Agenda item

The Committee considered a report presented by Alison Lewis, Audit Wales Representative on the follow-up review of the council-wide corporate arrangements for safeguarding.

Specifically, the review sought to identify whether Carmarthenshire County Council had addressed the 7 recommendations pertinent to Welsh Councils which had emanated from the Auditor General’s Review undertaken in 2015 of Corporate Safeguarding Arrangements in Welsh Councils.

The Audit Wales representative provided Committee with an outline of findings arising from their subsequent review, undertaken between June and August 2023, which concluded that the Council had not addressed all the recommendations in the 2015 national report on corporate safeguarding, and identified weaknesses in its corporate safeguarding oversight and assurance arrangements that needed to be addressed to enable the Council to assure itself that risks are minimised.

The Committee considered the 5 new recommendations which had arisen from the follow-up review, as detailed in the report. The summary organisational response thereto was appended to the report which set out the Council’s intended actions to address the issues raised. It was noted that a more detailed organisational response had been circulated to Committee members in advance of the meeting. 

The following issues were raised on the report:

The Director of Community Services, in response to a query, clarified that reference would be made to the Annual Report on Safeguarding within the Council’s Annual Report, however both would be produced as stand-alone documents. The Director of Community Services drew attention to the positive assessments that Estyn and CSSIW had provided of the Council’s arrangements for safeguarding Children and Adults at risk; it was important to recognise that the focus of the Audit Wales report was Corporate Safeguarding. 

Following a request for clarification, the Director of Community Services provided an assurance that appropriate levels of safeguarding training would be delivered as required, with effective systems in place to monitor and report on compliance.  It was clarified that whilst the safeguarding training was now mandatory for elected members and the wider staff group, there was no legal framework which the Council could mandate school governors (and other individuals undertaking voluntary roles) to undertake the training.  Whilst it was expected that all school governors would comply with the Council’s request to undertake appropriate safeguarding training, it was agreed that the Corporate Safeguarding Group further consider the issue with a view to ensuring a minimum of Level 1 training for all School Governors.

Concerns were raised by the Committee in respect of the effectiveness of the monitoring of required actions and the lessons to be learnt in this regard. The Director of Community Services duly clarified that whilst work had been undertaken to address the issues identified in the original national review, the Council had not maintained or re-established those arrangements in a timely manner following the coronavirus pandemic.  An assurance was however provided that rapid progress had more recently been made by the Council. Prompt and positive action had been taken to implement robust governance and compliance mechanisms within the Council, with effective arrangements now in place to monitor the ongoing actions arising from external reviews.  

In view of the Committee’s previous determination to receive an Internal Audit update report on corporate safeguarding in the autumn of 2024, a request was made for an assessment of the progress made in respect of the actions deriving from the Audit Wales review to be incorporated within that report.  The Director of Corporate Services agreed to feedback the Committee’s request for consideration at the next meeting of the Corporate Safeguarding Group.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that: