Agenda item

4.1      The Head of Assurance introduced the report.

4.2      Following discussion, the following key points were noted:

·                             In response to a question about Internal monitoring, members were advised that Executive Directors received periodic updates. The Corporate Assurance Board comprised statutory officers and the Head of Assurance who also considered these updates and provided pressure if necessary. There were genuine reasons why some actions had been delayed. Risks were not running out of control because the areas were being monitored. Reference was made to VAT 6-Jul-21 and how the action was being monitored by the Acting Chief Accountant which kept risk down until completion had taken place.

·                            Audit sector – one of the key drivers behind the delay in the accounts was difficulty in recruiting and retaining staff with the expertise to complete the task at hand within internal and external audit.

·                            A question about how Chairs of scrutiny committees could receive sight of relevant In-progress Audit Engagements was asked. Of particular interest were Children’s Social Care Assurance Mapping, Repairs Service – Disrepair and Housing Delivery Programme. The Head of Assurance agreed to investigate how this could be scheduled. He did not expect any confidential matters to be included in the reports. The Chair asked how there could be wider scrutiny throughout the Council ensuring that risk elements were considered as well. The Chair asked how she could facilitate this and asked to discuss the matter outside the meeting.

·                            The four overdue High Priority Actions within the Housing directorate on page 167 of the agenda, were open and the reason why they were in the report was discussed. The original due date for all of them was suggested by the service based on an understanding of the capabilities of the system. However the system did not reach the capabilities anticipated by officers and so other means had to be discovered to deliver the same outcomes. The Annual licence renewal was given as an example. There had been an expectation that a system report could be run that would identify all the licences due for renewal. This had not been possible and was undertaken as a manual task, but this was not a sustainable way of reducing risk because of the extra work involved in delivering the control. The implementation date was now June, and the Head of Assurance had been advised that officers were confident that by this date a sustainable approach to implementing that control would be achieved. Any progress would be reported to the next meeting of this Committee.

·                       This Internal update did not include action from Lewisham Homes. The actions listed in the report were Lewisham Council’s performance. Last year, officers had undertaken a substantial exercise, quality checking all the actions inherited by the Council to ensure that they were still delivering the improvements that officers hoped for. A similar process was being undertaken with regard to actions inherited from Lewisham Homes. The work would be ready early next year.

·                             A large part of Lewisham Homes’ Audit work was delivered by an external firm, TIAA, under a 5 year contract which had just ended. They were responsible for writing and delivering the audit plan. The Head of Assurance had been working with this company and its staff for the past year and so bringing them into this approach had been seamless. Next year, Lewisham Homes would be part of the Internal Audit and officers would need to consider how they wanted to deliver this service before presenting the 2024/25 Internal Audit. 

·                             A member expressed a strong preference for keeping as much of the core audit work as possible in house. The reliance on external providers could be a negative. There was benefit to an organisation having strong assurance service and strong internal audit services outside of just audit work. However, there were certain specialised areas of audit work which would not be cost effective if managed in house.

RESOLVED that the report be noted.