The council's Internal Audit service carries out a comprehensive programme of review activity consistent with the Audit Strategy and the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards. The work is based around the core risks faced by the council and includes significant work on the main financial and information management systems, corporate programmes and partnerships. Based upon the programme of work for 2025/26, the Assistant Director of Audit and Investigation's concludes that the council's governance, risk management, and internal control arrangements are effective and support the delivery of statutory duties and strategic priorities.

Further details on this can be found in the Annual Governance Statements (AGS) in Section 8 of the accounts.

This section presents key highlights of the council's 2025/26 delivery plan. The deliverables are designed to contribute towards the achievement of the overall 4-year goals contained within the council Plan 2022-26. The latest performance update was reported in February 2026 to Cabinet with specific reference to the year-end performance and delivery highlights, Key performance indicators are reported at Q2 due to the timings of reporting.

A summary of progress towards the 4-year council plan commitments are illustrated below. No annual targets have been set for these commitments, but regular tracking helps ensure that all commitments are delivered over the life of the administration. Cumulative progress since the start of the council plan in 2022/23 is provided, and it is worth noting that most of the 43 four-year goals have been achieved by the fourth year of the council plan.

Where reporting data is not available until Q4, this is shown as N/A in the table. Of the 60 indicators available at the reporting date 33% did not meet their target, while 67% had either met their target or were within tolerance.

Highlights are presented against the nine council priorities and outlining what has been achieved during 2025/26. The highlights are covered in the Impact Report.