To note the first progress report on the internal audit plan for 2023/24 as presented by the Council’s internal auditors, South West Audit Partnership (SWAP).

The Committee considered the progress report on the internal audit plan relating to the first quarter of 2023/24 presented by Lisa Fryer of the Council’s internal auditors, South West Audit Partnership (SWAP).

Lisa Fryer reminded the members present that the purpose of the report was to highlight areas for the Audit Committee and also for the Committee to assess SWAP’s progress of delivery against the internal audit plan that was agreed. She confirmed that some of the key points from the report were presented on the ‘at a glance’ page on page 176 of the agenda pack. She stated that at the last progress report for 22-23 audit year there were a couple of pieces of work outstanding so begins with an update of where they were with the last audit plan and they have only got one audit to complete which was at the draft stage. She was confident that they would be able to report back on that audit at the next meeting. There was also one audit that had been completed which was ‘Reasonable assurance’.

Lisa Fryer continued that they had started the 23/24 plan and had a lot of work in progress with 26 audits within the plan in progress which was reasonable for the point of time in the year. One draft had been completed and they had completed one grant certification, but they did not have a lot to advise the Committee in terms of completed work at this stage. She clarified that there had been some plan changes during the quarter already, she reflected that this was a positive sign that the plan was being kept updated and changing in response to address emerging key areas and prioritise where they could add most value. 

Lisa Fryer explained that SWAP have a risk-based approach they had mapped strategic risks against the audit plan and it could be seen they had already started to deliver work against the key risks as set out on page 179. These were shown in yellow and they had mapped the strategic risk to the plan so it was shown that they were planning to do work across the majority of strategic risks over the year.

Lisa Fryer explained that she had kept in appendices B and C even though there was not anything to actually report this quarter. She thought it might be of interest to new members to see what to expect in later progress reports where more detail would be provided on Limited Assurance reports that were issued and also more detail provided on the follow-up activity to give the Committee assurance that previously agreed management actions had been implemented. She stated that page 184 of the report showed the full list of audits that had been agreed in March 2023 to be delivered. This list detailed the full list of planned work for the year, indicating when the work was due to start and began with the 22-23 Audits. She explained that all completed reports were available to members on the Teams channel.

Councillor Sharpe thanked Lisa Fryer for the useful report and thought the format was really helpful to show the progress as work continued.

Councillor Cross agreed with those comments, noted the scope of other local authorities that SWAP worked with and enquired whether there was anything that the Audit Committee should be considering or focusing upon. She explained she was aware that some councils were in difficulties and they did not want to head in that direction.

Lisa Fryer recognised that the new Committee had started after the audit planning process had taken place, she mentioned that SWAP had a risk-based approach which really meant that they focused their resources on what they saw as high risks for the Council. Therefore, the plan was looking at the most important things that would add most value. She acknowledged that they worked in a partnership with more than 20 Councils which gave them a lot of information to draw upon. She explained that SWAP had come up with the top ten list of audits so that was the one important piece of information that was used when putting together the plan. As mentioned earlier the Council’s strategic risks were a really important part of the process to identify areas. She recognised that the key thing was that the management team at RBWM had held meetings about what they were concerned about and where they thought internal audit could add the most value. Combining all that intelligence they were able to prioritise and come up with a risk-based plan focusing on the important things. She was confident in the plan and concluded that it was a live plan that would be updated throughout the year.

Andrew Vallance, Head of Finance advised the meeting that this was SWAP’s second year as the Council’s internal auditors and had been brought in as officers had felt that previous Auditors were missing things, to tackle fraud and help fill the gaps within the plan.

The Chair enquired how outside of the normal annual review of the audit plan could the Audit and Governance Committee provide input to determine what should be considered. In reply, the Head of Finance advised that SWAP’s approach was to maintain an iterative document updated throughout the year so suggestions would be welcomed at any time. Lisa Fryer agreed.

Councillor Wilson sought clarification on the changes made to the Audit Plan since it was first created. Lisa Fryer explained that within Appendix D new audits had labelled new as they replaced the original plan. She expanded that they were largely from the Head of Adults and Children’s Services as since the plan was initially developed in February, he had identified other more important things to be prioritised and other areas to be pushed back further into the year or next year. Under Appendix D under the Deferred section the Committee could see the audits considered to be of lower risk so delayed until later in the plan.

Councillor Sharpe explained that within Team there was a channel called Internal Audit for members of the Committee to review the completed reports in 2022/23.

The Chair thanked Lisa Fryer for updating the Committee on the internal audit plan progress.

RESOLVED unanimously that the report be noted.