No apologies were received.

The Chairman declared an interest as a former Governor of St Olave’s School.

Councillor Allatt declared an interest in that his daughter worked for KPMG.

The minutes of the meeting held on 24^th May 2018 were agreed and signed as a correct record.

In accordance with the Council’s Constitution, questions to this Committee must be received in writing 4 working days before the date of the meeting.  Therefore please ensure questions are received by the Democratic Services Team by 5pm on Thursday 8^th November.

No questions had been received.

CSD 18154

Members were briefed concerning the matters arising from previous meetings.

Members noted that two issues raised in the November 2017 meeting were still ongoing; these were the issues concerning an insurance policy to insure against the effects of cyber-attack, and the outstanding matter of the objection to the accounts. It was expected that there would be an Insurance tender process initiated early in the New Year which would consider options available for cyber-insurance. A Member queried how value for money for cyber insurance could be evaluated. The Head of Audit responded that it would depend on what was covered, but a judgement would need to be undertaken. It was asked if Councillor Onslow was consulted concerning insurance matters and the answer to this was affirmative

Two matters had been raised at the meeting in May 2018, which were the appointment of consultants to oversee the Civic Centre Accommodation Strategy, and also the amount of storage at the TNT storage depot. Both of these matters were ongoing.

Members noted the update concerning the clarification of gross and net risk scores, and this matter was now closed.

A Member referred to page 3 of the minutes and the reference to agency staff engaged for more than 6 months. It was queried if this process was continuing. Internal Audit confirmed that the recommendation was still outstanding. In some cases agency staff had been employed for a year or more. This situation would continue to be monitored as it was a P1 recommendation. The issue was also going to be looked at by the CLT (Corporate Leadership Team). A Member asked who made the final decision with respect to agency staff. This was the Director of HR. Assurance was provided that the issue would be monitored and Members would be updated at the next Audit Sub-Committee meeting.

Members noted page 4 of the minutes and the previous comments made by Councillors Allatt and Owen. It was asked what would happen as a result of the comments made. It was confirmed that the comments would be fed back to officers. 

RESOLVED that the Matters Arising Report be noted.  

The Briefing comprises:

Internal Audit Published Reports:

1-Review of Adult Safeguarding

2-Review of Contracts for Adult Mental Health

3-Review of Creditors for 2017-2018

4-Review of Edgebury Primary School

5-Review of Home Tuition

6-Review of IT Project Management

7-PCNs Audit

8-Internal Audit Review of Reablement

9-Review of Temporary Accommodation and Rent Account

10-Review of Vehicle Crossovers

11-Review of Continuing Healthcare Funding

12-Review of Council Tax

13-Review of Direct Payments

14-Review of Family Placements

15-Review of Housing Benefit

16-Review of Leaving Care

17-Review of Leaving Care Audit

18-Review of St Olave’s School

19-Troubled Families Claim

20-Winter Maintenance Service Audit

Members have been provided with advanced copies of the briefing via email.

The briefing is also available on the Council website at the following link:

http://cds.bromley.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CId=559&Year=0   

No questions had been received regarding the Audit reports that had been published on the web.

FSD 18083

The Part 1 Internal Audit Progress Report was written by David Hogan, Head of Audit.

The report was written to inform Members of recent audit activity across the Council, and provided an update on issues that had arisen at the previous meeting.

Members were updated concerning the Audit of Contract Management for Adult Mental Health that had taken place previously. It was noted that the audit opinion was Limited and the five priority one recommendations were noted.

Five months subsequently, a follow up of Adult Mental Health was undertaken, and the progress on implementing five Priority 1 recommendations was reviewed.

In the previous audit it was pointed out that there had been no change in the contract for 14 years and no evidence of any change controls. It was noted that the current contract would either be terminated or formalised as a partnership agreement, or would continue as it was with the implementation of change controls to support any variations to the contract. The P1 recommendation remained open.

The Adult Mental Health Audit had identified that the performance measures in the agreement were obsolete and that no defined monitoring agreements were in place. It was also the case that a Mental Health Board was not in place and no reviews had been undertaken.

The follow up revealed that the agreement was going to be updated, with new KPI’s. Feedback was required from Oxleas. Members were pleased to note that the CCG Monitoring Board now met monthly and would be reviewing the Section 31 agreement regularly. It was also the case that a dedicated monitoring meeting led by LBB and chaired by the Director for Adult Social Care would be commencing in November 2018. The recommendation for Performance Measure and Monitoring would however, remain open.

The previous audit had also shown that roles and responsibilities were not clearly defined. These issues had now been resolved and so the previous P1 recommendation was closed.

The Adult Mental Health Audit had also shown deficiencies in the amount of time taken to complete service agreement reviews. Members were pleased to note that significant improvements had been made in dealing with the backlog of reviews and with completing new reviews on time. For this reason the P1 recommendation had been changed to partially implemented. As soon as Oxleas could evidence that the reviews for new starters were being reviewed within the target time of six months, then the status of the recommendation would be changed to fully implemented. 

The Head of Audit commented that much hard work had been done over the summer period, new appointments had been made and outstanding reviews had now been completed. Some improvements were dependent on responses from Oxleas.

The Director of Adult Social Care attended the meeting and apologised for the problems that had been identified by Internal Audit. He said that some of the difficulties that had been experienced had been caused by staffing issues and by conflicting priorities. He was grateful for the work undertaken  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

RESOLVED that the press and public be excluded during consideration of the items of business listed below as it was likely in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the press and public were present, there would be disclosure to them of exempt information.

The exempt minutes of the meeting held on 24^th May 2018, were agreed and signed as a correct record.

CSD 18155

Members noted the Matters Arising (Exempt Information) from the meeting on 24^th May 2018.  

FSD 18084

The Internal Audit Fraud and Investigation and Exempt Items Report was written by David Hogan, Head of Audit.

The report informed Members of recent Internal Audit activity on fraud and investigations across the Council and provided updates on matters that had arisen from previous meetings of the Audit Sub Committee.

Members noted and commented on the report.

The full minutes of the Internal Audit Fraud and Investigation and Exempt Items report were recorded in the Part section of the minutes.

RESOLVED that the Internal Audit Fraud and Investigation and Exempt Items Report be noted.