Agenda item

Purpose: To update the Committee on the outcome of Internal Audit work carried out during quarter three of 2020/21.

Julie Gillhespey provided Members with a summary of the Internal Audit Update Report (Agenda item 10) on the work carried out during quarter three of 2020/21. 

Key findings of the report included the fact that three central audits had been finalised and given a weak opinion though this did not indicate a reduction in the control environment/processes generally. The key findings for the weak opinions were detailed in the report and related to Early Years Grant, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards and the Digitalisation Agenda.

Appendix A of the report listed the completed audits carried out to the end of December 2020 and work in progress was detailed in Appendix B.

Following a request by the Committee at the meeting in November 2019, two follow-up reviews had been carried out – for the implementation of the Property Database and the Asset Management Strategy/Plan as these had both been given an unsatisfactory opinion. Unfortunately, in both cases the second stage follow-up concluded that progress to implement the agreed recommendations was still unsatisfactory.  Richard Turner, Property Services Manager, provided further detail on the findings of the two internal audits which were rated unsatisfactory following second stage follow-up reviews:

Property Database

This database contained all of the built and land assets of the Council and a key element of the audit findings had been around the database being updated. Historically there had been recruitment and retention issues for the post which had now been resolved. This stability was already showing dividends in that the database had now been fully updated which allowed the remaining actions to be progressed with a plan to be concluded in summer 2021.

Asset Management Strategy/Plan

A temporary resource had been recruited in January 2021 to specifically deal with the findings of this audit and a series of actions was being progressed that should be concluded within the current financial year.

Councillor Jeff Beck thanked Julie Gillhespey and Richard Turner for their update.

Councillor Tony Linden asked whether a further update would be provided to ensure that the progress being made was continuing as expected. Julie Gillhespey said, barring any loss to the recruited posts, she did not feel a further update was necessary as she had been provided with a detailed response in terms of timeframes for completion of the outstanding recommendations by Richard Turner. 

Councillor Jeremy Cottam expressed his concern that the overall opinion following the audit of Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards had been weak given this related to individuals in care homes and other vulnerable persons.  Julie Gillhespey said within Adult Social Care, annual reviews took place both for Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards and a review of the provision of social care carried out by social care practitioners. A further review of Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards would depend on how long the audit had been signed-off for.  There was a national issue with regard to local authorities meeting the timeframes and a revision to the DoLS legislation was being made to acknowledge the need to streamline the process to make it less labour-intensive. Julie Gillhespey said the review did not identify any operational issues in terms of assessments not being carried out, but had been more of an oversight in relation to areas like performance targets but added that a follow-up review would be carried out.  Julie Gillhespey further reassured that all three audits that had resulted in weak opinions would be subject to a follow-up review, usually within six months of the report being finalised. 

RESOLVED that the report be noted.