Conwy Council...Concerns regarding missing information following a self-assessment report including “statutory” details of its financial position!

 
They lost financial information!!! Didn't something similar just happen with the Llandudno Library figures? You wonder what else has been sent back with missing or incorrect information on! I wonder what Columbo would do? 

A backbench councillor raised concerns about missing information in a six-monthly self-assessment report produced by the council, including “statutory” details of its financial position.

At July’s meeting at Conwy Council’s Coed Pella HQ, councillors discussed its performance self-assessment for the period of October 2024 to March 2025.

The assessment rated the authority’s successes and failings across areas included in its corporate plan, ranking measures and actions as green, amber, or red.

A green status meant a target had been met; an amber status meant performance was within a target range; and a red status meant performance targets were missed.

Conwy performed well according to the report in many areas – such as collecting non-domestic rates from businesses, being inclusive, digital transformation, clean streets, and the number of 16-18 year olds not in education, training, or employment, which were all marked green.

But other targets weren’t so good, with primary and secondary school attendance, affordable housing, and carbon emissions marked red, amongst numerous others.

But Llandudno councillor Harry Saville was concerned that some areas of the report had “pending data” statuses. Cllr Saville said he was worried that, according to the report, Conwy didn’t know its “general fund balance” for 2023/24 or the current year; didn’t know the “percentage of forecast savings achieved” for either 2023/24 or 2024/25, and didn’t have data for the percentage of A,B, and C roads in poor condition – amongst several other areas.

This led to a lead council officer indicating that some data hadn’t come forward due to the “wants” of a given department, raising Cllr Saville’s concerns further.

“The concern I had was around the amount of measures that are data pending,” said Cllr Saville.

“These seem to specifically relate to finance, road maintenance, housing and homelessness prevention, and social care. Obviously, social care is a pretty critical local government function.

“I can understand that some of the data pending measures are for 2024/25, which I appreciate that financial year came to an end reasonably recently, but some of them are from 2023/24.

“I’m just looking at the page in front of me. It says we are still waiting for data on how much of our general fund balance we have as a proportion of our net budget or the percentage of forecasted savings achieved for 2023/24.

“This information is published in the public domain.

“It forms part of our statement of our accounts, which is readily available on the council’s website.

“So I’m a bit surprised that we have pretty rudimentary and, I’d have thought, pretty important data, which surely should be included in this report, which isn’t.”

He added: “I’d be interested to know why. I am conscious that this has been through three committees other than full council.

“I don’t sit on those committees, so there might be a really good reason I’ve overlooked. But I’d appreciate an explanation.”

Conwy’s strategy, performance, and engagement manager Iolo McGregor responded to the concerns.

“Some of the issues relate to the fact that the measures are brand new, following the revision of the corporate plan,” he said.

“I’m sure you will appreciate there is considerable output that goes into putting new measures in place, making sure we’ve got the right system to pull the data together, and that the data is validated.

“We’ve moved at actually quite considerable pace to get this report to councillors as soon as we have.

“So having just agreed the corporate plan in February and then agreed the performance framework in the months that followed, we then have to work with services to get the data in. It all takes time.”

He added: “So I think probably the reason why that 2023/24 is missing is purely because these are not measures that were readily reported previously.

“As for the one you mention was published, I’m not clear there is a difference between that measure and what data the service wants to put forward, but I’m hoping and would like to give assurance that our next report will be even more bountiful with data.”

Cllr Saville then seemed worried by the prospect of services choosing which information was “put forward”.

“We haven’t just invented the council having a general fund. Surely, the council’s general balances have existed for as long as we’ve had financial dealings as a local authority. I was a little bit concerned by the comment as well that maybe this reflects information that services want to put forward,” he said.

“I thought that this was a statutory document, and surely there’s a statutory duty on officers to comply with it and put forward information, so where does this bit come from that services wanting or not wanting to disclose information?”

Mr McGregor responded: “I don’t want to be misunderstood on that point about services wanting to put forward data.

“These are measures we have agreed with services and with cabinet members, so the data we are committing to bring forward are proposed measures that you have before you.”

He added: “But there is still validation and checking that needs to take place before we present the data to you, and we don’t want to be putting forward inaccurate data in any shape or form.”

Cllr Abdul Khan joined the debate, adding: “Where there is a concern, there seems to be a lot of reports pending, and we can’t get the real picture.

He added: “So for the future, can we have the report on time with no pending (data)? I’m sure there is a reason for it. For example, if you look on page 124 (of the report), there are lots of reds on there, which is a concern, but it is pending, so we don’t know if it’s amber or green.”

Leader Cllr Charlie McCoubrey said the council was struggling financially but said officers should be “applauded” for their good work.

He added the council struggled in areas due to a lack of resources, officers, and recruitment, which put them under “severe pressure”.

Cllr McCoubrey highlighted other areas of success, including Conwy’s investment in leisure centres and gym membership, with “more members than Denbighshire and Gwynedd combined”.

He added: “Day in, day out, there’s some really good things that are done for our residents; unfortunately, when it’s not so good, we hear the press, and that’s when they contact us.”

Councillors approved the report, with 44 in favour, one against, and one abstention. From....https://www.northwalespioneer.co.uk/news/25318889.conwy-council-told-incomplete-council-self-assessment-report/