Issue - meetings

The Committee had before it a report by the Chief Finance Officer which presented the Committee with the external audit report for discussion and noting.

The report recommended:-

That the Committee note the content of the Annual Audit Report to members and the Controller of Audit report.

Andy Shaw (External Audit) advised that the annual report was a public document addressed to both the IJB and the Controller of Audit. Mr Shaw summarised the IJB’s financial results and noted the financial pressures faced by its partner organisations. Thereafter he outlined the audit conclusions and confirmed that the accounts complied with both CIPFA accounting standards and the four audit dimensions for the local government sector which were Financial Sustainability; Financial Management; Governance and Transparency; and Value for Money.

Mr Shaw noted that a letter had been drafted confirming the independence of the external auditors; and referred members to External Audit’s only recommendation which asked the IJB to consider putting in place a document management system with version control. He noted that this recommendation had been accepted by management with an indicative implementation date of 31 March 2018.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)        to note the content of the Annual Audit Report to members and the Controller of Audit report; and

(ii)       to note that External Audit’s recommendation for the IJB to put in place a document management system with version control had been accepted by management with an indicative date for implementation of 31 March 2018.

The Committee had before it a report by Alex Stephen (Chief Finance Officer, ACHSCP) that presented the revised Board Assurance and Escalation Framework (BAEF) for approval.

The report recommended:-

That the Committee -

a)            Comment on the revised BAEF, as in appendix A; and

b)            Recommend the revised BAEF be approved by the Integration Joint Board.

Alex Stephen advised that the Executive Team had recently reviewed the BAEF following the Committee’s first year of operation and noted that the Framework had been updated to compliment the IJB’s Local Code of Governance which had been agreed at the Committee’s previous meeting. Mr Stephen explained that the BAEF set out reporting arrangements for the Corporate Risk Register and the formal cycle of business in relation to performance, risk and financial management. He added that a key aim of the BAEF was to reduce the duplication of reporting between the IJB and its committees and highlighted that committees had remits which aimed to strengthen the IJB’s governance arrangements to enable the Board to focus on effecting transformational change.

Thereafter the Committee highlighted the importance of preparing a framework that was contextual and easy to read to make the IJB more transparent in order to increase public engagement. Members suggested a number of changes that could be made to support this aim and requested that a revised version be presented to the Committee’s next meeting.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)        to request that references to the Corporate and Operational Risk Registers be standardised or differentiated where appropriate within IJB  reports and governance documents;

(ii)       to request that the Chief Finance Officer liaise with Councillor Cooke to receive feedback on the BAEF; and

(iii)      to instruct the Chief Finance Officer to present a revised version of the BAEF to the Committee’s next meeting on 21 August 2017.