Agenda item

(To receive a report from the Head of Corporate Audit and Risk Management which provides an update on progress made against the Audit Plan 2013/14)

Consideration was given to a report which provided an update on progress made against the Audit Plan 2013/14. 

It was reported that the audit testing on the contract management activities with Public Health had been completed, and a due diligence audit had been scheduled for February 2014.  It was noted that there was some significant work taking place in Public Health.

The Committee was informed that reasonable progress had been made against the internal audit plan with 56% of the planned work for the year being completed.  Remaining audits were scheduled in for the rest of the year and temporary audit resources to help complete the work had been engaged.

Since the last progress report, 5 County Council audits had been completed, 2 of which had resulted in limited assurance and one system which had received a split assurance.  A further 27 County Council audits were in progress and 9 of these were at the draft report stage.  Changes to the plan were agreed at the meeting in November 2013 due to long term sickness and vacancies, since that date a long serving member of staff sadly passed away and this vacancy would be carried forward into 2014/15.  A Principal Auditor had also been recruited to the team and they would be taking the lead on Adults and Public Health.

At the last meeting, Members raised a concern regarding the level of audit work being undertaken in Public Health and as a result, the package of due diligence work had been increased with work covering payroll; awareness of LCC processes; budget holder awareness of responsibilities, processes etc.; testing of orders and payments and budget monitoring.

Three of the audits which had been completed had received substantial assurance, and three had received limited assurance.  There were very few outstanding recommendations.

Senior officers representing Trading Standards and the Customer Services Centre were in attendance in order to reassure the Committee that the actions identified were being implemented.

Members of the Committee were provided with the opportunity to ask questions to the officers present in relation to the information contained within the report and some of the points raised during discussion included the following:

·         Trading Standards had seen a significant reduction in budget (40%) since the Core Offer, and so had had to review the way that work was carried out.  As well as a reduction in the number of staff, there had been a move from staff working in a specialised team (e.g. animals) to a more generic team.  The strategic priorities for the Service had been identified and there were now 25 staff who were spread over four sites.  It was noted that Lincolnshire was one of only a few authorities who still had trading standards staff in multiple sites;

·         Concerns were raised regarding the increased use of 'legal highs' and the impact they were having in particular wards.  The Committee was advised that one of the benefits of Trading Standards being within the remit of Community Safety was that there could be more joined up working on this.  there would be a big information programme run involving teachers, carers and social workers.  It was noted that 'legal highs' were increasingly being used by adults as well, and trading standards would be using every method they could to try and prevent them from being available;

·         The management actions identified in the audit were being completed, with the exception of the outcome measures, as these had not yet been finalised.  This had been identified as a key risk and would be included in the work programme for the coming year;

·         The four Trading Standards teams were based in Lincoln, Boston, Grantham and Louth.  It was noted that a further team based in Skegness would be useful as staff undertook a lot of summer work there;

·         There was a move back to teams carrying out work based around the key strategies, with some general work as well;

·         If there was another major trading standards issue such as the horsemeat incident, additional resources would be made available.  There was a lot of joint working with the district councils which worked well;

·         Key risks were around managing public expectations, but since the core offer there was more resilience and flexibility around the staff.  However, it was noted that a lot of the older, more experienced staff were lost from the team during the Core Offer process;

·         A transformation plan had started to be developed for the Customer Service Centre, as management were keen to modernise it.  The areas which had been picked up by the audit where mainly around the customer experience, and so there was now a move away from the traditional performance measures such as the time taken to answer the phone.  It was important to ensure that the right things were being measured.  The Customer Service Centre staff used between 5 and 9 different IT systems, which required a lot of training, and so when an enquiry was received staff would often need to update several different systems;

·         Calls which related to Adult care or Children's Services were currently all recorded, but there was a move towards all calls being recorded;

·         Members were assured that the audit recommendations would form part of the transformation plan;

·         The Plan would be monitored by the Value for Money Scrutiny Committee;

·         The Customer Service Centre received 750,000 contacts per year, and there were 126 FTE staff based there, the majority of which were frontline advisors;

·         The management actions had not yet all been completed, however, it was noted that they were not all quick to implement, e.g. the IT systems, but they were all part of the transformation plan.  The actions which could be implemented quickly would be;

·         The actions would be followed up as part of the tracking process;

·         In terms of the third audit where assurance was assessed as limited – Income – Business Support and Schools, it was noted that the problem area in terms of compliance was schools.  The change from SAP to Agresso would be a challenge as every operator would need to be retrained on the new system.  This training would also pick up the other weaknesses which had been identified in the audit.  The system change would start in April 2014;

·         It would be up to schools to decide what financial system they used, however, most schools were currently using SAP, but they could choose to operate independently;

RESOLVED

            That the outcomes of the Corporate Audit Work be noted.