Issue - meetings

Consideration was given to report of the Professional Lead Internal Audit.

The Professional Lead Internal Audit presented the report which provided an update on progress against the Internal Audit Plan for the period 1st January 2021 to 28th February, 2021.  Activities during the period were set out in Appendix A to the report, and the format showed a summary of findings from audit reports produced in the period, including a formal audit opinion where appropriate. Where individual audits were graded as Limited Assurance or No Assurance, an Internal Audit Summary Report was presented at Appendix B.

A Member asked whether the Audit Section were on target to complete the levels of audit coverage sufficient to form an opinion at the end of the year.

The Officer explained that the progress report presented at the last meeting was based on work over a 9 month period, and the Section was currently on track to complete all financial audits for the end of March 2021.

In response to a further question raised the Officer reported that the Flying Start and SIMS School audits had been delayed due to services being reprioritised, but it was intended to progress those now and hopefully they would be completed towards the end of the year.  In relation to the Thematic Review, the Officer said this was a pilot audit looking at numerous systems across a range of areas.  As this was a new area of work there was no definitive timescale to complete the audit as it was about exploring whether it would add value and prevent duplication of work.  The results of the pilot would be reported to a future meeting of the Audit Committee.

The Member then referred to Appendix B Community Care Audit and sought clarification on the summary of findings.

The Officer confirmed that Community Care Management and internal controls operated effectively.  The majority of the findings highlighted weaknesses in relation to quality assurance processes, however, these had now been redesigned as a result of the audit.

RESOLVED that the report be accepted and the findings within the attached Appendices, and progress on activities for the period 1st January, 2021 to 28th February, 2021 be noted.