Agenda item

An update on the work undertaken by Audit Wales, up to the 31st December 2022, was presented to Members.

In regards to the financial work undertaken, it was confirmed that the audit of the Council’s financial statements had been completed; the Auditor General gave an unqualified opinion on 13 January 2023, following the approval of the financial statements at the Governance and Audit Committee on 12 January 2023. It was noted that work relating to the Certification of Grant returns for the 2021/22 financial year was in progress.

Audit Wales provided a summary of the progress of their performance work:

·       Building in Well-being of Future Generations Act examinations into all work

·       Completed improvement reporting audit

·       Assurance and Risk Assessment work for 2021/22 was nearing completion – there was one action left to complete which related to recovery planning, however all other actions had been completed and reported on

·       Springing forward work (examining the building blocks for a sustainable future) for 2021/22 was currently being drafted

·       Assurance and Risk Assessment for 2022/23 was ongoing – the work relating to performance information and setting of well-being objectives had started, and the capital management programme work was due to start at the end of this financial year

·       Thematic review for unscheduled care was nearing completion – will be reporting this back to Committee once it had been finalised

·       The digital thematic review was currently being undertaken across all Councils – the timeframe was noted to be between now and the end of September 2023

·       Scrutiny review was currently being undertaken

It was mentioned that the circulated report included information relating to the Local Government national studies, planned and in progress, in order to update Members on the work progress of each of the studies.

The circulated report referenced that the deadline for the Certification of Grant returns for financial year 2021-22 was between December 2022 and February 2023, and the status was still progress; Members asked if there were any updates in regards to any outstanding grants and the deadlines. Audit Wales confirmed that they had completed their work on the non-domestic rates, teacher’s pensions and social care workforce grants; they had completed the initial testing on the housing benefits subsidy, however the next steps was to discuss the findings on this subsidy. It was noted that Audit Wales were hoping to conclude this work over the next few weeks; nationally there had been a slippage in the deadlines referred to the in the circulated report, therefore there were no specific concerns to raise.

Members queried the outstanding work in relation to the Assurance and Risk Assessment work for 2021/22. It was confirmed that the only action that hadn’t been finalised was the recovery planning work.

A discussion took place in regards to the timetable for the springing forward work, which was noted to be April 2022. The Committee were informed that this work was currently being drafted, and hadn’t progressed earlier due to resourcing issues within Audit Wales.