Agenda, decisions and draft minutes

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To receive any apologies for absence.

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The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of Urgent Business. (Late items of Urgent Business will be considered under the agenda item where they appear).

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DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST FOR THIS ITEM:

NONE

RESOLVED

For Cabinet Member to approve:

Under CSO 2.01b the commencement of a procurement process and the Council entering into an Access Agreement with Croydon Council, to call off services from their single-supplier Audit Services Framework Agreement, as permitted under CSO 7.02. This would mean an award to call-off contracts to Forvis Mazars Public Sector Internal Audit Ltd (Mazars) pursuant to CSO 2.01(c) to deliver the Internal Audit service for Haringey Council from 1 October 2026 for period of 3 years, 6 months to 31 March 2030 at a total cost of up to £2.0m over the duration of the contract, AND

Under CSO 2.01b the commencement of a procurement process and the Council entering into an Access Agreement with Barnet Council to call off services from their multi-supplier Internal Audit and Advisory Services (Cross Council Assurance Service) Framework Agreement as permitted under CSO 7.02 from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2029 at a total cost of up to £1.5m over the duration of the contract.

To allow for an extension to the contract with Barnet Council for up to another 5 years to 31 March 2034. If this option was exercised the cost woud be an additional £2.5m, bringing the aggregated total value of the contract with Barnet to £4m for 8 year period.

The total cost for the provision of internal audit in any year would not exceed £0.5m allowing for any inflationary increases based on the 2026/27 tendered prices.

Reasons for decision

The current internal audit contract commenced on 1 April 2018 and expired on 31 March 2026 but which had been extended to 30 September 2026. Internal audit is a statutory function which Haringey Council is required to maintain. It is therefore necessary to ensure that an appropriate internal audit service is in place from 1 October 2026, to ensure ongoing compliance with statutory requirements as set out in options 4 and 5 at paragraphs 5.6 and 5.7 below.

Alternative options considered

Five options had been considered and these are set out below.

Option 1 – In House Service (Not Recommended)

Experience had proved that it was highly unlikely that an in-house resource could be recruited and retained to deliver the Council’s internal audit service in its entirety. Most London boroughs had outsourced their internal audit service to some extent and none were looking to bring this service fully back in-house due to the ongoing costs of recruitment, retention and specialist audit training required. Nevertheless, consideration would continue to be given for recruiting internal audit professionals to carry out elements of internal audit work and to compliment the use of the external internal audit provider. The consideration would look to actively test whether in-house model delivers greater long-term value with an assessment of business knowledge, cost scale and long term talent strategy. It was recognised an in-house service allows auditors to develop a deep understanding of Council processes, key relationships and understand the culture of the Council. The  ...  view the full decision text for item 6.

Haringey Council’s internal audit service sought to access and call-off from two local authority framework agreements to provide an effective internal audit in order to comply with statutory requirements and achieve the best value for money for the Council.

Following queries from the cabinet member, it was explained that the Croydon framework was a single-provider framework, whereas the proposed framework was a multiple-provider framework. The multiple-provider approach would provide greater flexibility and resilience, as the Council would not be tied to a single provider. Should there be any difficulties, including in relation to staffing or the quality of service, the Council would have the option to access an alternative provider.

It was noted that the Council had previously used the Croydon framework, which provided an established route for audit work. However, the proposed approach would provide access to a wider range of providers and would allow the Council to commission specialist services where required.

The officer explained that the scope of the framework was broad and could accommodate a range of activities and specialist requirements in the future, including potentially specialist technological or financial services. The two frameworks would therefore provide greater flexibility to meet the Council’s requirements as they arose. It was explained that an analysis had been undertaken to determine which option represented the best value for money, and that the most advantageous option would be used. Where other requirements arose in the future, alternative procurement options could also be considered.

It was noted that, under a mini-competition approach, a number of pieces of work could be bundled together and providers could then compete to offer the most competitive price. The Cabinet Member also asked whether insourcing the work had been considered. It was explained that insourcing was not considered appropriate at this time. Changing the structure to increase the Council’s in-house audit resource would not provide the same level of accessibility or flexibility as using an external provider, particularly given that the Council’s requirements and workload were subject to change.

The predominant driver was the changing demand on the authority, and the benefits of accessing a shared service model and external expertise were therefore considered to outweigh the benefits of increasing in-house capacity.

RESOLVED

The Cabinet Member for Finance & Corporate approved:

Under CSO 2.01b the commencement of a procurement process and the Council entering into an Access Agreement with Croydon Council, to call off services from their single-supplier Audit Services Framework Agreement, as permitted under CSO 7.02. This would mean an award to call-off contracts to Forvis Mazars Public Sector Internal Audit Ltd (Mazars) pursuant to CSO 2.01(c) to deliver the Internal Audit service for Haringey Council from 1 October 2026 for period of 3 years, 6 months to 31 March 2030 at a total cost of up to £2.0m over the duration of the contract, AND

Under CSO 2.01b the commencement of a procurement process and the Council entering into an Access Agreement with Barnet Council to call off services from their multi-supplier Internal Audit and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.