Mr David Dobbs, Head of Internal Audit, Anti-Fraud and Risk presented the update report on the progress made against the delivery of the 2023-24 Annual Internal Audit Plan. The report also provided an update on the investigation activity, fraud prevention and anti-fraud work. Mr Dobbs referred members to paragraph 3.1, and the appendix attached to the report and said 43% of audit opinions had resulted in Reasonable or Substantial assurance compared to 65% for year 2022-23. He said the delivery plan was ambitious and said planning for the 2024-25 plan was underway.

The Committee then heard from Ms Karen Swift, Director of Housing, and her team in relation to the limited assurance report on Homelessness assessments. Ms Swift welcomed the internal audit scrutiny of the service and said this would assist her and her team to make improvements to the assessments process. She said a major challenge were the IT systems used however she was working with the IT department to get these consolidated.

In response to comments and questions from members the following was noted:

·       Ms Charlotte Webster, Independent Person suggested that when looking at the processes followed by the Housing Team, they should also consider rationalising their processes to see if they required 20 different forms and if all the information, they were asking for was relevant. Ms Swift agreed this would be a good opportunity to do so and said they would do this.

·       In respect to the Internal Audit Plan of 2023-24, Mr Dobbs said it was ambitious plan, which he had inherited when took over the role. He said not all the planned activity had been achieved which had partly been due to resourcing issues within the team. He said next plan would focus more on the risks and would seek the opinion of the Senior Leadership Team as well as members.

·       In response to Team Leaders checking Homelessness assessment applications, Ms Swift said this check and balance would serve two purposes. (1) it would ensure any errors were picked up and corrected more quickly and (2) be a learning opportunity for staff to ensure they had followed the correct policies and procedures.

·       Councillor Blake requested that the ‘Management of Lettings’ and ‘Management of Markets- Follow up” referred to in Appendix A, page 29 of the agenda be carried forward to the next Internal Audit plan.

The Audit Committee RESOLVED to:

1.    Note the contents of the attached report and the overall progress and assurance opinions for audits carried out as part of the 2023-24 Audit Plan.