Agenda item

To the minutes of the previous meeting of the Audit and Governance Committee held on 4 December, 2018.

The minutes of the previous meeting of the Audit and Governance Committee held on 4^th December, 2018, were presented and were confirmed as correct.

Arising thereon –

•           The Head of Audit and Risk confirmed that the North Wales Chief Auditors Group met in January, 2019 as scheduled; the Group is now working on a self-assessment that can be used across North Wales to assess Audit Committees’ compliance with CIPFA’s new guidance on the role of Audit Committees in Local Authorities and the Police which has extended the scope of audit committees. Members of the Committee will therefore be receiving a questionnaire shortly to obtain their views on where they feel the Committee is at currently.

•           The Head of Audit and Risk tabled information on the reimbursements made to operators for concessionary travel for each of the years from 2014/15 to 2017/18 as requested by the Committee at its previous meeting when considering the Concessionary Travel Fraud Internal Audit review (following a publicised case of fraud against Gwynedd Council). The Officer said that she had also contacted Welsh Government to seek its views on whether concessionary travel payments had varied across Wales following the fraud. Although the Welsh Government’s Auditor did not confirm that that was the case, the data shows that there has been a subsequent reduction in concessionary travel payments. As a follow-up to the fraud, North Wales Police and Welsh Government intend to hold a workshop in North Wales to which each Council’s Chief Audit Executive is invited with the aim of looking at areas of fraud that can be addressed generally across public services and more specifically, concessionary travel.

•           The Head of Audit and Risk tabled information about the position of Councils in Wales with regard to school meals income collection/school meals debts for 2017/18 which the Committee had also requested at its previous meeting. The information was derived from a BBC news piece on school dinner debts in Welsh Councils. The Officer said that although the article refers to the majority of councils in Wales, Anglesey is one of the councils omitted because it is not able to give a total accurate arrears position at present due to the fact that there are two systems in operation with some schools operating on a cashless basis whilst others are not. It is envisaged that all the Council’s schools will have transferred to the new system by September thereby enabling the Council to provide a reliable figure for school dinner arrears at that time.

The Head of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer confirmed that some schools currently record school dinner arrears on individual registers in classes; some calculate the sum total on a summary form; some are part cashless, part cash whilst others are completely cashless meaning there are different versions of the system each holding different pieces of information. The objective is to reconcile those pieces of information into one global arrears figure bearing in mind also that the figure changes on a daily basis. The most opportune time to make the calculation would be at the end of the Easter term when the figure is static for a fortnight - a figure can be produced at that time.  Schools will be transferring to the new cashless system over the summer term with the expectation that the new system will be operational across all schools in September.

In response to a question as to whether there is an agreed procedure for recovering school dinner money debt, the Head of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer clarified that it is a matter for each school to refer debts over a certain level – currently £50 - to the Central Debt Recovery team which will then issue a bill and a reminder and if still not paid, will then forward the debt to the Council’s Debt Collection Agency. The amount of work expended on recovery depends on the size of the debt, with the aim being to strike a balance between the level of debt and the cost of recovery whilst making it clear that the Council will where necessary take enforcement action to recover debts. The new system will require parents to pay for school dinners in advance and will provide them with a credit account thereby making it easier to both manage parents’ credit position and to contact them should the need arise.

The Committee having regard to the range of school dinner debts recorded in the BBC article, suggested that lessons could be learnt from contacting the Council with the lowest debt level i.e. Rhondda Cynon Taf at £770.56 to establish what practices it has implemented to help it manage school dinner money and keep the debt level low.

A member of the Committee further highlighted that this Council has in the past sought to make a case for extending free school meals to all school children in Wales thereby removing the social stigma that still attaches to claiming and being a recipient of free school meals.

The Head of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer said with regard to best practice in other councils that with the introduction of Universal Credit, the free school meals system has changed. Whereas previously a child would receive free school meals if his/her parents were in receipt of one of six out of work benefits, Universal Credit brings both out of work and in work benefits together. A child whose parents are in receipt of Universal Credit will receive free school meals regardless of whether the benefit that applied previously was in-work or out-of-work. Areas where Universal Credit has been rolled out for a longer period will therefore have more children who are entitled to free school meals than those areas where it has only been introduced recently i.e. Anglesey where Universal Credit was only introduced in December, 2018 and where the number of people receiving it, and consequently the number of children with entitlement to free school meals, is lower than for example in areas such as Torfaen.

In relation to there being a stigma attached to having free school meals, the Officer said that the new cashless payment system will remove the stigma as it does not distinguish those receiving free school meals from their peers in the same way as physically collecting school dinner money does.

The Committee noted the information presented.

ACTIONS PROPOSED:

•           Head of Audit and Risk to inquire with Councils in Wales where the school dinner debt level is low what practices they have in place to manage school dinner debt.

•           The Executive to be asked to consider lobbying Welsh Government to introduce free school meals to all school children in Wales.