To update members on the progress of internal audit work and to bring to their attention any key internal control issues arising from work recently completed.

SWAP presented the report and highlighted: 

·         22 audits had been completed;

·         There had been 6 partial audits; 3 related to schools and the others were in relation to market intelligence, serious and organised crime and public health / emergency planning

·         The annual internal audit opinion will be presented at the July committee meeting. 

Following a query from a member of the committee in relation to the pie chart on page 118 of the committee pack, it was confirmed that internal audit do not give an opinion on all audits or follow up audits.   The important factor was that all audit actions were actioned and the committee receives a 6 monthly update on outstanding audit actions.

It was noted that the delay in completing the small holdings audits were due to the long term sickness absence of a member of staff.

Market intelligence

The adult social care commissioning manager updated the committee on the progress to date in relation to the priority 4 audit findings.    It was confirmed that the process is now more robust and there was confidence in the information and data being pulled into the dashboards with a clear reference to the data source to ensure consistency and accuracy of the data sets.

Serious and organised crime

The chief finance officer confirmed that the actions would be delivered by August 2018 and would focus on front line staff, e.g. revenues and benefits, and would include all types of crime including cyber. 

Public health emergency planning

The Corporate Customer Information and Equality Manager updated the committee on the progress of the priority 4 findings.   

It was explained that the emergency accommodation was that used in the event of a major or critical event.   The accommodation list was now up to date and the housing solutions team have a robust approach. 

It was noted that there were over 30 emergency plans and guidance.   Ten plans had been identified as being out of date.    Of these 10, 3 were multi-agency plans and there were plans for them to be reviewed; 2 were in progress and there had been 5 quick reviews to check if there had been any legislative changes.   These 5 would be built into the work programme.    It was noted that there was a resource issue for the team and it was suggested by the committee that they may wish to consider sharing resources with other local authorities. 

RESOLVED

THAT the progress update be noted. 

The meeting adjourned at 16:09 and re-convened at 16:17