Agenda item

The Committee received a report which provided an update on and attached the new Business Assurance structure, following completion of the service review process. The new structure went live on 1 November 2022 and the team now reported in to the Service Director for Legal and Democratic Services, and the Head of business Assurance retains a ‘dotted line’ reporting arrangement to the S151 Officer. CIPFA highlighted a number of considerations which had been taken in to account as part of the service review.

During discussion, key points raised included:

·    There were a number of vacancies within the structure, for which there had been a good number of applicants, with interviews due to take place in the coming weeks. It was hoped that by the next meeting of the Committee in February, an update on appointments would be available. All roles were advertised internally, with some advertised externally as well and the more specialist posts posted in specific publications. There had been a number of internal applicants from individuals seeking promotion opportunities.

·    The structure was created with career progression opportunities in mind and ‘Grow your own’ was promoted with trainee and apprenticeship roles included within the structure which made for good succession planning.

·    Within the structure, particularly the addition of trainee and apprenticeship roles, there would be the opportunities for increased audit work to be undertaken internally, rather than relying on external providers. It was, however noted that the external resource remained a good option to use particularly for specific specialisms such as IT.

·    In relation to the busier periods of the year, the Committee was advised that quarter 4 tended to be the pinch point when a number of key financial system audits were undertaken, although these were planned well in advance. It was hoped that the new structure would help alleviate the risks at this time of year.

·    The Committee was advised that the manager posts also involved day to day work tasks, this went right up to the Chief Auditor post dependant on the complexity and sensitivity of the work required.

·    A Member noted that the CIPFA review had raised the need to meet demand for information and data auditing, and the Committee was advised that the team would be using a system called Ideal moving forward which would involve training and the building up of skills within the team. Data and information governance were noted as key areas across the whole of the organisation.

·    A further risk highlighted by CIPFA was the reliance on the Head of Audit and Audit Manager roles which was hopefully mitigated through the addition of the Deputy Chief Auditor post and Audit and Fraud Lead posts. The Committee congratulated Selina Harlock on her appointment to the Deputy Chief Auditor role.

·    A Member noted that the statement on page 141 of the reports pack should read ‘The Business Assurance Team vision is to be a…’ rather than ‘The Business Assurance Team vision is be a…’. The Member also suggested that the vision statements could be simplified.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.