SWAN GROUP

AUDIT & RISK COMITTEE

MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 28 APRIL 2015 @ 2 PM

Present:

Members:Peter Baynham (Chair); Rashid Khilji; Alan Palmer and Doug McCann

Officers:Jamie Smith (Deputy Chief Executive); Mary Gibbons (Executive Director – Strategy and Support); James King (Financial Controller);James Carr (Treasury Manager) and Alex Blake (Committee Secretary).

Also in

attendance:Dan Harris – Baker Tilly

26/14/15

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

No apologies received – all Members present.

27/14/15

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

There were no declarations of interest at the time of the meeting.

28/14/15

APPROVAL OF MINUTES AND MATTERS ARISING

MINUTES OF THE AUDIT & RISK COMMITTEE HELD ON 25 FEBRUARY 2015

AGREED:That the minutes of the Audit & Risk Committee meeting held on 25 February 2015 be signed as a correct record.

MATTERS ARISING

The matters arising schedule was reviewed and either items had been completed or were on the current agenda.

29/14/15

WORKPLAN FOR THE COMMITTEE

RECEIVED the Workplan for the Audit & Risk Committee for 2014/15.

NOTED:The contents of the workplan.

30/14/15

INTERNAL AUDIT RECOMMENDATION TRACKER

RECEIVED the Internal Audit Recommendation Tracker from Jamie Smith.

NOTED:

  1. The contents of the report;
  2. Jamie Smith informed Members that the one outstanding issue from the last meeting remains in progress;
  3. The contractor framework should be complete by the next meeting in June 2015.

31/14/15

RISK MANAGEMENT UPDATE

32/14/15

ANNUAL INTERNAL AUDITORS REPORT

RECEIVED the annual internal audit report for year ended 31st March 2015 from Dan Harris of Baker Tilly.

NOTED:

  1. The contents of the report;
  2. Dan Harris said that the report found no internal control issues that needed to be flagged as significant and that there were no recommendations that were disagreed on. There was generally a positive response on Swan’s risk governance;
  3. Swan’s risk owners understand and carefully considered their riskson a regular basis.Owners understood the cause and risk surrounding risk.

33/14/15

INTERNAL AUDIT REPORTS

RECEIVED the Internal Audit reports from Dan Harris of Baker Tilly.

FOLLOW UP REPORT

NOTED:

  1. The contents of the report;
  2. Dan Harrissaid that this mirrors the report previously reviewed and discussed. Audits have been scheduled in for 15/16.
  3. Dan Harris explained that there were fifteen recommendations reviewed – five rated medium risk and ten low risks. The follow up report states that ten have been fully implemented and two medium risks were in the process of being implemented. Jamie Smith explained that the risks in the process of being implemented were the IT disaster recovery risk, which had closed off but further work was required to get a new supplier and recovery system in place and the NHS Keyworker project which was in progress.

RISK MANAGEMENT

NOTED:

  1. The contents of the report;
  2. Dan Harris explained that this year’s risk management focus will be deep dive coverage of operational and strategic risks.

34/14/15

REVIEW OF FRAUD REGISTER

RECEIVED AND NOTED. There were no new items to discuss.

35/14/15

ANY OTHER BUSINESS

Training

The Chair suggested that the Members consider their training needs to ensure familiarity with both Swan’s business and issues that may affect Swan. It was noted that members already as part of personal professional development attend courses and training as necessary both to maintain their continuing professional education (CPD) these may be directly or indirectly relevant to Swan. Dan Harris suggested that Baker Tilly’s webinars on various topics could be useful.

It was agreed that the Committee as a whole (in addition to any individual training needs) would undertake certain training as a Committee, subject matter to be decided as below.

The Chair suggested that perhaps an external trainer from Trowers could present on Regulatory risk. Baker Tilly could also carry out training on cyber risk. The Chair also suggested an update on social housing issues post-election. Jamie Smith said that this was already on the agenda from the internal audit report as risk is the driving force behind training. Possible subjects for training were Regulatory Risk;IT/Cyber Risk; Health & Safety; Risk Management;Accounting Update and GenericDevelopmentRisk.

Jamie Smith will circulate an email to the Committee Members and whichever is voted as most important will be actioned. All agreed that there should not be more than two training sessions a year unless there were exceptional circumstances

36/14/15

DATE AND TIME OF NEXT MEETING

The next meeting of the Swan HA, Swan New Homes, Swan Commercial Services, Vivo Support and Hera Management Services Audit and Risk Committee will take place on 23 June 2015 at 2.00 pm at Tramway House, Stratford.

The Chair closed the meeting at 4.15pm.

……………………………………………Chair

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