To introduce the concept of a rolling audit plan for 2024/25 to the Audit and Governance Committee for discussion and approval.

The Director of Continuous Improvement (DCI), South West Audit Partnership (SWAP) introduced the report, the following principals point were noted;

1.     The traditional annual audit plan is subject to a high degree of uncertainty and change, and quickly becomes out of date and of less value as the year progresses.

2.     The rolling plan will be a live, and continuously rolling, audit plan accessible to all relevant officers and members, through SWAP’s audit management system AuditBoard.

3.     Quarterly update reports will continue to be presented to the committee.

4.     The Internal Audit Charter paper which would normally come to committee in March has been delayed, due to the rolling plan and the introduction of new Global Internal Audit Standards. This will follow to a later Committee meeting. In the meantime, SWAP will continue to operate in accordance with our existing charter.

In response to committee questions, it was noted

      I.         The DCI confirmed that the audit plan is aligned to the Council’s corporate risks.

     II.         The DCI thought that the rolling plan would be key in identifying and dealing with problems sooner and that there would be a lot more regular communications with officers and members.

   III.         SWAP are reliant on their software system “AuditBoard” for the use of their rolling plan. The programme has been in place for two years with good security assurances in place along with very little downtime and are still able to access records when offline.

   IV.         The DCI would look to provide training to the committee on “AuditBoard” along with a session on “Internal Audit” when diaries permit.

Resolved:

That a) The committee approved the rolling audit plan approach.