2.1 In February 2020, the Audit and Scrutiny Panel approved the council’s Strategic Governance Framework. Along with the other four inter-related corporate frameworks, the Strategic Governance Framework is key to assessing the success of The Plan for North Lanarkshire and monitoring delivery of the Programme of Work.
2.2 The council recognises that a crucial aspect in delivering good governance is the way that it is applied. The ethos of good governance cannot be achieved by structures, rules, and procedures alone. Effectively, good governance needs to be embedded within the council and its culture and the need for, and value of, good governance must be explicit. As such, any references that require to be made to one of the five frameworks references them all together at all times for completeness and to raise awareness of the need for good governance.
2.3 The council’s Strategic Governance Framework outlines the elements and mechanisms in place to ensure appropriate oversight and governance of The Plan for North Lanarkshire and supporting Programme of Work and enable the council to monitor the delivery of its ambitions while ensuring arrangements for corporate governance, risk management, and internal financial controls are sound. This is based on the following:
- Identifying and setting out the council’s long-term strategic ambition and priorities in The Plan for North Lanarkshire and ensuring the vision for inclusive growth and prosperity for all is embedded throughout all other policy statements agreed by the council.
- Establishing the five inter-related corporate frameworks (Policy, Governance, Programme and Project Management, Performance, and Self-Evaluation) to assess the success of The Plan for North Lanarkshire and monitor delivery of the Programme of Work, while ensuring each stage of delivery towards achieving the overall ambitions is appropriately planned, guided, implemented, and governed.
- Ensuring these five frameworks remain aligned to The Plan for North Lanarkshire and Programme of Work through a regular review and refresh programme that also helps the council to ensure it is proactive in responding to social, economic, and environmental trends and changes in legislation and governance, as well as the broad range of national policy changes and new developments.
- Standing Orders that allow the council to delegate decision making to committees, sub- committees, or officers and sets out the rules which apply to the running and operation of council and committee meetings.
- A Scheme of Administration which clearly sets out functions, terms of reference, and powers of the council and its committees and sub-committees and which is aligned to the organisational structure to facilitate decision making in line with the council’s strategy.
- A Scheme of Delegation to Officers which sets out the functions delegated to the Chief Officers of the council.
- Financial Regulations and a Scheme of Financial Delegation which, as an integral part of the council’s framework of internal financial controls, are designed to ensure effective stewardship of North Lanarkshire Council funds. Compliance with these regulations will ensure that public money is safeguarded and properly accounted for, and all council financial transactions are undertaken in a manner which demonstrates openness, transparency, and integrity. The Financial Regulations form a key part of the overarching Financial Strategy and the corporate governance arrangements of the council.
- The Financial Strategy which (as the overarching framework that establishes the financial strategies and policies to ensure effective financial governance, planning, and management) also sets out the responsibility for safeguarding public funds within the council and the role of the Section 95 Officer. The financial strategies and policies covered by the Financial Strategy include the Capital Strategy, Treasury Management Strategy, Revenue Budget Strategy, and the Medium-Term Financial Plan.
- A Risk Management Strategy with arrangements that reflect the council’s strategic ambition at a corporate, service, and project level. A key part of the system of internal control, the council’s risk management arrangements are designed to identify, assess, prioritise, and mitigate risks to the achievement of the council’s priorities. These arrangements are designed to enable the council to perform well, to manage risk effectively, and to minimise any potential impacts on service delivery and the achievement of planned outcomes.
- Codes of Conduct for Elected Members, Chief Officers, and employees which provide frameworks within which individuals are expected to undertake their duties in a manner which meets the required standards for good governance. This includes ensuring declarations of interests, and for conflicts of interest and gifts and hospitality, are appropriately made and published.
- Ensuring legislative obligations are fulfilled through the statutory officer roles of the head of paid service, monitoring officer, chief financial officer (section 95 officer), and the chief social work officer.
- An Anti-Fraud Policy and Fraud Response Plan which sets out the council’s expectations (which extend to all individuals and organisations with whom it deals) in terms of acting honestly and with integrity and in safeguarding public resources.
- Whistleblowing procedures which provide a mechanism for employees of the council, and other workers within the council, to report a concern about serious wrongdoing within the council and to do so with security and in confidence.
- A Corporate Management Team (CMT) with a supporting meetings structure comprising Service Management Team (SMT) meetings and Operational Management Team (OMT) meetings to cascade the context, deliverables, and accountabilities and ensure consistency of message in the delivery of the Programme of Work and The Plan for North Lanarkshire. All Heads of Service are members of the CMT; this includes those Heads of Service who also hold a statutory officer role.
- An Audit and Scrutiny Panel whose activities and functions comply with the standards set out in CIPFA’s Position Statement: Audit Committees in Local Authorities (2018), and whose purpose is to provide independent assurance to the council and those charged with governance on the adequacy of the council's risk management framework and internal control environment. It also provides independent review of the council's governance, risk management, performance, and control frameworks and oversees the financial reporting and annual governance processes.
- A systematic approach to managing strategic and operational performance which includes target setting and regular service / statutory and Strategic Performance Framework reporting in line with an annual schedule and the statutory direction, to allow performance against the strategic priorities to be assessed.
- Comprehensive revenue budget and capital expenditure guidelines, with well-established processes and systems to ensure regular monitoring and reporting, as well as oversight and scrutiny by management and Elected Members.
- A range of programme Boards and working groups aligned to the delivery of specific Programme of Work items, e.g. DigitalNL, Community Hubs, Enterprise Strategic Commercial Partnership, and Data Governance.
- An Information Governance Policy Framework, comprising policies in terms of records and information management, data protection, information handling and classification, information risk, and information security to ensure proper recording of information, appropriate access to that information including by the public, and compliance with legislation.
- Publicly available complaints and freedom of information procedures with management, monitoring, and reporting arrangements.
- A range of employment and other policies and the associated guidance documents and forms which promote and support ethical behaviour and standards of conduct by employees, along with an employee Performance Review and Development (PRD) process and access to a range of employee and Elected Members’ training and development programmes and opportunities through LearnNL.
- Independent and objective assurances provided by Internal Audit whose function is designed to add value and improve the council’s operations. The Internal Audit function operates within the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards (PSIAS) and the council’s Internal Audit Charter. The service undertakes an annual programme of work approved by the Audit and Scrutiny Panel which is based on the Internal Audit Annual Plan. This plan is risk based and is periodically updated to reflect evolving issues and changes.
- Independent and objective assurances provided by the external auditors through their Annual Audit Report (AAR) process and a range of external audit and inspection bodies.