Issue - meetings

to endorse the recommendations for improvement as agreed by the relevant Function.

The Committee had before it a report by the Chief Internal Auditor which presented an audit in relation to Children with Disabilities which was undertaken to obtain assurance that care for children with disabilities via contracts and direct payments were being arranged and paid for in accordance with procedure to secure Best Value outcomes.  The report advised that that payments relating to out of authority placements had not been included as these would be considered in a separate audit planned for 2022/23.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee review, discuss and comment on the issues raised within the report and the attached appendix.

In response to questions relating to the new D365 database and whether it went live n September and whether child plans and associated plan would be available in the system, the Lead Service Manager advised that the system went live in October and that all new plans were in the system with a period of transformation to get current plans moved across. 

In response to a question relating to contracts not being awarded in line with Procurement Regulations, the Lead Service Manager advised that at the time, a report was submitted to Committee explaining the vulnerability of the children and that a direct award was preferrable for those children and that what hadn’t been included was a specific request to set aside Section 15 of the Procurement Regulations, which has been noted for future reports.

In response to a question relating to how the Delegated Procurement Authority training for staff was progressing, the Lead Service Manager advised that all staff were trained in the old system and that they were half way through the training for the new system and was expected to be complete by 31 January 2023.

The Committee resolved:-

to endorse the recommendations for improvement as agreed by the relevant Function.