Approved minutes

THE CORNWALL COLLEGE GROUP

AUDIT COMMITTEE

Minutes of the meeting of the Audit Committee held at

Cornwall College St Austell on 10 April 2017 at 9.30 am

Members / Peter Hardaker / PH / Chair
Jeff Beer / JB
Jonathan Mashen / JM
David Sharples / DS
Apologies * / Malcolm Bell / MB
In attendance / Alison Phillips / AMP / Corporation Secretary
Alastair Campbell / AC / RSM
Michael Collins / MC / Director of Finance and Resources
Raoul Humphreys / RH / Acting CEO and Principal
*number of consecutive meetings at which apologies for absence have been given.
The meeting was preceded by a private meeting of the committee with representatives from the internal auditors.
1. / WELCOME
The Chair welcomed colleagues to the meeting. He particularly welcomed Michael Collins, Director of Finance and Resources, who was attending his first meeting of this committee since his appointment and around the table introductions were made.
Apologies were noted.
2. / MINUTES
Minutes of the meeting held on 28 November 2016
The minutes of the meeting were received, agreed as a correct record, and signed by the Chair.
3. / MATTERS ARISING
The Chair confirmed that all actions had been completed.
He reminded colleagues that there was a vacancy for a co-opted member on the committee and asked them to forward any suggestions to him or the Corporation Secretary. / All
4. / FOR DISCUSSION
4.1 / Internal audit programme 2016/17
4.1.1 / Safeguarding
The report was received, and reviewed by Alastair Campbell, RSM. The report opinion was Reasonable Assurance, with two medium and five low priority actions agreed with management. AC reviewed the medium risks which related to staff not completing safeguarding training within the required timeframes and the lack of systematic process for recording student safeguarding training. AC explained that the College’s safeguarding system worked well and the issues identified related to ‘closing the loop’ and were already in progress.
Following discussion of the report’s findings the committee acknowledged the challenges of ensuring that processes were understood and used effectively following the fundamental restructuring changes and pressures of fewer people doing the work.
The committee also discussed the recent Ofsted monitoring visit to the student accommodation at Duchy College Stoke Climsland and Bicton College and commended the safeguarding and prevent training delivered to governors by the safeguarding team recently.
Following discussion the committee noted the report and management actions planned.
4.1.2 / Procurement
The report was received, and reviewed by AC. He reviewed the scope of the audit and background. The audit opinion was partial assurance with two high risk and five medium risks identified and agreed with management. The issues identified related to non-compliance with the procedures. Plans were in place to address this and improve system functionality.
The committee discussed the review fully and openly. The Acting Principal confirmed that stronger purchasing controls had been put in place, specifically the number of credit cards had been reduced significantly, and recognised that the lack of compliance was a cultural issue which could not be addressed quickly. Nevertheless management were already looking at the issues and there was a positive attitude towards tackling non-compliance. The Director of Finance and Resources reported that a workshop had already been held and outlined the proposals presented. He undertook to share the recommendations with the committee.
The Chair thanked the management team for being open and honest and the committee recognised that addressing the risks identified would be an opportunity as well as a challenge. The committee noted the report and commended the actions being taken by management. / MC
4.2 / Internal Audit Programme 2016/17Progress Report
The report was received, and reviewed by AC. He confirmed that two audit assignment had been completed since the last meeting, Safeguarding and Procurement, and two earlier in the year, Merger Systems Integration and Management Accounts Processes. He also updated the committee on the progress with the other five audits planned for the current year. The forward programme was carefully considered and following discussion the committee agreed to revise the programme to ensure that the audits added value. Accordingly it was agreed that:
  • the cyber security and funding assurance would be deferred until later inthe summer term;
  • the follow up review including payroll would be deferred until after the payroll system had been implemented and had bedded in; and
  • consideration would be given to combining the lean review and focussed assurance review to focus on curriculum delivery efficiency.
The Board also discussed and noted the following briefings included with this report:
  • Further Education High Priority Management Actions
  • The Apprenticeship Levy
  • Gender Pay Gay Reporting
  • Are you Vulnerable to Email Scamming?
  • How Vulnerable is your Organisation to Cyber Attacks?

4.3 / Other Audits
The Director of Finance and Resources reported that there were no other audits for the committee’s review.
5. /
STANDING AGENDA ITEMS
5.1 /
Rolling review of high and medium risk recommendations from previous audits
The report was received together with an updated, colour version of the spreadsheet attachment. MC explained that a number of audit actions had been completed but remained on the register to inform the committeeand for verification by the internal auditors.
The committee commended the progress made and following discussion agreed that completed actions should be retained on this register identified as ‘management closed’ pending verification by RSM.
5.2 / Review of Summary Strategic High Risk Register
The report was received, and reviewed by MC. He explained that he had engaged the Cluster Directors and Professional Services Managers in a review of the risk register to ensure that it was comprehensive and representative of the key risks faced by the organisation. The track changes document presented would be further reviewed to remove duplication and identify the key strategic risks going forward.
The Chair reminded colleagues that the risk management strategy had been revised previously on the recommendation of the internal auditors and the ten summary risks, included within the register received, agreed by Board. The committee recognised the complex nature of the organisation and discussed the revised presentation of the risk registerand the process of identifying the strategic risks to the organisation which it was the role of the Audit Committee to monitor. Following detailed and careful discussion the committee endorsed the inclusive process and revised presentation of the strategic risk register. MC reassured the committee that the agreed process would continue to be followed and the committee noted the additional risks included in the register and agreed to recommend the revised presentation to the Board.
5.3 / Review of Executive Leadership Team (ELT) risk management discussions
The extract from the minutes of the ELT meeting held on 6 March 2017 capturing the discussions relating to risk management were received. MC explained that the process had not been changed but that this extract from the minutes reflected the discussion rather than outcomes. The committee noted the extract and recognised that the discussion of risk was an intrinsic part of ELT meetings.
5.4 / Additional services provided by auditors
The committee noted that RSM was undertaking an independent review of the Group’s sub-contracting provision as required by the Skills Funding Agency the findings of which would be presented at the next meeting.
5.5 / Whistleblowing
There had been no whistleblowing disclosures since the previous meeting.
The agenda was reordered to enable RSM to comment on the For Information report.
6. / FOR INFORMATION
6.1 / Post-16 Audit Code of Practice 2016 to 2017
The report which detailed the assurance and accountability requirements for post-16 providers was received. The changes in the requirements related to updates to reflect the Machinery of Government changes including the transfer of the SFA into the Department for Education and the addition of common findings from the SFA’s regularity assurance work (Annex C). AC referred the committee to this annex which identified some of the key regularity concerns.
The committee noted the code.
Following this discussion AC left the meeting.
7. / EXTERNAL AUDIT
7.1 / Review of External Audit Process for 2015/16 and KPIs
The Acting Principal reported that the external audit process for 2015/16 had been much better managed than the previous year. He had therefore been disappointed that the costs had overrun quite significantly although a reasonable agreement had been achieved. The committee discussed the process and cost overruns comprehensivelyand expressed their disappointment at these cost overruns. It was agreed that the auditors would be reminded that the external audit was a fixed price and any additional work would need to be costed and authorised in advance. / MC
7.2 / Reappointment of External Auditors for 2016/17
The committee agreed to recommend to the Board the reappointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers, as the external auditors, for 2016/17 subject to securing clarity regarding additional costs.
8. / ANY OTHER BUSINESS
There was no other business
9. / DATE AND TIME OF NEXT MEETING
19 June 2017 9.30am
The Chair thanked colleagues for their attendance and commitment.

The Cornwall College Group (TCCG) is the Board approved name for the Cornwall College Further Education Corporation.

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