To consider the report.

Duncan Laird, Senior Manager, KPMG, presented the report that summarised the results of work that had been carried out on the Council’s 2016/17 grant claims and returns. This included the work completed under the Public Sector Audit Appointed certification arrangements, as well as the work completed on other grants/returns under separate engagement terms. The work completed in 2016/17 is:

·         Under the Public Sector Audit Appointments arrangements we certified one claim –the Council’s 2016/17 Housing Benefit Subsidy claim. This had a value of £35.5 million.

·         Under separate engagements we issued reports on two claims/returns as listed below.

o   Teachers’ Pensions Return; and

o   National College of Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) Annual Grant Report and Initial Teacher Training Annual Accounts.

Certification and Assurance Results

Our certification work on Housing Subsidy Benefit claim included:

·         agreeing standard rates, such as for allowances and benefit incomes, to the DWP Circular communicating the value of each rate for the year;

·         sample testing of benefit claims to confirm that the entitlement had been correctly calculated and was supported by appropriate evidence;

·         undertaking an analytical review of the claim form considering year-on-year variances and key ratios;

·         confirming that the subsidy claim had been prepared using the correct benefits system version; and

·         completing testing in relation to modified schemes payments, uncashed cheques and verifying the accurate completion of the claim form.

Following the completion of our work, the claim was subject to a qualification letter for differences in the in year reconciliation cells.

Our work on the other grant assurance engagements resulted in unqualified certification reports.

No adjustments were necessary to the Council’s grants and returns as a result of our certification work this year.

The overall level of errors identified in 2015/16 across all claims was lower than in previous years.

The following recommendation was made:

Duncan Laird informed the Panel that it had been a good year, the findings were better compared to previous years.

The Panel discussed using a traffic light system for the reports. This had been used but since reports had been printed in black and white, this was not visible.

ACTION: Clerk to print reports in colour for future meetings.

Councillor Brimacombe highlighted that if the signed Grant Funding Agreement with NCTL was not available, were there other documents that were not available too, was there a fault in the system? Rob Stubbs reassured the Panel that a grant schedule was being built with electronic links.

Councillor Ed Wilson was reassured by the report and asked how we compared with other public bodies. Duncan Laird informed the Panel that we compared very well, other public bodies had made significant errors. In previous years, the teacher’s pension had been returned but this year there had been no returns. The NCTL was purely around supporting documentation as a new test had been set up this year.

Other points discussed included:

·         How was the selective sample set? The protocol for housing benefits, a random sample testing minimum of 20 cells.

·         Technical complexity, what were the means for catching errors, was there a mechanism in place? Assurance tests were carried out.

·         Collective information was held in one place from a number of people, was there a formal database. There were process notes in finance for processes such as completing returns.