KING GEORGE V FURTHER EDUCATION CORPORATION
MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE GOVERNORS
AUDIT COMMITTEE
6.00pm Monday 5 March 2012
PRESENTRob Fletcher(Governor)
Nick King(Staff Governor)
Julian McInerney (Parent Governor)
Sandra Unsworth (Governor)
Adele Wills (Principal)(In Attendance)
Wendy Moorcroft(Clerk)
Will Melia(Assistant Principal) (In attendance)
David Fletcher(Bentley Jennison(In attendance)
A Quorum being present the Clerk opened the meeting opened at 6.00pm.
12/01 Apologies
Sue Hutchinson (Baker Tilly)(In attendance)
12/02 Committee Membership/Election of Committee Chair and Vice Chair
Rob Fletcher was proposed as Chairman and Julian McInerney as Vice Chairman. The proposal was seconded and unanimously agreed by the Committee
12/03Minutes of 20June 2011
The minutes were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.
12/04 Matters Arising
There were no other matters arising from the minutes.
12/05 Notes of 28 November 2011
The minutes were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.
12/06 Matters Arising
There were no other matters arising from the minutes.
12/07Terms of Reference
The Committee discussed the Terms of Reference. It was agreed that pending the publication of the anticipated revised Audit Code of Practice, no changes should be made other than that the references to thepublicationof minutes should be amended in line with other Committee terms of reference.
With this amendment, the Committee approved the new Terms of Reference for recommendation to the Board
12/08 Internal Audit Reports
David Fletcher from RSM Tenon presented the Internal Audit Report reports to the Committee.
The areas covered were as follows:
Progress Report
Governors noted the Progress Report from RSM Tenon which summarised the work completed to date, the work still to be carried out and the planned timescale for doing this. The Student Journey audit work had been carried out and the report wasbeing finalised and would come to the next meeting. Due to the impending OFSTED inspection, the mock funding audit had been deferred. Whilstthe work would be completed in year, due to the revised timing the report would come to the first meeting of the Committee in September. Based on the report, RSM Tenon expected to carry out all planned work for this year on time and within budget. Attached to the report were a number of client briefings for information. Mr Melia,AssistantPrincipal reported that theBursary report had been particularly useful. Governors noted that the College had allocated additional Bursary funding from its own resources but this had not been required. The availability had been well publicised and comparisons with other colleges showed the Collegeto be generous in its level of allocation..
Financial Healthcheck – Strategic Budgeting and Month-end Routines
Mr Fletcher from RSM Tenon reported that using the RAG rating system, the overall opinion was Green.This meant theBoardcould takesubstantial assurance that the controls were suitably designed, consistently applied and effective. Despite facing a challenging year, the Collegehad budgeted for a small surplus and was performing within budget to date. Whilst not completely zero based in terms of budget setting, the College was moving towards this wherepracticable. Monitoring processes were robust.A small number of low priority recommendations had been identified. The recommendations had been accepted by management and dates for implementation had been agreed.
The Principal recorded her thanks to Mr Melia and his team for their excellent work during a very difficult year and congratulated them on an excellent report
The Committee accepted the Internal Audit Report and Progress Report and the Chairman thanked RSM Tenon and staff for their work.
12/09 Financial Statements and Regularity Audit Performance and Satisfaction Assessment Report
The Committee considered the External Audit Performance Indicators for 2010/11. Mr Melia was pleased to report that there had been no significant issues and that the College had been very satisfied with the service provided by Baker Tilly.
The Committee approved the Performance Indicators and the responses from the College for signature by the Chairman and submission to Full Board for approval.
The Committee then reviewed the performance criteria and concluded that they were still considered to be relevant and appropriate for 2011/12.
12/10 Progress Report on the implementation of recommendations made in Auditors Reports
Will Melia reported on the progress of the implementation of Auditors recommendations.
The report summarised all medium and high priority recommendations based on the reports from the Internal Audit Service and the Financial Statements Auditors with progress indicated by either Y for completed, P for partially completed or N for no progress to date. Those that had been identified as complete would not appear on future reports.
Mr Melia drew Governors’ attention to item2. This was a ‘meritsattention’ recommendation related to placing a value to each risk on theriskregister. Mr Melia reported that figures could only be arbitrary. Mr Fletcherreported that this was a minor observation and RSM Tenon would not be overly concerned if it was not adopted.
The Committee therefore agreed that this should not be incorporated into the Risk Register.
Item 4 was a suggestionrelating to theChairman of Governors taking level 2 safeguarding training. The Chairman of Governors along with all Governors had undertaken level 1training. There were a number of staff within College at the appropriate levels of seniority with level 2 training and there plans for more staff to complete this level.
It was therefore agreed that there was no requirement for theChairman ofGovernors to undertake further training.
The reconciliation of the fixed assets register was planned for completion by the end of April. The full IT disaster recovery testingwas scheduled to take place over the Easter holidays.
The Committee noted the progress against Auditors recommendations
12/11 Risk Management Report
Will Melia presented the update on Risk Management to the Committee. The Risk Management Group had met in November with discussionfocused on monitoring of risks and risks not currently included in the risk register. The approved minutes of this meeting would be attached to the next update to the Committee.The risk register now linked each risk to the five key strategic objectives. Governors suggested that the Student Journey Audit Report could come to Curriculum Committee for information. The external audit work had been carried out as reported at the last meeting with no major issues identified. It was noted that AuditDirector Sue Hutchinson had left Baker Tilly and her replacement would be Dale Thorpe.
Futureissuesrelated to funding and student numbers with anticipated savings in the region of £500k required. Around 40% of this had now been met through further voluntary redundancy.
The Committee accepted the Report.
12/12 Matters to be discussed in the absence of Senior Management
There were no matters to be discussed in the absence of Senior Management.
12/13 Any Other Business
There was no other business.
12/14Date of Next Meeting
18 June 2012 at 5.30pm.
There being no other business the meeting closed at 6.45pm.
BY THE CHAIR AS A TRUE AND ACCURATE RECORD
…………………………………………….. DATE ………………………
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