Agenda item

This report details the work undertaken by Internal Audit in the period 1 April to 31 August 2025 and focuses on progress on internal audit coverage relative to the approved internal audit plan, including the number of audit reports issued and finalised – work undertaken by the external provider (Forvis Mazars).

Mr Minesh Jani, Head of Audit and Risk Assurance, introduced the report.

The meeting heard:

·         Some of the longer standing recommendations related to some of the issues that the Committee had spoken about previously in terms of procurement and property.

·         In relation to the high priority recommendations, some of the recommendation timelines had been extended as revised from the original timescales and reasons for this had been explained to the Committee.

·         It was not known if the priority 1 recommendations due for implementation in October 2025 had been completed. A follow up for this would be done.

·         There was an improvement plan in place for housing services. This was to improve a whole host of areas where issues had been identified particularly around the Council’s compliance with the six standards, but included other areas as well. For example, repairs. There was an improvement plan that was shared by the Director of Housing.

·         In relation to controls around monitoring of stock usage and stock write off in relation to the stock balance, this information would be provided at a future meeting.

·         It was not clear that some of the services were on board with where the Council was in its position and doing everything it could to make sure that things that impacted the Council’s reputation was being dealt with and things that impacted expenditure was being focused upon.

·         All of the housing recommendations were tracked. There were live trackers that management updated and were monitored. Management reassurances were in place in terms of how the actions were being progressed within the reports. The actual formal follow-up would be timed when there were a few things to go back and look at. The last update on the priority 1 recommendation was that progress had been made and had partly implemented a number of developments. However, no formal independent verification had been made yet. The reports would be shared with the Housing Improvement Board as part of the improvement plan.

·         The level of detail being reported in this meeting regarding the causes of the issues was more detailed than what one would hear on the Housing Improvement Board or the Scrutiny Panel. It would be valuable for this kind of detail to be more reflective in those spaces.

·         A list stating which recommendations had been implemented would be shared with the Committee.

·         Attempts had been made to gain confidence and be satisfied that action was being taken. Appropriate officers had been asked to attend the Audit Committee to provide an update and to provide an account of why any recommendations raised still remained outstanding. This would be continued. Any area in future where the Committee felt progress was slow or not at the appropriate level, officers could be invited to speak to and provide an update.

·         The housing service needed a proper understanding of the contracts they already had by recording them in a consistent way and then making sure that there was a proper arrangement for managing those contracts. Officers needed to be very clear about what contract management actually entailed and being thorough in making sure that these activities were carried out. People could be trained to become more efficient and better at contract management, but contract management should still be carried out.

·         The Council had a procurement system that the organisation used. The audit trail around this was not as robust as it should be. The service kept a record, but this was found to be not consistent. In terms of other records, there were other tools that the service used to manage the contracts, but this was not necessarily visible on a Council's procurement system. This was held in other forms.

·         As an organisation, the Council was a complex being and had many different ways of collecting income. Each of those income sources had a very good system. The income was recognised and the money was banked. There were some systems within that which were better than others. Council tax for example, was very good at making sure that the income that was due to was billed out in time and was collected in a timely way. The general income collection system was not as efficient. Income that was due to the Council was very good on some systems. The Council was very good at chasing and getting money owed. However, in other areas it was not as vigorous. If it was possible for Internal Audit to be cited as senior managers on where the systems for collection were not as robust, then officers could be placed in a position where they could act.

·         Staff members in the data and analytics space used to sit in another part of the organisation, but had been brought into Digital and Change team to leverage the benefits of the service to the Council.

·         The Council was not making enough use of data and data and insight. It was possible to have high levels of data without using the insight. The Council was trying to look at the data it had and encourage the use of that data and insight to inform decision making. It was a very small team, but a powerful and influential one. One thing the Council wanted to do was help to promote or demonstrate, across the organisation, the role of that team, the importance of that team and the data it held. It would be useful to avoid data processing without having any outcomes. The team sitting within the Digital and Change team would help support this.

·         One useful working method would be to choose a ‘one problem’ area and have the team focus on it as a proof of concept. This would be useful because, if it was to work, then the area itself could be used to market the success around the organisation.

·         The service could be much improved if it kept a record of responsive as well as planned schedules. It had an overarching strategy which set out intentions in the borough’s greenspaces. More detail was needed for plans relating to individual sites and individual areas.

·         The strategy would be refreshed before the period of 15 years had run its course. It was not unusual to set strategies of that length of time because it provided the service a little visibility of what they were trying to achieve. However, in a borough with diverse greenspaces, it would be useful to make sure that the strategy then solidified what the borough wished to do for each of the different sites.

·         At the last Audit Committee, one of the areas identified from all the work done last year was that record keeping could be improved in the Council. Although the Council recognised this, it was likely that people become distracted by their day-to-day job. As public servants, particularly in the public sector, one of the things that the Council would expect to do well was keep records. If it was possible to make data collection and data maintenance easier for people, then this would improve quality of the data capture.

·         In relation to housing benefit overpayments, this paperwork was still with management awaiting comments. Officers were working with management to get these dealt with as quickly as possible.

RESOLVED: to note the audit coverage and follow up work completed.