Council Leader: ‘I have full confidence the problems in Tŷ Pawb will be resolved’ ahead of fresh business plan

A “clear business plan that learns lessons” over Wrexham Council’s arts and markets facility is set to go before councillors next week.

Last Friday Wrexham.com reported that concerns over ‘basics’ and higher level project management issues on the council’s Tŷ Pawb project were raised in an Audit Committee meeting.

During the meeting a range of issues were examined, after a report noted a ‘red audit’ with various concerns, where ‘errors and omissions have been detected’.

Such problems were explained as potentially ‘leaving the Council exposed to significant risk, which could lead to major financial loss, reputational risk of embarrassment or failure to achieve key service objectives’.

Yesterday we asked Wrexham Council’s Chief Executive if he was aware of the issues raised in Audit and also asked the Council Leader where the lines are drawn over operational matters when such issues are raised.

Ian Bancroft, chief executive, explained: “I have picked up some of that, and will pick up what is discussed outside of the meeting.

“It is an important time for Tŷ Pawb because we are at the end of the first year and what we are seeing is a range of review documents.

“Performance has massively outstripped expectation in terms of visitor numbers, it is successful, financially it has done better than the projections in the Fourth Street business plan, and is on a reasonably sure footing.

“The first year is always the riskiest year in any new business, because you do not know what those 365 days will be like until you have run it for a year.”

“I think there are lots of things we can improve on, the point of doing an internal audit early on is about being transparent. A lot of people would not do internal audits really early on in the operation of a new business entity which this is.

“What that has brought out is there are areas of improvement.

“What will come before Scrutiny is a clear business plan that learns the lessons from year one, and areas that need to be improved on.

“I think we have been running flat out in year one due to all the expectation, it is really important we give the leadership of Tŷ Pawb time to reflect and improve what they are doing and also get the brand really clear and right.”

“That is there in next year’s business plan, and for me the message is ‘good first year performance, and we are not going to sit on our laurels’.

“There are lots of things to learn, that is why we have the audit report, and they are all pretty basic things to get right.”

We noted that the issues raised were operational rather than policy / political, and asked the Council Leader about how councillors are elected to represent the public and set directions and oversee the running of the council on our behalf. We asked what can councillors do, outside of the formal audit and scrutiny processes, if they see issues.

Cllr Pritchard explained: “Our role as elected members is to challenge on delivery of services, and make sure services are delivered as efficiently as possible.

“On this issue it is operational, and officer led, but we work closely with officers, we have to. The bluntness of it is if things that go wrong, it is politicians that pick up the pieces.

“We have done the audit, and there has been things and issues and brought to our attention, and I have every confidence that the Chief Exec, and Mark Owen the Head of Finance will resolve and deal with the issues.

Mr Bancroft added: “The thing is you start worrying when you don’t see audit reports like that from a new entity, it gives levels and assurances that we are prepared to go in there and be open and transparent about process and procedure.”

“Clearly what an audit report results in is a clear action plan that is then implemented and monitored by the audit committee.

“In some ways, that is the answer to the question, that is the point of the audit committee. Members are there to scrutinise in audit committees, ‘are the basics systems and operations in place?’, what you would expect to see is an improvement and a positive direction of travel. That would be brought back to members to see that level of improvement.”

“My worry as a Chief Executive comes if we didn’t have that transparency around operation and performance, and in this case there is real transparency, and the correct process in the audit committee.”

Councillor Pritchard added: “We are not afraid at all to open any department up for an inspection or an audit.

“We have to let officers manage the services, but if there are problems there we are here to challenge the officers to deliver the services because there is implications on money, standards and reputation.

“I would have no hesitation as politician to task any officer in this council to deal with any issues that affect the reputation of the council.”

“I think the officers are on the same page as us, and they hurt as much as we do if things are not right.”

“Going back to Tŷ Pawb, knowing Ian and the officers involved in Tŷ Pawb I have full confidence the problems will be resolved, and we move on.”

The Chief Exec also outlined six workshops with several hundred members of staff involved that partially was around engaging with them about the future of the council priorities, but about also ‘culture change’, “The key message is about us needing to be more honest and open, right through the organisation when things are not going right.”

“That is right through the organisation, and there are issues with transparency and performance when we don’t listen to frontline staff who can see those issues happening and know those issues are happening.”

Speaking about the cultural and ‘ethos’ change, he added: “If people see things that are not right, or have ideas about how we can do things better, we absolutely act on those. That is a shift.”

Councillor Pritchard agree:, “We have opened it up with webcasting and the like to see who makes the decisions and how with more accountability. There has to be accountability for officers too, and challenge. The more audit looks at areas the healthier the council is as a place.

“I will say it, it is warts and all. I am not fearful at all, if there is a problem we need to deal with it. That is what I like about Wrexham, it has changed, I have been here a long time and these discussions did not take place but now it is out there and it is healthy. I am so pleased.”

“I would say to staff embrace this, if we did not have this there could be problems in other departments. We are a big organisation and things do not run smoothly everyday, but the important thing is the checks and balances in place to look at certain areas at certain times. I know and I am pleased the Chief Exec embraces that.”