Agenda item

This report summarises the work of Internal Audit in 2023/24 and provides the opinion of the Director of Audit, Fraud, Risk and Insurance on the adequacy and effectiveness of the Council’s framework of governance, risk management and control. This opinion is provided for the use of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham and is used to support its Annual Governance Statement.

Moira Mackie (Head of Internal Audit) presented the report which summarised the work of Internal Audit in 2023/24 listed in Appendix 1. It also provided the opinion of the Director of Audit, Fraud, Risk and Insurance on the adequacy and effectiveness of the Council’s framework of governance, risk management and control. This opinion was used to support LBHF’s Annual Governance Statement. She noted that while LBHF had the most substantial assurance audits among the three councils serviced, most were inevitably satisfactory assurance audits given the wide range of work involved from an individual school to a more complex system.

Members noted that the Internal Audit Team (IAT) did regular follow-up work to make sure recommendations were implemented.  Moira Mackie was pleased to report that there was a good level of implementation of recommendations and those not fully implemented were listed in Appendix 4 (page 152). The work of the IAT was quality assessed externally to demonstrate it was in line with the internal audit standards (Appendix 5, page 154).

David Hughes (Director of Audit, Fraud, Risk and Insurance) referred to the two limited assurance audits on housing voids and adoption services (pages 148 -151) and highlighted the good engagement at a senior level through the audit work. For example, the audit work posed a lot of challenges in the housing space and substantial improvement work on void properties was going on.  The IAT also briefed more junior members of staff in terms of engagement during the internal audit process.  He remarked that both audits were making good progress.  

With reference to the final report of External Quality Assessment of the Internal Audit performance prepared by London Borough of Lambeth (Appendix 5), Councillor Florian Chevoppe-Verdier applauded at the conclusion that the internal audit services for the three councils generally conformed with the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards which was the highest available rating (page 155). He noted from the survey of key stakeholders that the results were very positive and a testament to the professionalism and expertise of the internal audit service. He found the survey results at Appendix B very encouraging, in particular about 80% of respondents agreed that internal audit activity promoted appropriate ethics and values within the organisation (page 168).  In response to his question, David Hughes advised that around 40 survey questionnaires were sent to senior officers and chairs of Audit Committees across the three councils. The anonymous responses went directly to the external assessor.  David considered the feedback very helpful and positive.

Councillor Chevoppe-Verdier noted audit work on election readiness was in progress and asked whether further report would be provided in future.  Moira Mackie said due to the short notice of the General Election, the related audit work had to be paused.  IAT planned to work with the election team in summer and present a further report at the next meeting.

ACTION: Moira Mackie

Councillor Adrain Pascu-Tulbure noted from limited assurance audits that at the time of audit (October 2023) 310 properties were voids and asked for the current number after management action had been taken.  Sukvinder Kalsi (Executive Director of Finance and Corporate Services) said as he recalled, the current number of void properties was around 220 which represented about a normal level of 2% of all council properties. In reply to the Chair on the conditions of the remaining properties on the list of voids, Sukvinder noted that some of them required some substantial work. He undertook to provide the requested information after the meeting.

ACTION: Sukvinder Kalsi

The Chair was concerned about the recruitment, training and development of finance officers in schools. For example, the vacancy in Jack Tizard School since May 2022 had resulted in some of the processes and targets not achieving the school’s usual high standards.  Members noted that the new permanent officer was undergoing training in the Spring Term. 

Moira Mackie advised that the schools’ finance team had liaised closely with and provided support to the school and obtain additional resources to bridge the gap and cover the vacancy left by a key member.  The school had also been helped to prioritise work and plan for the current year’s audit work.

RESOLVED

That the Committee noted the Head of Internal Audit’s opinion on the adequacy and effectiveness of the Council’s framework of governance, risk management and control environment (para 20).