To receive Report No. 27/2017 from the Head of Internal Audit

Report No. 27/2017 was received from the Head of Internal Audit. The purpose of the report was to update Members on the progress made in delivering the 2016/17 Annual Audit Plan and key findings arising from the audit assignments completed since the last Committee meeting.

During the discussion the following points were noted

      i.        Both schools visited for audits of financial management were maintained schools, including community or voluntary aided schools, as Internal Audit were unable to assess academies.

a) Fostering – Limited Assurance

      i.        It was confirmed that the use of the term ‘illegal placement’ was made as specific timescales and processes had not been followed.  It did denote that that the child placed was at significant risk.

    ii.        It was clarified that following the Internal Audit review and the process failures noted, the Head of Service had since reviewed the remaining 31 foster carer’s cases (outside of those tested by audit). 

   iii.        Regular multi agency meetings were being held to monitor processes surrounding Children Looked After (CLA).

   iv.        The recruitment process was working and the team are consistently replacing agency posts with permanent placements.

    v.        Ofsted report was due to be published on 13 February 2017. A more comprehensive plan that sat under the 6 recommendations and also incorporated the Ofsted recommendations had been prepared and would be brought to the next meeting of the Audit & Risk Committee.

   vi.        Members agreed the report would be shared with the Chair of the Local Children’s Safeguarding Board and Children’s Scrutiny Panel due to the element of children’s safeguarding contained in the report, and that a draft action plan would be considered together.

  vii.        It was confirmed that the action points due to be completed by the end of January 2017 would be completed by the end of February 2017.

viii.        Members were assured that Liquidlogic was now in place, processes were being followed and the management team were able to review reports.

ACTIONS

It was AGREED that Dr T O’Neill - Director for People and Deputy Chief Executive would take the report and proposal to the Chair of the Local Children’s Safeguarding Board and Children’s Scrutiny Panel; and Dr T O’Neill would attend the next Audit & Risk Committee meeting to provide an update and the action plan.

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Mr J Lammie left the meeting at 8.30pm

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b)  Development Control – Substantial Assurance

    i.          Members raised concerns that there was not a Conservation Officer in post.  Various comments not related to the internal audit review were made regarding the Planning Service. The Chair indicated that she would raise these with the Chair of the Places Scrutiny Panel.

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Ms R Wilshire left the meeting at 8.45pm

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a)  SEN Transport – Sufficient Assurance

    i.          Members raised concerns that discussions with parents and schools had not been consistently completed before changes effected.

   ii.          A detailed transformation for the SEN team had commenced with every area of work under review and the results would be reported back to this Committee when the transformation was completed.

 iii.          The Director for Places confirmed the two medium level recommendations would be addressed in accordance with the timescales set.

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Mr D Brown left the meeting at 9.00pm

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a)  Liquidlogic implementation – Sufficient Assurance

    i.          Internal Audit were unable to fully test the access controls, security arrangements and audit trails as that particular function was not available at the time when the testing took place.

   ii.          Lessons had been learnt on the project and a corporate approach to how projects are implemented had been put in place along with corporate Project Management support.

 iii.          Members sought clarification that the implementation of IT systems would be reviewed by the Resources Scrutiny Panel.

b)  Oakham Enterprise Park – Follow Up

    i.          Members noted that 8 out of 9 recommendations had been implemented.

RESOLVED

The Committee NOTED the Internal Audit update report (Appendix A).