Agenda item

Purpose: To update the Committee on the status of the Internal Audit work as at the end of Quarter One 2025/26

The Committee considered a report (Agenda Item 5) concerning Internal Audit Update Report Quarter 1 2025-26.

Members had a number of questions, and Julie Gilhespey responded as follow:

·       There were underlying issues affecting the homelessness process

·       There had been issues and delays with the new housing system generating invoices for rent. It was not working with Agresso, and the financial data was not mirroring across both systems. This was a known issue by the time of the audit and was still a work in progress.

·       All software needed to interface with Agresso. Software to enable interfacing can be written internally, as systems from different suppliers may not interface initially. West Berkshire was not unique in having issues with interfacing.

·       The rent backlog had no impact on vulnerable clients. The impact was on internal financial records and how they were recording the information and there was no impact on clients.

·       There was a period where no invoices were generated automatically, however clients were aware of their rent obligations, as that was a separate process.

·       There was a delay in some invoices being issued. This affected people if they did not wish to make or had not made any payments. The Council did not request some of the income promptly.

·       The rent backlog was a known issue, and it had taken time to find alternative options, and take remedial action. By the time of the audit, the invoices and remedial action were almost up to date. However, the rental system on the housing system was not live. Issues identified by the audit will be followed up after six months, as is normal practice. 

·       Some of the recommendations from the audit focussed on improving and updating debt management processes and debt recovery. Part of that would include how they liaise with tenants and clients as part of that process.

·       When purchasing a new ICT system, unless it has been tested with the internal systems the Council was reliant on the supplier and the quoters for the contract regarding system compatibility.

·       It was unlikely that an IT issue would not occur again, as no supplier could guarantee 100% that their product would work with all of the software at the Council.

·       Offline testing had showed that there was an issue with invoicing. A number of options were considered to rectify the issue, and while a solution was being sought, the Council fell back to using the previous process.

ACTION: Project management task and finish group to be informed about the project and the issues as there could be important constructive feedback and learning.

·       The Council had been in contact with the supplier and had received an upgraded version that was being tested. It should be live soon.

·       The Volker Highways contract was due for renewal next year. The audit recommendations were to give advice or consideration of things for the new contract and what should be included.

·       The different audit stages were described in detail.

·       The dedicated home to school transport was looked at separately as it was a large project. The compliance of the project had been investigated previously, and the cost effectiveness of the project had been reviewed by external consultants. The audit team were focussed on ensuring adequate controls to ensure the project was complying with legislation, internal policies and procedures, and ensuring the controls and processes were effective. The audit team could investigate value for money, but this was a different technique and audit approach.

·       Section 17 referred to legislation covering Children’s Social Care and covered bringing children into care or needing to accommodate children. Section 17 was additional support that the Council could provide and was to a certain degree at its discretion.

·       The three conversations model was referred to the approach taken by Adult Social Care with clients when they came through the front door. It sought to identify if there were other appropriate sources of support for clients instead of immediately provided long-term care. It was a national good practice model.

RESOLVED that the committee note the Internal Audit Update Report Quarter 1 2025-26