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.

Members were presented with an update on the progress of the internal audit work.  

It was noted that since the last report 12 audits and 4 follow up audits had been completed.  Within the 12 audits there had been 2 partial assurance audits:

·         Data Sharing Protocols

·         Online choice based letting scheme – Home Point

SWAP were on target to complete the internal audit plan by the end of the financial year. 

Following a query from a member, it was confirmed that the pie chart summary of control assurance (page 45 of the agenda pack) was reasonable at the moment.  SWAP would expect to see the reasonable section to grow.   It was noted that SWAP were auditing areas of more concern earlier in the year which explained why the partials were at 40%.  

Data sharing protocols

Following a query from a member of the committee, it was noted that the information governance team were carrying out audits to ensure that data sharing protocols were in place or being updated.    The information access and records manager indicated that there were issues with the ability to share information easily.   The information access and records manager agreed to feed into the refresh of the digital strategy the opportunity to learn from the defence / military sector as they had systems in place to share information. 

Online choice based letting scheme

The head of prevention and support indicated that a revised allocations policy would be presented to cabinet for approval early in 2018.   It was anticipated that this would introduce a better system for reporting on the access and state of social housing within Herefordshire.   The progress of the individual recommendations within the audit would be reported through the bi-annual report on internal audit recommendation tracking.   

The chief finance and S151 officer agreed to find out the reasons for the delay in providing the management response in relation to the phase 1 small holdings audit report as the phase 2 audit was currently underway.  

A member expressed concern that the audit on the new communications strategy had been dropped, especially as poor communication was a dominant thread in complaints received by the council.    The chief finance and S151 officer agreed to discuss whether there was capacity within the current audit plan to undertake this audit. 

RESOLVED

That the report be noted.