Agenda and draft minutes

To receive any apologies or substitutions for the meeting.

Apologies were received from:

·       Cllr Pauline Church, who was substituted by Cllr Richard Britton,

·       Cllr Richard Clewer (non-voting Member),

·       Cllr Adrain Foster,

·       Cllr Gavin Grant, and

·       Cllr Stuart Wheeler.

To confirm and sign as a correct record the Part I (public) minutes of the ordinary meeting held on 17 January 2025 and the minutes of the extraordinary meeting held on 18 February 2025.

The Part I (public) minutes of the ordinary meeting held on 17 January 2025 and the extraordinary meeting held on 18 February 2025 were presented for consideration, and it was,

Resolved:

To approve and sign the Part I (public) minutes of the ordinary meeting held on 17 January 2025 and the extraordinary meeting held on 18 February 2025 as a true and correct record.

To receive any declarations of disclosable interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive any announcements through the Chairman.

The Chairman made the following announcements:

·       As a result of the promotion of Lizzie Watkin to Corporate Director of Resources (S151 Officer) the Director of Finance & Procurement position had been vacant. An acting-up arrangement had been put in place and following a recruitment process Sarah Rose had been appointed as Interim Director of Finance & Procurement and Deputy S151 Officer. A recruitment process had begun to appoint permanently to this role. The Chairman congratulated Sarah on her interim appointment.

·       The council had been informed that Becky Brook, Principal Auditor was leaving SWAP. Members would all be aware of the value that Becky had brought to SWAP and the internal audit work performed particularly in the reporting to the committee and the progress made in outstanding audit actions. The Chairman stated that Becky would be greatly missed by officers and the committee alike and wished Becky all the best in the future. In addition, the Chairman welcomed the new Chief Executive of SWAP, Rich Clarke, who would be presenting one of the reports from SWAP.

The Council welcomes contributions from members of the public.

Statements

If you would like to make a statement at this meeting on any item on this agenda, please register to do so at least 10 minutes prior to the meeting. Up to 3 speakers are permitted to speak for up to 3 minutes each on any agenda item. Please contact the officer named on the front of the agenda for any further clarification.

Questions

To receive any questions from members of the public or members of the Council received in accordance with the constitution.

Those wishing to ask questions are required to give notice of any such questions in writing to the officer named on the front of this agenda no later than 5pm on 3 April 2025 in order to be guaranteed of a written response. In order to receive a verbal response questions must be submitted no later than 5pm on7 April 2025. Please contact the officer named on the front of this agenda for further advice. Questions may be asked without notice if the Chairman decides that the matter is urgent.

Details of any questions received will be circulated to Committee members prior to the meeting and made available at the meeting and on the Council’s website.

There were no public statements or questions received.

To receive the External Audit reports from Grant Thornton:

·       Interim Auditors Annual Report on Wiltshire Council 2023/24.

·       Conclusion of the Audit 2023/24 - letter to those charged with governance.

·       Disclaimer of opinion 2023/24

Apologies had been given by Grant Thornton representatives as they could not attend the meeting. However, they had prepared a statement for Lizzie Watkin, Corporate Director of Resources (S151 Officer) to read on their behalf.

The statement included that the council's 2023/24 financial statements, published on 21 March 2025, would receive a backstop disclaimer of opinion, similar to the financial statements for 2020/21 to 2022/23. The public inspection period had started, and if no issues arose, Grant Thornton would issue the backstop disclaimer audit opinion as soon as reasonably practicable.

The pension fund audit opinion for 2023/24 would also be issued alongside this, after reporting the pension fund audit findings to the February 2025 Audit and Governance Committee.

The papers being presented at the meeting included the proposed disclaimer opinion, a short findings report, including what work was possible and the proposed audit fee, which would be subject to approval by Public Sector Audit Appointments (PSAA). The Auditors' Annual Report for 2023/24, discussed at the July 2024 meeting, had been updated to include the significant weakness related to the financial statements production, which had been reported to the Committee in December 2024. The agenda also included the proposed standard letter of representation wording that would be requested for the Council's signed financial statements as part of the conclusion of the accounts and audit process.

Members were advised that if they had any comments or questions these would be collated and sent to Grant Thornton for a response prior to issuing the audit opinion.

Members had no questions or comments.

On the proposal of the Chairman, seconded by Cllr Chuck Berry, it was,

Resolved:

To note the:

·       Interim Auditors Annual Report on Wiltshire Council 2023/24.

·       Conclusion of the Audit 2023/24 - letter to those charged with governance.

·       Disclaimer of opinion 2023/24

To consider the Statement of Accounts 2023/24.

At the Chairman’s invitation, Lizzie Watkin, Corporate Director of Resources (S151 Officer) presented the Statement of Accounts 2023/24.

It was stated that the Committee was reviewing the final set of outstanding accounts which had been discussed many times . The draft accounts for the 2023/24 financial year were published on 21 March 2025, which was later than expected and later than required to meet the backstop deadline. The draft accounts could be seen in Appendix B.

It was explained that these accounts had not gone through the usual audit process, hence the disclaimer of opinion. Future accounts would require significant audit activity as a result, leading to additional costs for the 2024/25 accounts.

In July 2024 the committee had approved the Annual Governance Statement (AGS) 2023/24, officers felt this should be amended to reflect the external auditors' opinions which had been issued. Therefore, a proposed amendment to the AGS was included in Appendix A and it was requested that the Committee approve this.

In addition, a formal letter of representation which could be seen in Appendix C would be sent from management to the external auditors, containing technical details about how the accounts were assessed. As part of the process this letter also needed to be approved by the Committee.

It was stated that following the publication of the draft accounts, reviews had identified a couple of significant items that were presented incorrectly in the accounts and needed correction before finalising the accounts. These were noted in the report and would be amended prior to publication of the final accounts.

The officer explained that the Committee was being asked to delegate approval to conclude the process, subject to no material objections being received by the external auditor. This would mean the council was up to date in terms of the backlog of accounts and would enable focus on the next financial statements for 2024/25, with the external audit process planned to start in June 2025 and hopefully conclude by November 2025. The Committee would receive updates throughout the process. 

Members queried how confident officers were with the timescales mentioned regarding the 2024/25 accounts, as resources had previously been an issue.

The officer stated that both the council and the external auditors were in uncharted territory due to having 4 years of disclaimer opinions, although this was not unique nationally. Some of the additional resources previously detailed at meetings would be retained, and processes were being made more efficient. Officers were as confident as they could be that this timeline could be adhered to, however there were risks associated with the process.

There were no further questions from Members who stated that having been through this process a number of times now, they were satisfied.

The Chairman thanked the officer and her teams for amount of work that had gone into clearing the backlog of accounts.

On the proposal of the Chairman, seconded by Cllr Martin Smith, it was,

Resolved:

That the Audit and Governance Committee:

1.    Delegate approval of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34.

To consider the Accounting Policies for 2024/25.

At the Chairmans invitation Lizzie Watkin, Corporate Director of Resources (S151 Officer) introduced the report, explaining that this was an item which came every year, as it was best practise for those charged with governance (the Audit & Governance Committee) to review the accounting policies.

Sally Self, Chief Accountant, explained that the report being presented was for the accounting policies for the 2024/25 financial year end. The policies would be used in the preparation of the draft Statement of Accounts for that financial year. The report recommended approval of the policies. The production of the accounts was a statutory requirement, which included disclosure of the accounting polices used to produce the accounts. The policies supported the production of a high quality set of annual accounts that met the requirement of the accounting codes of practise, there was little discretion for the council to alter the policies from the standard codes. The only changes to the policies from the previous year was in relation to leases. 

In response to questions, it was explained that in relation to depreciation and IT equipment, 5 years was in line with most other local authorities.

In terms of where our policies were unique to Wiltshire Council, it was explained that the only area where there may be some variance was in relation to the deprecation of highways infrastructure assets. The years that these depreciated over may differ to other local authorities as our roads were different to other local authorities. The council may also spend more on maintenance than some other authorities. It was noted that policies were compliant with regulations and would also be reviewed by the external auditors.

Regarding the changes in relation to leases, officers explained that the impact of that was being worked through. There may be some impact on the balance sheet and on the council’s capital finance requirement, and the council was prepared for that.  

In response to further questions, it was highlighted that accounts were backwards looking. However, and more importantly, was what the future looked like and how the council would continue to deliver good public services. It was recommended that the Committee look at the narrative report in the Statement of Accounts in relation to this.

There was some further discussion around risk, Special Educational Needs (SEN) and the dedicated schools block high needs grant as well as adult social care and children’s social care. There was likely to be government reforms in relation to SEN and what this would mean was not yet known.

On the proposal of the Chairman, seconded by Cllr Chuck Berry, it was,

Resolved:

That the Audit and Governance Committee (those charged with governance) approve the council’s accounting policies for the financial year 2024/25.

To receive the internal audit updates from SWAP.

Becky Brook, Principal Auditor at SWAP, presented the internal audit update report. The representative stated that this was the final internal audit progress update of the 2024/25 financial year. Furthermore, as SWAP would shortly be presenting the internal audit annual opinion for 2024/25, this report had been shortened to avoid duplication and did not include a separate rolling audit opinion.

Since the last update report in January 2025 three limited assurance audit opinions had been issued, covering Business Continuity, Business Information and Data Quality and Leisure Income Financial Controls. Details regarding those were included at Appendix B to the report. Management action plans in response to these audits would be presented later in the meeting.

SWAP had reported on 3 limited assurance audits for Key Financial Controls in October 2024 and follow up reviews had been undertaken on these and a number of management actions remained in progress.

For Main Accounting, six of the nine actions were complete. There was one management action for which SWAP were not provided with the evidence to be able to substantiate whether this was now complete, one with little progress having been made and one where the timescale had been extended. SWAP recognised that there had been resourcing issues within the accountancy team that had impacted timely implementation of actions. A further full review was planned for the 2025/26 financial year and it was hoped that SWAP would be able to confirm that previously identified risks had been mitigated.

For Accounts Receivable SWAP’s view was that there had been limited progress with the implementation of agreed actions to date. There was still not a robust debt recovery process in operation and implementation of some management actions was delayed until later in 2025 due to the rollout timescales of part of the Oracle system.

For Accounts Payable a number of the management actions were complete. However, SWAP identified that an agreed action to routinely monitor potential duplicate payments had not been implemented. On further testing, SWAP identified over 9000 potential duplicates for investigation. Officers investigated the 10 highest value payments and a duplicate payment of over £58,000 was identified. Recovery processes were in progress and SWAP would be supporting the Council to identify further potential duplicate payments until a robust and effective process was implemented.  SWAP had agreed to undertake this work for a period of six months and would report any identified duplicates and recovery of payments to the Committee.

Since the last update to the Committee, one significant organisational risk had been identified, which was the limited assurance opinion for Business Continuity mentioned earlier. Therefore, SWAP undertook a review of the council’s Business Continuity plan. Services needed to ensure that they were ready for potential disruptions and that essential services and operations would be maintained during any such disruption. SWAP concluded that there was an absence of a robust governance framework and key elements of business continuity planning that were not in operation.

There was a previously reported significant organisational risk which had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36.

To receive the Internal Audit Annual Opinion 2024/25 from SWAP.

Sally White, Assistant Director, SWAP, presented the internal audit annual opinion 2024/25.

It was stated that two significant organisational risks had been identified in the 2024/25 financial year, those being Landlord Compliance Fire Safety – General Fund Assets and ICT Network Boundary Defences which were detailed in the update report presented earlier. Also under the update report concerns regarding implementation of management actions for the Financial Key Controls audits were discussed, however, across the council generally, there had been an improvement in the implementation of agreed actions and there was a robust escalation process in place.

Ms White presented her annual opinion as the head of internal audit for Wiltshire Council and was offering a reasonable assurance opinion for the 2024/25 financial year. However, SWAP did have residual concerns around the risks to the council's financial system. Furthermore, SWAP had not been able to complete any work this financial year on the council's payroll controls as the HR payroll team had not had the capacity to assist SWAP with their work. However, this work was scheduled to begin in May 2025.

The opinion report provided the strategic risk coverage table, which was familiar to the Committee. SWAP was pleased to be able to demonstrate to that there was now some coverage against all bar one of the council's strategic risks. There was still a gap on increasing vulnerability to climate impacts, but SWAP reassured Members that conversations remained ongoing and they would look to audit this area when the time was right.

The dashboard of open management actions was also included in the report. It was noted that in 2024/25 there had been no instances where management had chosen to accept the risk rather than agree to implement SWAP’s recommended action, which was extremely positive and a reflection of our collaborative approach.

With the exception of the key financial control actions discussed earlier SWAP did not have any further concerns on open management actions. The overdue action figures had also reduced slightly since compiling the papers, from 17 to 14.

A summary of added value work undertaken was provided in the report. Which highlighted the potential financial savings from the accounts payable duplicate payment work. Work on duplicate payments and any resultant savings would continue to be reported to the Committee. SWAP’s performance was also analysed to identify areas for improvement.

In 2024/25 SWAP work was completed to comply with the International Professional Practices Framework (IPPF) of the Institute of Internal Auditors, further guided by interpretation provided by the Public Sector Internal Audit Standards (PSIAS) and the CIPFA Local Government Application Note. Under these standards SWAP were required to be independently externally assessed at least every five years to confirm compliance to the required standards. SWAP was recently assessed in January 2025 and it was confirmed that SWAP was in conformance to PSIAS. Members of the Committee had been provided with the full EQA report.

Finally, the report included a summary of work undertaken by SWAP and details of plan  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37.

To receive the Internal Audit Planning Paper 2025/26 from SWAP.  

Sally White, Assistant Director, SWAP, presented the internal audit planning paper 2025/26.

The purpose of the paper was to set out the approach to planning for 2025/26 and there were no proposed changes to the way SWAP currently planned their audit work. SWAP had a flexible and responsive approach to internal audit where the aim was to add value and ensure that the council achieved its objectives and was successful. As such SWAP collaboratively aligned its work with the council’s aims, objectives and key risks.

Relevant officers and Members of the Committee had access to SWAP’s internal audit system called the Audit Board where they could view the internal audit rolling plan along with the progress of work undertaken. A sample plan was included in the report. It was noted that this was subject to change and covered work which may potentially take place across more than one financial year. The work was risk assessed and continually reprioritised in response to organisational risk. There had been no budget cut proposals for internal audit work in the 2025/26 year. 

As mentioned under the previous item, Members had been provided with a full copy of the External Quality Assurance (EQA) report from January 2025 which confirmed general conformance with the 2017 professional standards. SWAP were working on actions agreed in that report. From 1 April 2025 the previous auditing professional standards had been replaced by the Global Internal Audit Standards, plus the Uk Public Sector Application Note and the CIPFA Code of Practise for the Governance of Internal Audit in UK Local Government. SWAP would be reassessed through the EQA process against the new standards by 2030 at the latest.

The representative noted that Becky Brook (Principal Auditor, SWAP) was leaving her role and wanted to reassure Members that SWAP were working to find a replacement that would hopefully be as good as Becky was. Having SWAP as the council’s internal auditors did provide the advantage of being part of a wider resilience team that they were able to pool resources from.

Members queried whether work on the pensions administrative systems would be reported on at this Committee. It was explained that the Pension Fund Committee approved the pension fund audits. SWAP had a close working relationship with the head of the pension fund and discussed the internal audits with them. They were likely not shown on the sample plan as they were a bit lower down the list. SWAP was starting work on the annual controls review for the pension fund, and the outcomes of that would be reported to this Committee.

Officers explained that in terms of the relationship between the Audit & Governance Committee and the Pension Fund Committee, it was the Audit and Governance Committee, as those charged with governance, that were responsible getting assurance in terms of risk liabilities with the pension funds. However, the Pension Fund Committee did most of the work on that on behalf of this Committee. Any significant concerns would be reported to this  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.

To receive the Internal Audit Mandate and Charter from SWAP.

Rich Clark, Chief Executive, SWAP presented the internal audit mandate and charter. The representative stated that he had been in post for 6 weeks. He had a wealth of relevant previous experience, having worked as a director at the London Borough of Lewisham, overseeing internal audit, risk, counter fraud, insurance and health and safety. Prior to that he had worked for KPMG and with the Audit Commission. Alongside those roles he had also for a number of years been the local government representative on the Audit Standards Board.

The paper he was presenting sought to set out the relationship between internal audit, the Committee and officers in order to establish the boundaries of what internal audit set out to do, how it sought to do it and the sorts of tasks and the quality internal audit could be held accountable for. As well as what internal audit would expect from Members to help support the internal audit.

The mandate could be seen at page 284 of the agenda. Internal audit drew statutory force from the Local Audit and Accountability Act. Much of the document covered how SWAP could work with Members and officers to ensure internal audit had the reach and authority to undertake its work. 

There were minimal changes to the document since it was last seen by the Committee. There had recently been some changes to in global internal audit standards. SWAP had already started implementing changes in response to this and would continue to progress this over the coming year in order to support the governance of the council. SWAP sought approval of the internal audit mandate and charter document.

On the proposal of the Chairman, seconded by Cllr Martin Smith, it was,

Resolved:

To approve the Internal Audit Mandate and Charter.

Note: The Chairman signed the approved Internal Audit Mandate and Charter at the end of the meeting, this signed version is appended to these minutes.

To receive an update on the management action plans in relation to a limited assurance internal audit, Direct Payments Children’s.

Netty Lee, Head of Service Support and Safeguarding presented the Direct Payments Children’s internal audit - management action plans update. Which was an update following the presentation at the January meeting in response to a limited assurance internal audit. The presentation slides were included in the agenda pack at pages 291 to 298.

As per the slides an overview of Direct Payments Children’s was given, including eligibility, assessments and the Family Support Panel. Assurance was given in terms of oversight, reviews and case supervision. The completed management actions following the internal audit were detailed. The actions in relation to record keeping, which was highlighted as a priority in the internal audit, had been delayed. This was due to unforeseen urgent system work, and the revised timescale for completion was 1 July 2025.

The Direct Payments Costs, as requested by the Committee at the previous meeting were detailed as follows.

There were 83 children in receipt of Direct Payments during this period. The ages of these children are shown below:

·       5 -11 years of age - 28 children

·       12- 15 years of age - 35 children

·       16-17 years of age - 20 young people

For January 2024 to December 2024 the total spend was £463,788.54.

In response to questions, it was explained that Wiltshire Council made the direct payments. Depending on the level of care required an agency might be commissioned to provide the care, in which case payments would go direct to the agency. Sometimes a parent might secure payments and make those to a carer. In those circumstances, parents would be supported and signposted to the Wiltshire Centre for Independent Living (CIL). Wiltshire CIL would undertake the vetting and checks on the carer, and process payments to the carer.

There were no further questions or debate.

On the proposal of the Chairman, seconded by Cllr Howard Greenman, it was,

Resolved:

To note the Direct Payments Children’s internal audit - management action plans update.

To receive a presentation on management action plans in relation to a limited assurance internal audit on Business Continuity.

Martin Nicholls, Head of Executive and Cabinet Office, presented the Business Continuity management action plans in response to a limited assurance internal audit. The slides were included in the agenda pack at pages 299 to 308. Emergency planning sat under the officer’s service. However, the presentation was not about how Wiltshire Council responded to emergencies, the council was very experienced and had a good track record in responding to emergencies.

The presentation was about business continuity which was more about the constancy and stability of services when effected by challenges, and in particular the governance and oversight around business continuity. The council had 83 different business continuity plans and a team of 1.8 Full Time employees (FTE) working in emergency planning. The team wanted to make business continuity everyone’s responsibility and improve governance and oversight. The team wanted to report to the Audit and Governance Committee annually on this to ensure transparency, accountability and understanding.

The findings of the internal audit, the management action plans in response to that, and the implementation dates were detailed, as per the slides.

Questions were asked around whether SWAP could speed up the process of following up on management actions. In response it was explained that they would ask monthly for updates. There was little value in doing a full follow up audit until all actions were complete, so a timeline on that would depend on progress of actions. This had been found to be a significant corporate risk, so SWAP would report back to the Committee regularly.  

Members also highlighted that in benchmarking against other authorities the council should be better than average and wanted rapid progress to be demonstrated. 

On the proposal of the Chairman, seconded by Chuck Berry, it was,

Resolved:

To note the Business Continuity internal audit - management action plans.

To receive a presentation on management action plans in relation to a limited assurance internal audit on Business Information and Data Quality.

Stuart Honeyball, Director Business Transformation, presented the Business Information and Data Quality management action plans in response to a limited assurance internal audit. The slides for the presentation were included in the agenda pack at pages 309 to 318.

The officer highlighted that this internal audit had been proactively commissioned as officers were aware that this was an area which required improvement. The audit helped to identify, flesh out and quantify improvements to be made. It was important to have that independent professional viewpoint.

The findings of the audit were given in detail as summarised on the slides, as were the actions to be taken in response.

Members queried finding 2 and that there was no strict process for data cleansing or retention, and no formal data quality training, and pondered if this was a breach of GDPR. It was explained that the Information Governance team did issue guidance on these matters. However there may be varying degrees of compliance across the whole organisation. It was further explained that data retention at scale was very difficult, particularly with multiple systems in play. Data was cleansed, but it was not a formalised process and not consistent across the organisation.    

On the proposal of the Chairman, seconded by Cllr Chuck Berry, it was,

Resolved:

To note the Business Information and Data Quality internal audit - management action plans. 

To receive a presentation on management action plans in relation to a limited assurance internal audit on Leisure Income Financial Controls.

Justine Foster, Head of Leisure Operations, presented the Leisure Income Financial Controls management action plans in response to a limited assurance internal audit. The slides for the presentation were included in the agenda pack at pages 319 to 327.

The service had welcomed the internal audit which had been commissioned to test the financial processes across the leisure service and to safeguard leisure income. The service were always keen to improve on how they operated and felt the audit covered extensive areas within their operation, covering financial management, debt collection and how finances were monitored and reported. This had been a desk based internal audit, and the service would have liked a bit more involvement at the front line. This had been fed back to SWAP. The service were happy to build on the findings of the audit.

The findings of the internal audit, the management actions in response, and the target implementation dates were explained in detail, as summarised on the slides.

Members questions whether the council was Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliant. The S151 officer explained that the council had been working for a couple of years towards compliance and had been declaring non-compliance. Confirmation had recently been received that all of the council ICT systems were compliant. It was felt that a briefing note to Members to update them on this issue was a good idea.

On the proposal of the Chairman, seconded by Cllr Martin Smith, it was,

Resolved:

To note the Leisure Income Financial Controls internal audit - management action plans and to request that a briefing note be circulated to the Committee regarding PCI DSS compliance.

To note the Forward Work Programme.

The Chairman proposed that the FWP be noted, with the addition of a Business Continuity update being added to the October meeting (when actions should be complete). SWAP requested that an Internal Audit Planning Paper for 2026/27 be added to the April 2026 meeting. The Chairman accepted that amendment and the motion was seconded by Cllr Chuck Berry. It was,

Resolved:

To note the FWP with the addition of a Business Continuity update being added to the October 2025 meeting and a SWAP Internal Audit Planning Paper 206/27being added to the April 2026 meeting.

The next ordinary meeting of the Committee will be held on 10 July 2025. 

The Chairman announced that the next ordinary meeting was scheduled for 10 July 2025.

The Chaiman highlighted that this was potentially the last meeting for some of the Committee, due to the local authority elections on 1 May 2025, and wanted to thank everyone for their contributions.

There were no urgent items.

To consider passing the following resolution:

To agree that in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude the public from the meeting for the business specified in Item Number 21 because it is likely that if members of the public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 12A to the Act and the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information to the public.

The Committee considered whether or not to hold the next item in closed session and it was,

Resolved:

To agree that in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude the public from the meeting for the business specified in Item Number 21 because it is likely that if members of the public were present there would be disclosure to them of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part I of Schedule 12A to the Act and the public interest in withholding the information outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information to the public.

To consider the Part II (private) minutes of the ordinary meeting held on 17 January 2025.

The Part II (private) minutes of the ordinary meeting held on 17 January 2025 were presented for consideration, and it was,

Resolved:

To approve and sign the Part II (private) minutes of the ordinary meeting held on 17 January 2025 as a true and correct record.