Issue - meetings

Report CEO 15011

The audit of Family Placements was undertaken as part of the 2014/15 audit plan, at the request of the Assistant Director for Safeguarding and Social Care. This had resulted in 8 P1 recommendations and a nil assurance. The Head of Internal Audit explained that progress was being made, although it was a bit slow. There were still problems with training that required resolution; only 1 out of 9 staff identified to undertake training concerning financial regulations and contract procedure rules had completed and passed the training. There were still outstanding DBS checks that required chasing.  Of the 8 P1 recommendations tested to confirm implementation, 3 were still outstanding, and 5 were found to be partially implemented.

Good progress had been made concerning the Leaving Care (Payments to Clients) audit review. The findings of the review were that of the 6 partially implemented recommendations, 4 had been implemented, and the 2 relating to pathway plans and purchase cards remained as partially implemented.

The audit review of Looked after Children found that care plans and placement plans had been completed and authorised in a timely manner, and the recommendation is therefore considered implemented. The second P1 recommendation on recovery of an overpayment is currently being pursued to the satisfaction of Internal Audit and therefore is considered implemented.

The P1 recommendation pertaining to rent arrears for emergency accommodation was the longest outstanding. The process of the reconciliation of accounts with Orchard and Shipman was underway, and this may reduce the level of rent arrears. However, there was currently still a high level of uncollected rent, and so this recommendation remained outstanding. The Head of Internal Audit reminded the Committee of the recommendations concerning the Essential Care User scheme which was being phased out. Management were implementing the recommendations and therefore all three priority one recommendations have been implemented.

The audit review of Domiciliary Care revealed that there were still problems with agreements closed on incorrect dates, and agreements not being closed after a person was deceased. Therefore the two P1 recommendations remained open.

The audit follow up on the priority one recommendation made in the Transition Team audit, regarding under and overpayments in direct payment cases showed that this was still outstanding.

There had previously been an audit of a primary school that revealed problems with poor cash control. The school had since converted to an Academy, and the recommendations would be followed up by the responsible officer. The School Finance Team were now involved in improving financial controls.

The Head of Internal Audit reminded the Committee that from April 2002 to September 2015, LBB had worked successfully with RB Greenwich Fraud Team in successfully prosecuting Housing Benefit Fraud; during this period, 420 claimants had been successfully prosecuted. Since 1^st July 2015 all new cases of suspected benefit fraud were now referred to the DWP’s Single Integrated Fraud Service. Internal Audit had received some feedback from SFIS, including the fact that 6 referrals had been lost. There were 29  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19