2026-06-04-MIJB-A&R-Item-5.2-Annual-Governance-Statement-Report
Midlothian Council · 4 June 2026
Back to Midlothian Integration Joint Board - Audit and Risk Committee — 4 June 2026 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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Midlothian IJB Audit and Risk Committee 4 June 2026 at 2pm Midlothian Health and Social Care Integration Joint Board Annual Governance Statement 2025/26 Executive summary The purpose of this report is to present the draft Annual Governance Statement 2025/26 for the Midlothian Health and Social Care Integration Joint Board (MIJB) which explains the MIJB’s governance arrangements and system of internal control and reports on their effectiveness for the year ended 31 March 2026. The MIJB Audit and Risk Committee is therefore asked to: Consider the Midlothian Health and Social Care Integration Joint Board draft Annual Governance Statement 2025/26 (Appendix 1), which explains the MIJB’s governance arrangements and system of internal control and reports on their effectiveness for the year ended 31 March 2026, and provide any commentary thereon and approve for inclusion in the draft Annual Accounts 2025/26. # Item number: Agenda number
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Midlothian Integration Joint Board Report Midlothian Health and Social Care Integration Joint Board Annual Governance Statement 2025/26 1 Purpose 1.1 The purpose of this report is to present the draft Annual Governance Statement 2025/26 for the Midlothian Health and Social Care Integration Joint Board (MIJB) which explains the MIJB’s governance arrangements and system of internal control and reports on their effectiveness for the year ended 31 March 2026. 2 Recommendations 2.1 Members of the MIJB Audit and Risk Committee are asked to: Consider the Midlothian Health and Social Care Integration Joint Board draft Annual Governance Statement 2025/26 (Appendix 1), which explains the MIJB’s governance arrangements and system of internal control and reports on their effectiveness for the year ended 31 March 2026, and provide any commentary thereon and approve for inclusion in the draft Annual Accounts 2025/26. 3 Background and main report 3.1 The Midlothian Integration Joint Board (MIJB), established as a separate legal entity as required by the Act, is responsible for the strategic planning and commissioning of a wide range of integrated health and social care services across the Midlothian partnership area, based on resources which have been delegated to it by the partners, Midlothian Council and NHS Lothian. 3.2 Regulation 5(2) of the Local Authority Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2014 requires an authority to conduct a review at least once in a year of the effectiveness of its system of internal control and include a statement reporting on the review with any published Statement of Accounts. Regulation 5(4) of the Local Authority Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2014 require that for a local authority in Scotland the statement is an Annual Governance Statement. 3.3 The CIPFA Good Governance Framework states that Local authorities are required to prepare an annual governance statement in order to report publicly on the extent to which they comply with their own code of governance, which in turn is consistent with the good governance principles in this Framework. This includes how they have monitored and evaluated the effectiveness of their governance arrangements in the year, and on any planned changes in the coming period.
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Midlothian Integration Joint Board 3.4 The MIJB Audit & Risk Committee remit includes a review the IJB’s corporate governance arrangements against the good governance framework and consider annual governance reports and assurances. This paper and approval of the Annual Governance Statement fulfils this part of the remit. 4 Directions 4.1 There are no Directions implications arising from this report. 5 Equalities Implications 5.1 There are no direct equalities implications arising from this report. 6 Resource Implications 6.1 There are no direct resource implications as a result of this report. 7 Risk 7.1 There are no direct risk implications as a result of this report. 8 Involving people 8.1 The Audit & Risk Committee are being given initial review of the Annual Governance Statement which will be reviewed by the MIJB Chair, Chief Officer and Chief Finance Officer as part of the Annual Accounts process. Audit Scotland as the appointed External Auditors will also review the Annual Governance Statement as part of the Annual Accounts review. 9 Background Papers 9.1 Appendix 1 A AUTHOR’S NAME Duncan Stainbank DESIGNATION MIJB Chief Internal Auditor CONTACT INFO Duncan.Stainbank@midlothian.gov.uk DATE 26 May 2026