained that a new statutory requirement under the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021 noted the need to create and publish this annually. It was added that the self-evaluation drew on a few sources of information and evidence and that a great deal of the information had been published in the Annual Performance Report and in the Social Services' Annual Report. It was emphasised that in order to keep the report concise, there were only references to the documents.  
  

It was noted that the act stipulated an expectation to present a draft of the Self-assessment to the Governance and Audit Committee for observations. It was expressed that this had occurred last week and that one observation had been received, namely the need to refer to the training available for Councillors under Corporate Planning in order to identify the good work that was taking place within the Council.    

It was explained that this was the first time that the Self-evaluation had been submitted and that an effort had been made to keep it concise and legible. It was explained that arrangements continued to develop in terms of its preparation and that future arrangements were to be combined with the performance challenging arrangements and for it to be included in the Council's Annual Performance Report.  

The Monitoring Officer added that this was a new procedure and that there was a statutory requirement to enter into a consultation on the procedure, but that this was to come.  

Observations arising from the discussion 

·       It was expressed that the proposal to combine it with the Annual Performance Report was an opportunity to add another tier of governance within the Council. That the Council Plan indicated what the Council would do, the Performance Report noted what had been done and this would be a middle tier, highlighting how well the Council had done the work.