Agenda item

The Committee considered the 2021/22 Internal Audit Annual Report.

Jenni Morris, the Internal Auditor introduced the report and highlighted the following points:

·         Governance and Control Framework – The Council had a plethora of policy documents of which a number were out of date. The Governance and Control framework was too reliant on the knowledge and experience of staff who understood which policies were relevant. This was a concern given the recent turnover of experienced staff. In this respect, the current constitution was not fit for purpose

·         Although good progress was being made with action resolution, there remained a number of overdue actions, most notably relating to individual schools

·         Recruitment and retention had been identified as a high-risk theme during the 2021/22 audit work. As a result, an audit of the recruitment process had been commenced. This involved an in-depth review of the processes associated with starters and leavers to evaluate the effectiveness of the risk mitigations put forward by relevant service areas. The review would cover the operational, HR and IT aspects of recruitment and retention

In the ensuing debate, the following points were made:

·         Was CIPFA training required or provided to all newly recruited Internal Audit staff? Jenni Morris advised that although CIPFA was an optional qualification for starters, it was not necessary for some posts as other qualifications were considered more appropriate

·         In response to a query about the prioritisation of school audit actions, most notably North Bromsgrove High School (NBHS), Jenni Morris explained that all actions were treated the same irrespective of how old they were. As a result of potential academy conversion, there had been a delay in Internal Audit being able to revisit NBHS the year after the Limited Assurance finding, which was an internal audit requirement

·         In response a query, Jenni Morris indicated that Chaddesley Primary School had outstanding audit actions in relation the auditing of temporary staff appointments and their approach to the recording of decision-making. The school had not been forthcoming in carrying out those actions. Internal Audit were therefore liaising with the School Improvement Team to improve matters

·         It was clear that there had been significant changes made to Internal Audit from a cultural perspective. However, there remained challenges in relation to improving the Control and Governance framework, especially in relation to schools and updating the constitution

·         Jenni Morris commented that generally the internal audit work with schools had been effective with the School Support Forum having a useful role in identifying schools that were a cause for concern. If necessary, Internal Audit would liaise with the School Improvement Team to address issues because they tended to have greater contact with schools. Internal Audit also worked closely with the finance team and governor support team. Internal Audit did not have any particular power in relation to schools and therefore it was a case of trying to get schools to understand the importance of this work. The issues experienced in schools were symptomatic of wider control issues in the Council. Michael Hudson emphasised the important role of the School Support Group and the school finance team in identifying risks and feeding information back to colleagues.

RESOLVEDthatthe Internal Audit 2021/22 Annual Report and assurance level be agreed.