Agenda item

Report by the Director of Finance, Performance and Procurement and the Head of Southern Internal Audit Partnership.

The Committee is asked to note the Internal Audit Progress report for the period to March 2019.

35.1   The Committee considered a report by the Director of Finance, Performance and Procurement and the Head of Southern Internal Audit Partnership (copy appended to the signed minutes).

35.2   Mr Pitman, Head of Southern Internal Audit Partnership, introduced Antony Harvey, Deputy Head of the Southern Internal Audit Partnership, who would also be attending meetings going forwards.

35.3   Mr Pitman introduced the report and reported that there was a low level of overdue actions, with one being a high priority.  The report also included three limited assurance opinions; Sustainability, Public Health contracts, and the Financial Adults Safeguarding Team.

35.4   Ms Raleigh, Director of Public Health, informed the committee that following her appointment she had looked at Public Heath contract processes.  Internal Audit had been commissioned to assist and identify how to handle processes.

35.5   Following the audit, a Public Health Board had been created that was chaired by the Chief Executive.  The Directorate Leadership Team also monitored reports on how contracts were performing.  The register of contracts was now complete and up to date; with Key Performance Indicators for all contracts.  Most audit actions were now complete.  Ms Raleigh reported she was happy with the audit process.

35.6   Members welcomed the verbal update and commented that they felt assurance on progress.

35.7   The Committee made comments including those that follow.

•    Noted the level of spend on the Public Health Contracts work and queried the likelihood that this could happen in other areas.  Concerns were raised on the lack of assurance on value for money.  – Ms Raleigh reported that the work had focussed on 14 of the public health contracts.  The gap of appointment to the Director of Public Health post and the lapsing of contracts had led to the issues raised.  Work was still required in this area.  The Adult and Social Care Commissioning Team had oversight of the contracts.  The Committee commented that management changed regularly and so this was not an acceptable reason for contracts to be impacted.  Ms Eberhart confirmed that the need to improve contracts had been recognised and that a Task and Finish Group (TFG) was in place to make improvements.  The Chairman proposed a TFG update at a future meeting.

•    Asked if the level of audit opinions was typical for a local authority.  – Mr Pitman reported that the County Council utilised Internal Audit well, making good use of audit expertise to help improve processes.  The figures were in line with local authorities using Internal Audit.

•    Queried the lack of draft report for Think Family.  – Mr Pitman explained that the work was focussed on grant certification work and so a report was not required.  Dialogue would be added to future reports to confirm that the work had been signed off.

•    Sought clarity on the process for school financial statements.  – Mr Pitman confirmed that schools had to submit their self-assessments.  Reconciliation work would follow this.

•    Queried the work that was still outstanding on the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards.  – Mr Pitman resolved to follow up on this query within the next plan.

•    Asked if MASH would be added back into the audit plan.  – Mr Pitman confirmed this was not considered as an area of concern raised by the department and as such was not included within next years plan, albeit the plan remained fluid should it be later considered that a review would be desirable / necessary.

•    Sought clarity on the removed Service Resilience entry.  – Mr Pitman confirmed that this related to IT.

•    Queried the approach taken for cyber security and if the County Council had insurance for it.  – Ms Eberhart explained that officers worked to a Central Government checklist.  An update of work would be included in the next meeting’s report.  Ms Eberhart resolved to look into insurance arrangements.

•    Asked if the backlog work would impact next year’s programme.  – Mr Pitman confirmed that the work would not impact next year’s resources.

•    Sought an update on the sustainability in procurement process work.  – Ms Eberhart resolved to look into this.

35.8   Resolved – That the Committee notes the Internal Audit Progress report and requests an update from the Contracts Task and Finish Group when appropriate.