Agenda item

The Assurance Director presented the report in conjunction auditor Mr Matthew Cavanagh, auditor PwC. She drew the Committee’s attention to the new report format and welcomed any comments/feedback/comment from Committee on the format.

Some minor corrections were made to the following sections on page 16;

1.3.2   A total of  1415 actions have been followed up this quarter. 7 8 actions have been implemented (50%) (53%) and 7 have been partially implemented (50%). Progress is summarised in Section 4.

1.4.1   As part of our regular reporting to you, we plan to keep you up to date with the emerging information relevant to local government risk, governance and control. We have included a summary of publications which may be of interest at Appendix A Appendix B

Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and Section 106 (S106) – Phase I, Income – Limited Assurance

The Assurance Director confirmed that in relation to the high priority findings evidence had been received that the actions have now been completed and implemented.

With regards CIL charge identification (finding 4, medium) clarification was sought on (i) whether the council may have forgone some income on those schemes that had not been ‘…marked eligible applications as ‘CIL liable’ in the Uniform system and therefore a CIL charge was not created.’ (ii)  if so how much? and (iii) could the income still be recovered?[ACTION]

In addition to the above the Assurance Director agreed to follow up on the medium priority findings and report them back to the next ordinary meeting of the Committee in November. [ACTION]

Nursery Places – Free Early Education Funding – Limited Assurance

The Operational Director (Early Help, CIN, & Protection) confirmed for the Committee that there is an action plan in place which is now in the process of being implemented.

She explained to the Committee the process of how those children who are eligible for free early education are identified to the local authority, how the places are offered and the funding process.

With regards to ‘Headcount’ she clarified that a list is provided by the provider on how many children are attending on that particular day and as such the information is only reflective of a particular moment in time and would not capture how many children have attended over the course of the week.

With regards to training providers she clarified that local authorities are not permitted to impose standards, provide training development or any improvement work around standards – that should be provided internally. There is statutory guidance produced by the Department of Education to which nursery providers can be directed to.

The Assurance Director made the following minor correction with regards to page 20 Section 3.0 Progress against plan, Nursery places – Free Early Education Funding; of the 7 completed finding the rating were;

1 High

34  Medium

21  Low

1 advisory

With regards to the N/A report classification on page 21 of the committee papers the Committee requested if an alternative classification could be used that conveys and informs them more clearly to what the status is. (ACTION)

Estates Health and Safety follow up

The Assurance Director informed the Committee that page 24 of the committee papers  additional evidence had been received since the report was published confirming that 4/5 high priority recommendations had been implemented. As a consequence the recommendation at the bottom of page 25 was now also implemented. Further evidence had also been received confirming that the low priority recommendation had been implemented.

The Head of Estates LBB confirmed for that with the exception of one outstanding action which is not due to be delivered until the end of August and relates to the submission of a change request of contract, the other actions arising from the audit report had now been closed down.

Regarding fire risk assessments he clarified that these had been conducted across the entire estate and any works arising from those inspections had been scheduled into the annual work plan.

Anything that is rated high risk is statutory and is dealt with immediately and low risk becomes advisory from a risk assessment.

Regional Enterprise (Re): Operation Review, Phase 2: Operating Effectiveness

With regards to the ‘backlog officer’ referenced on page 26 of the Committee papers, clarification was sought as to whether this position was intended to be permanent or temporary posting (ACTION)

Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) and Section 106 (S106) – Phase I, Income (April 2017)

With regards to the SPOB on Page 28 of the Committee papers,   clarification was sought on who or what this was? Further clarification was sought in relation to reference ‘management’ - , is this LBB management or Capita management? (ACTION)

Summary of The Barnet Group Internal Audit Annual Report 2016/17

Mr Mike Gerrard, Finance Director Barnet Group introduced the report.

With regards to the Tenancy Fraud referenced in the report the Assurance Director clarified that it relates to the tenancy audit that the Barnet Group housing officers undertake rather tenancy fraud work the Corporate Anti-Fraud Team(CAFT) undertake.

As this was the first time such a report was presented, the Committee agreed that unless there were any significant changes or key significant issues this only needs to be reported by exception.

RESOLVED - That the Committee note the work completed to date on Internal Audit Q1 progress report - 1st April to 30^th June 2017.