Meeting documents

Apologies were received from Tim Butcher, Bill Chapple and Thomas Slaughter.

There were no declarations of interest.

of the meeting held on 24 June 2015 to be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The minutes of the meeting held on 24 June 2015 were agreed by the committee to be a correct record and signed by the chairman.

To be presented by Grant Thornton Auditors. 

Richard Ambrose, Elspeth O’Neil, Rachel Martinig and Julie Edwards attended the meeting to present Grant Thorntons’ draft report on any significant findings from its audit of the Council’s Statement of Accounts and Pensions Fund.

Richard Ambrose advised the following:

·         On the 10 June 2015 the Regulatory and Audit Committee received the Unaudited Statement of Accounts for the Council and Pensions Fund.

·         At that stage the audit of the accounts had not commenced.

·         Grant Thornton had now substantially completed the work.

·         Slight adjustments had been made as confirmed below. 

·         It was anticipated that Grant Thornton would provide an unqualified opinion on the financial statements for the Council and Pensions fund.

Value for money conclusion (VFM)

·         During the year of audit, in August 2014, a report on the Inspection of Children’s services concluded that, overall, children’s services in the Council were judged to be inadequate.

·         Grant Thornton had recognised the responses made to the issues identified and the actions undertaken as part of a two year strategy to improve children’s services.

·         Whilst progress appeared on track full completion of the improvement programme was not due until later in 2016.

·         With the exception of this issue, Grant Thornton had indicated that they were satisfied that the Council had put in place proper arrangements to secure economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the use of resources for the year ended 31 March 2015.

Richard Ambrose thanked Grant Thornton for their support which had resulted in a continued positive working relationship between Grant Thornton and the Council. It was confirmed that the timetable for audit reporting had been brought forward slightly for the coming year 2015/2016 and all parties were confident that the revised deadlines would be met.

Statement of Accounts - Bucks County Council (BCC)

Elspeth O’Neil presented this report, where the following points were clarified;

·         Two adjustments had been made to the accounts as a consequence of the audit as agreed with Grant Thornton;

                      I.        The defined benefit pension charged adjusted by £2.007m due to an error in apportioning the element that related to Buckinghamshire Care.

                    II.        An adjustment to show the gains from increases in the fair value of Available for Sale Financial Assets as £0.625m of "other comprehensive income" in the CIES.

·         There was no overall impact on the General Fund balance.

·         A number of other disclosure items were also amended as listed on pages 22 and 23 of the report.

·         It was noted that the audit had not yet concluded and further adjustments could be identified.

·         The audit had also identified two unadjusted misstatements as outlined below, which were explained to the committee;

                      I.        (£0.224m) net movement in relation to depreciation charged on revalued assets - estimation techniques.

                    II.        £1.178m difference in relation to the long-term receivable for re-provisioning of Adult Social Care.

·         It was confirmed that these unadjusted misstatements had no overall impact on the statement of accounts.

Member Questions

·         A Member queried whether there were any financial concerns following the children’s services Ofsted report?

·         Richard Ambrose advised there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

To be presented by Ian Dyson.

Ian Dyson presented this report.

·         There had been four audits completed since the last report and two that were currently at draft report stage as detailed in the progress report.

·         A Summary of the Bucks Learning Trust Governance Audit was also attached in Appendix 2.

Counter-Fraud Update - Investigations

·         Ian Dyson advised that unfortunately there had been a small number of irregularities reported within the internal audit in accordance with the Anti-Fraud and Corruption Strategy, which had required investigation and management review.

·         One case in particular as outlined in the report had proven to be a substantial issue and would continue to undergo investigation. Once the investigation had concluded Ian Dyson confirmed further information would be provided to this Committee. Currently the organisation was exercising the Anti-Fraud and Corruption Policy as well as well as involving the Police. 

ACTION: Ian Dyson

Member Questions

Question 1

·         A Member queried to what extent the issue was substantial, had Council money been involved and if so, had pressure been placed on the Council budget?

·         Ian Dyson advised that Council money had been involved however pressure had not been placed on the budget. It was also advised that the matter had been brought to light due to a strong manager within the service maintaining vigilance and reporting unusual activity.

Business Assurance Update

·         Ian Dyson advised that the Business Assurance Manager had been working with the One Council Board (OCB) to review and refresh the Strategic Risk Register. The reviewed report and action plans were to be presented at the next Risk Management Group for comment.

·         The HQ Risk Register would also be presented at the next Risk Management Group.

·         The 3 lines of assurance model was currently being developed. The first draft of this report was to be presented to the Director of Assurance in October and an update would subsequently be brought to this Committee in due course.  

ACTION: Ian Dyson

Member Questions

Question 1

·         A Member queried whether the resourcing issues within the Internal Audit team had been resolved.

·         Ian Dyson confirmed that the team were now at full compliment. The Audit Manager had been appointed on 01 September 2015 and a Senior Risk Officer would be starting on 01 October 2015.

·         It was also confirmed that there would be a small amount of capacity to bring in specialist consultants if required.

Buckinghamshire Learning Trust (BLT) Governance Update 

Ian Dyson provided an overview to this item.

·         The Chief Executive commissioned Internal Audit to undertake an audit of the governance over the agreement with the BLT, following concerns regarding the level of information available in relation to BLT, as well as receiving a complaint from a member of the public regarding BCC and the management of BLT and its overall Governance.

·         It was confirmed that the audit covered BCC internal governance  arrangements only; it was not an audit of BLT.  

·         The overall conclusion from the audit was Limited Assurance. The key issues raised in the audit are set out in appendix 2 (page  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To be presented by David Johnston and Zahir Mohammed.

Zahir Mohammed and David Johnston attended to present this report.

·         Zahir Mohammed thanked the Audit Team for the report and the Committee for their comments, which would be taken on board.

·         It was advised that BCC were concerned over this issue as a large sum of money had been put into BLT and going forward BCC want to ensure BLT is functioning well. Measures had now been put in place to address this.

·         BCC had now set up a BLT Commissioning Group, aimed at holding governance and performance to account on a quarterly basis.

·         A more formal process would be implemented to recruit the board of Trustees, including adverts and proforma’s to outline the role requirements.

·         In relation to the BCC nominated Trustees, the Cabinet Member will no longer be a eligible.

·         A BLT Annual Report would also go to Cabinet.

·         Region based Community Manager for BLT would also be looking after the project side of BLT.

·         A deadline of 30 September 2015 had been implemented for the majority of improvement measures, which are aiming to be met.

·         David Johnston advised that a meeting had taken place with the Manager of BLT also, and in principle agreement had taken place regarding the personal specification for all Trustees.

·         Consideration would also be given to governance arrangements, where trustees should be drawn from (e,g, Head Teachers could have a conflict of interest with BLT).

·         It had also been suggested that the size of the Board of Trustees be reduced as 20 seemed excessive.

Member Questions

Question 1

·         The Chairman queried whether BCC were able to also suggest an independent Chairman be appointed to the Board of Trustees?

·         David Johnston agreed that this had also been suggested.

Comment 1

·         A Member questioned the advice BCC had given BLT in the beginning as it seemed BLT was not fit for purpose.

Comment 2

·         Members advised that they were happy that the new team were looking at the issue robustly to iron out any issues.

Question 2

·         A Member queried whether there had already been a turnover of the Trustees? To avoid further lack of governance and duty of care, an entirely new board should be implemented.

·         David Johnston advised that discussion had taken place with the Trustees and BLT were in agreement that a completely new set of Trustees should be implemented.

Question 3

·         A Member questioned whether BCC intends to oversee implementation of the Action Plan, to monitor progress and timings?

·         Zahir Mohammed advised once the Commissioning Group has been set up, an Action Plan would be created with a planned implementation deadline of 30 September 2015. Once formulated the Action Plan would be monitored quarterly and annually by Cabinet.

·         In addition the OCB would oversee the next Commissioning Group meeting.

Question 4

·         A Member queried where this Committee factored in to the process, would a report be presented to the Committee before sign off?

·         Ian Dyson agreed that it was  important for this Committee to retain oversight of this,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To be provided by Andy Fyfe, Resilience Manager.

Andrew Fyfe attended the meeting to present the report.

·         Business Continuity Management (BCM) is a statutory requirement, a requirement of Financial Regulations and is best practice business management process for continuing to delivering critical activities in the event of an internal disruption.

·         The report aimed to highlight those areas of the Audit report that had not been declared as complete.

·         It was confirmed that the Audit report was a snapshot of the status of BCM arrangements across parts of the organisation prior to the end of the financial year. Ongoing monitoring was required.

·         The report on page 220 of the agenda pack, highlighted those areas with outstanding issues, was discussed in detail.

·         Following discussion it was agreed by the Committee that under the new assurance framework BCM had to be a key step to be continuously monitored.

·         The Internal Audit had highlighted Limited Assurance within the organisation in relation to BCM, significant questions remained regarding this.

·         Andrew Fyfe advised that an exercise within the organisation will be carried out on the 5 November, which would confirm where BCM plans were in place and those areas which still required attention.

·         The Committee agreed that BCM was a priority and that regular updates should be provided. 

·         Andrew Fyfe also suggested BCM plans should be monitored via DSP objectives for Service Managers.

·         Richard Ambrose confirmed that the One Council Board were aware of the BCM plans and those areas still to implement and had explored adding into DSP objectives. It was also advised that areas within the organisation are taking BCM seriously, however some areas due to the nature of the work, were harder to implement e.g. Social Care.

Member Questions

Question 1

·         A Member queried whether the unresolved issues were around Contract Management Application (CMA).

·         Richard Ambrose agreed that this had been part of the issue and advised that as progress was made with all new Alternative Delivery Vehicles, the CMA and subsequent BCM plans would become even more complicated. BCM is a key element and would continue to be monitored. Ian Dyson advised that a further report regarding CMA would be presented at the next meeting in November, providing an update on improvements to CMA.

Question 2

·         A Member queried how resources were being monitored, in relation to suppliers and partners. Was it possible resources were being focussed within non-critical areas?

·         Andrew Fyfe advised that within the BCM programme there was a staged process. OCB provided a list of criteria to the Resilience Team in relation to Critical Mission status. Within this list scope was given for all Service Directors to look through, to ensure area’s focus on Mission Critical BCM only. During an incident the process could be flexible and resource would be focused where necessary.

Member Comments

·         Ian Dyson suggested that the role of the Committee regarding BCM should be to support the improvement. A further report should be brought to a future meeting, with enhanced detail exploring those areas yet to implement BCM, and to provide explanation as  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To be provided by Adrian Isaacs, Finance Director.

Adrian Isaacs attended the meeting to provide feedback on the report.

·         The report was discussed by the Committee.

·         The report highlighted those actions that had been completed and those in progress.

·         There was greater focus on the area of work to be done, including monthly assurance reports.

Member Questions

Question 1

·         A Member commented that a number of deadlines set out in the report had lapsed, had the actions been completed?

·         Adrian Isaacs confirmed that the report was completed a month ago and therefore some of the dates may require updating. It was also advised that some deadlines had lapsed due to further questions being raised following the submission of the reports. As Financial Director for the Business Unit Adrian Isaacs wanted to ensure robust processes were implemented and actions were being adhered to.

·         Ian Dyson advised that from a Section 151 perspective, this approach from the Financial Director of a Business Unit was very positive in ensuring that Management Actions were being undertaken, and was a good demonstration of challenging within the unit itself.

Suggestion

·         Ian Dyson suggested that a further report regarding the AFW Debt Management need not be brought back to this Committee, as any delays or issues with implementation can be highlighted through the Internal Audit Action Tracker, which will be reported to the Committee in January.

DECISION - The Committee agreed with this suggestion.

The Chairman thanked Adrian Isaacs for the report.

To be presented by Ian Dyson, Chief Auditor.

Ian Dyson presented this report.

·         The Anti-Fraud and Corruption Strategy had been updated to reflect changes in appointments/responsibilities and job titles following the Future Shape Transformation.

·         The Anti-Money Laundering Policy had been updated to reflect changes in appointments/responsibilities and job titles following the Future Shape Transformation.

·         No material changes had been made to either document.

·         It was commented that although it was disappointing that a number of fraud investigations had come to light, it was encouraging that the internal audit framework had highlighted such concerns and that staff were raising these issues.

·         Richard Ambrose also advised that staff were also more aware of the whistleblowing policy which is encouraging.

The Chairman thanked the team for the report.

Ian Dyson presented this topic.

·         It was advised that the planned agenda for the November meeting was considerably full and that a number of items could be moved to the January meeting to make the meeting more manageable.

·         Following discussion by the Committee it was agreed the following adjustments would be made;

18 November 2015 Meeting

·         BLT Action Plan to be presented to the Committee

20 January 2015 Meeting

·         Report on Mandatory Training across the organisation

·         Report on Data Protection E-Learning

·         Update report on Academies

·         Business Continuity Update

It was also agreed that Update reports on SEN and Amey would be picked up as Internal Audits to report in due course

The suggested changes above were agreed by the Committee. The forward plan would therefore be amended.

ACTION: Nichola Beagle

The next meeting is scheduled for 18 November 2015, Mezzanine Room 2, County Hall, Aylesbury.

18 November 2015 09.00-12.00, Mezzanine Room 2, County Hall, Aylesbury. The chairman advised that due to the planned agenda for this meeting three hours would be required. The time and date of the next meeting was agreed.

Meeting closed at 10.55.

Closed session closed at 11.30am.

To resolve to exclude the press and public as the following item is exempt by virtue of Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12a of the Local Government Act 1972 because it contains information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).

It was confirmed that the press and public be excluded for the following item which is exempt by virtue of Paragraph 3 of part 1 of Schedule 12a of the Local Government Act 1972 because it contains information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding the information).

The Members closed session with Grant Thornton Auditor Marcus Ward went ahead as planned.

The Members closed session with Chief Auditor Ian Dyson went ahead as planned.