Minutes of meeting
Renfrewshire Council · 14 November 2022
Back to Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Board — 14 November 2022 and its agenda
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Minute of Meeting Audit, Risk and Scrutiny Board Date Time Venue Monday, 14 November 2022 15:00 Council Chambers (Renfrewshire), Council Headquarters, Renfrewshire House, Cotton Street, Paisley, PA1 1AN Present: Councillor Jennifer Adam, Councillor Andy Doig, Councillor Chris Gilmour, Councillor John Gray, Councillor Lisa-Marie Hughes, Councillor Robert Innes, Councillor James MacLaren, Councillor Kevin Montgomery Chair Councillor Andy Doig, Convener, presided. In Attendance L McIntyre, Head of Policy & Commissioning, L Fingland, Service Planning & Policy Development Officer and D McLavin, Senior Communications Officer (all Chief Executive’s); F Carlin, Head of Housing Services, O Reid, Head of Communities & Public Protection and C Dalrymple, Head of Facilities & Property Management (all Communities & Housing Services); T McGillivray, Head of Schools (Children’s Services); G Hutton, Head of Operations & Infrastructure, D Kerr, Service Co-ordination Manager and L Rennie, Operations Manager (all Environment & Infrastructure Services); M Conaghan, Head of Corporate Governance, C McCourt, Head of Finance & Business Services, M Boyd, Head of People and Organisational Development, A McMahon, Chief Auditor, G Campbell, Principal HR & OD Adviser, A Ramsay, Service Delivery Manager, K Locke, Risk Manager, C MacDonald, Senior Committee Services Officer, K O’Neill, Assistant Democratic Services Officer, D Cunningham Assistant Committee Service Officer and D Pole, End User Technician (all Finance & Resources); and C Walker, Planning & Performance Manager (Renfrewshire Health & Social Care Partnership). Also in Attendance P Gillen, Audit Scotland Director, M Ferris, Senior Audit Manager and S Afzal, Audit Manager (all Audit Scotland).
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Webcasting of Meeting Prior to the commencement of the meeting the Convener intimated that this meeting of the Board would be filmed for live or subsequent broadcast via the Council's internet site. Declarations of Interest There were no declarations of interest intimated prior to the commencement of the meeting. 1 Audit Scotland Report to those Charged with Governance - 2021/22 Renfrewshire Council Annual Accounts There was submitted a report by the Director of Finance & Resources relative to Audit Scotland’s findings from the audit of the 2021/22 Renfrewshire Council financial statements; the findings from the audit of the annual accounts; and their other audit activity over the course of 2021/22. The report intimated that each year the Council's appointed external auditors (Audit Scotland) carried out an audit of the Council's financial statements and provided an opinion as to whether those statements provided a fair and true view of the financial position of the Council and its income and expenditure for the year and also whether the accounts had been prepared in accordance with the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. In accordance with International Auditing Standards (ISA260) Audit Scotland was obliged to report to those charged with the governance of the organisation matters which had arisen in the course of the audit. A copy of the findings from the audit of the 2021/22 Renfrewshire Council accounts was attached as an appendix to the report. Under the Local Authority Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2014, the Council required to meet to consider the Annual Accounts and approve those accounts for signature no later than 30 September 2021. However, the Local Government Finance Circular 6/2022 granted an extension to Accounts Approval and Publication Dates for 2021/22 and as a result the deadline to submit to Council had been extended to 30 November 2022. DECIDED: That the report and attached Audit Scotland report be noted. 2 Audited Annual Accounts 2021/22 - Renfrewshire Council There was submitted a report by the Director of Finance & Resources relative to the audit of the Annual Accounts 2021/22, a copy of which was appended to the report. The report intimated that the 2021/22 unaudited Annual Accounts were approved at the meeting of the Council held on 30 June 2022. Each year the Council's appointed external auditors (Audit Scotland) carried out an audit of the Council’s financial
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statements and provided an opinion as to whether those statements provided a true and fair view of the financial position of the Council and its income and expenditure for the year; and also whether they had been prepared in accordance with the relevant regulations. The report advised that there were three changes made to the annual accounts over the course of the audit in relation to the valuation of property assets, agency transactions in the Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Statement, and a regulatory change to the presentation of depreciation. Other minor and presentational changes had also been agreed. DECIDED: That it be agreed that the report and attached audited annual accounts 2021/22 be noted and recommended to the Council for approval. 3 Audit Scotland Report to those Charged with Governance - 2021/22 Common Good Funds and Coats Observatory Trust Annual Accounts There was submitted a report by the Director of Finance & Resources relative to Audit Scotland’s findings from the audit of the Common Good Funds and charities controlled by the Council for 2021/22. The report intimated that each year the Council's appointed external auditors (Audit Scotland) carried out an audit of the Council's financial statements of the Common Good funds and Coats Observatory Trust controlled by the Council and provided an opinion as to whether those statements provided a fair and true view of the financial position of the charities and their income and expenditure for the year and also whether they had been prepared in accordance with the relevant regulations. A copy of the 2021/22 audited Annual Accounts for the Common Good funds and Coats Observatory Trust controlled by the Council was attached as an appendix to the report. Under the Local Authority Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2014, the Council required to meet to consider the Annual Accounts and approve those accounts for signature no later than 30 September 2022. However, the Local Government Finance Circular 6/2022 granted an extension to Accounts Approval and Publication Dates for 2021/22 and as a result the deadline to submit to Council had been extended to 30 November 2022. DECIDED That the report and attached Audit Scotland reports be noted. 4 Audited Financial Statements 2021/22 - Common Good Funds and Coats Observatory Trust There was submitted a report by the Director of Finance & Resources relative to the audited annual accounts of the Common Good Funds and charities controlled by the Council for 2021/22. The report intimated that each year the Council's appointed external auditors (Audit Scotland) carried out an audit of the Council's financial statements of the Common Good funds and charities controlled by the Council and provided an opinion as to whether those statements provided a fair and true view of the financial position of the charities and their income and expenditure for the year and also whether they had
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been prepared in accordance with the relevant regulations. The report advised that there was one change to the property value of Trust assets and no significant changes to the Common Good accounts over the course of the audit and minor presentational changes were agreed. A copy of the 2021/22 audited Annual Accounts for the Common Good funds and charities controlled by the Council was attached as an appendix to the report. DECIDED: That the attached 2021/22 audited financial statements for the charities controlled by the Council be noted and the report be recommended to the Council for approval. 5 Summary of Internal Audit Reports for period 01 July to 30 September 2022 There was submitted a report by the Chief Auditor relative to the requirement in terms of the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards (PSIAS) that Internal Audit communicated the results of each engagement to the Board. The appendix to the report detailed the category of assurance, service, engagement and assurance rating and gave recommended risk ratings for each engagement as either critical, important, good practice or service improvement. A summary of findings was also provided in relation to final reports issued for those engagements completed during the period 1 July to 30 September 2022. The report intimated that in addition to the reports listed in the appendix, Internal Audit had an ongoing commitment to arrange corporate and service initiatives, progress information security matters in partnership with ICT and Legal Services, provide regular advice to officers, provide Internal Audit services to the associated bodies for which Renfrewshire Council was the lead authority and to OneRen and Renfrewshire Health & Social Care Integration Joint Board, co-ordination of the Council’s Corporate Risk Management activity and management of the counter fraud, risk management and insurance team. DECIDED: That the summary of Audit findings report for the period 1 July to 30 September 2022 be noted. 6 Internal Audit and Counter Fraud Progress and Performance for Period to 30 September 2022 There was submitted a report by the Chief Auditor relative to Internal Audit and Counter Fraud performance between 1 July and 30 September 2022 in terms of the delivery of the Audit Plan for the year and outlining actual performance against targets set by the Director of Finance & Resources. No formal performance targets for fraud investigation had been established as a major part of the team’s work involved being the single point of contact for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Single Fraud Investigation Service and the Service Level Agreement for the work contained time targets for completing this work.
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It was noted that the types of fraud referrals received to date were wide ranging and the team’s objective was to concentrate on investigating those referrals considered to contain the greatest fraud risk. The Team were also involved in promoting fraud awareness within the Council. The report advised that all of the Internal Audit Team and Counter Fraud Team were currently working on a hybrid basis and were also undertaking home/site visits when the need arose. The Team also provided advice and support where necessary to Council services. The report advised that during the first six months of this year the Team were involved in a number of investigation assignments which would be reported to this Board on completion of any proceedings. Some of last year’s assignments also took longer than planned and had to be carried forward into this year. Due to the revised working arrangements and the priorities of both client and our own staff, this has led to the majority of the Team’s contingency time having to be utilised. In addition, they had a high proportion of unplanned leave during this time. As a result, they have undertaken a review of the current audit plan and the recommended plans were outlined at 5.2 in the report. DECIDED: (a) That the Internal Audit and Counter Fraud Team progress and performance from 1 July to 30 September 2022 be noted; and (b) That the proposed amendments to the Annual Internal Audit Plan for 2022/2023 be approved. 7 Audit Scotland Report - The National Fraud Initiative 2020/2021 There was submitted a report by the Chief Auditor relative to Audit Scotland’s report on the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) 2020/21 which was publish in August 2022 and was attached as Appendix 1 to the report. The report highlighted that Scottish public bodies had recorded an outcome of £14.9 million arising from the 2020/21 exercise. Cumulative outcomes from NFI since 2006/07 in Scotland had risen to £158.5 million and £2.4 billion across the UK. The NFI outcome figures included amounts for fraud and error detection as well as an estimate for those future losses that had been prevented. It was noted that Renfrewshire Council’s approach and outcomes for the 2020/21 exercise and how this compared to the 2018/19 exercise was attached at Appendix 2. The self-assessment of arrangements in preparation for the 2022/23 exercise was also included within appendix 2. DECIDED: That the report be noted. 8 Risk Report - October 2022 There was submitted a report by the Director of Finance & Resources relative to the Risk Report to consider and approve the Council’s Risks.
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The report set out the latest position in managing the council’s risks entering the third quarter of the new financial year. The appendices attached provided details of longer- term or imminent strategic and corporate risks (at 30 September 2022); longer-term significant service risks (at 30 September 2022); and a list of ‘business as usual’ risks. DECIDED: That the report, along with the risks identified be approved. 9 2021/22 Complaints Handling Performance There was submitted a report by the Chief Executive relative to the annual complaints report 2021/22. The report intimated that the Council’s complaint-handling procedure aimed to have quicker, simpler and more streamlined complaints handling with early response by capable, well-trained staff. As part of the procedure, all complaints were recorded and monitored. The report provided information on complaints closed during the year from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022 and performance on key indicators and highlighted improvements made to the complaints handling procedure over the past year to ensure that complaints were handled well, and the organisation learned from them and improved services. It was noted that 9,193 complaints were received in 2021/22 compared with 6.179 in 2020/21; 86.8% of the complaints were dealt with as frontline response; 80.6% of frontline complaints and 76.7% of investigation complaints received were completed within target timescales; the average time to respond to frontline complaints met the target of 5 days and was an improvement from the previous year figure of 10 days; the average time to respond to an investigation complaint rose slightly from 15 days in 2020/21 to 16.5 days in 2021/22, though this was still well within the SPSO target of 20 days; the 2021/22 breakdown of complaints received by services continued to be broadly reflective of the volume of services provided; the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman introduced changes to the national complaints handling process, which was implemented prior to April 2021; and a new system to support the logging of and learning from complaints was launched by the Council in April 2020 which was designed to improve business intelligence and customer insight data. A performance scorecard was included within the appendix to the report to provide additional data. It was noted that all indicators would continue to be monitored regularly and support and guidance would be provided to all services to assist with analysing and improving performance where required. DECIDED: That the report be noted. 10 Absence Statistics - Quarter 2 of 2022/23 There was submitted a report by the Director of Finance & Resources relative to the Council’s absence statistics for the period 1 July to 30 September 2022. The report provided information in relation to absence targets and how services and categories of staff had performed against them. An analysis of the reasons for absence for the period was included in the report. Information was also provided on
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supporting attendance activity levels by service and costs of sick pay and the overall number of days lost. During discussion, it was agreed that a report be submitted to a future meeting of this Policy Board in connection with Service Performance for the Health & Social Care Partnership (HSCP) outlining the level of absence within the HSCP; the measures being put in place by the Council and the Integration Joint Board to manage these; what the Service was doing to support the workforce, and what steps were being taken to address the number of vacancies within the Service. DECIDED: (a) That the report on absence statistics for Quarter 2 ending 30 September 2022 be noted; and (b) That it be agreed that a report be submitted to a future meeting of this Policy Board in connection with Service Performance for the Health & Social Care Partnership (HSCP) outlining the level of absence within the HSCP; the measures being put in place by the Council and the Integration Joint Board to manage these; what the Service was doing to support the workforce, and what steps were being taken to address the number of vacancies within the Service. EXCLUSION OF PRESS AND PUBLIC The Board resolved that the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of Item 11 as it was likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted, that if members of the press and public were present, there would be disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in paragraph 14 of Part I of Schedule 7A of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. 11 Summary of Internal Audit Investigation Reports for period 1 July to 30 September 2022 There was submitted a report by the Chief Auditor relative to the requirement in terms of the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards (PSIAS) that Internal Audit reported on the findings and conclusions of audit engagements to the Board. The appendix to the report provided a summary of the findings of four internal audit investigations. DECIDED: That the summary of Audit Reports finalised during the period from 1 July to 30 September 2022 be noted.