The Audit Plan – template user guide - Browse forward plans
Contents
1. Grant Thornton Audit and Governance Committee Update for the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames Year ended 31 March 2015 June 2015 Paul Grady irector T 020 7728 2301 E Paul D Grady uk gt com Chris Long anager T 020 7728 3295 E Chris Long uk gt com Will King X CUTIVE T 0207728 2819 E Will D King uk gt com The contents of this report relate only to the matters which have come to our attention which we believe need to be reported to you as part of our audit process It is not a comprehensive record of all the relevant matters which may be subject to change and in particular we cannot be held responsible to you for reporting all of the risks which may affect your business or any weaknesses in your internal controls This report has been prepared solely for your benefit and should not be quoted in whole or in part without our prior written consent We do not accept any responsibility for any loss occasioned to any third party acting or refraining from acting on the basis of the content of this report as this report was not prepared for nor intended for any other purpose Contents Section Introduction Progress at 2 June 2015 Emerging issues and developments Grant Thornton Local government issues Accounting and audit issues Page 10 11 2015 Grant Thornton UK LLP Audit and Governance Committee Update for the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames June 2015 Introduction This pape2. ensure that their core objectives and values are fulfilled through Many other agencies This implies a greater role for scrutiny and a need to make sure local public sector Bodies arrangements are a transparent as possible for stakeholders Hard copies of our report are available from your Engagement Lead or Audit Manager 2015 Grant Thornton UK LLP Audit and Governance Committee Update for the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames June 2015 Easing the burden the impact of welfare reform on local government Grant Thornton Our second report into welfare reform looks at how local welfare reform has developed over the last two years from the local authority and social housing point of view It includes a look at some of the innovative good practice that local authorities are using to address it The report is available at http Awww grant thornton co uk en Publications 2015 Easing the Burden Our report is concerned with e the impact of reform on the strategy finances and administration of local authorities and their partners including housing associations e the impact on welfare recipients to the extent that this has direct consequences for local authorities and housing associations e what the future might hold Our findings are based on a survey of 75 local authorities including the Royal Borough of Kingston and housing organisations as well as more detailed discussion with some of the key officers at these organi
3. the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames June 2015 Progress at 2 June 2015 Work Planned date Complete Comments 2014 15 Accounts Audit Plan April 2015 Yes We issued our audit plan to the previous Audit and We are required to issue a detailed accounts audit Governance Committee in April 2015 plan to you setting out our proposed approach in order to give an opinion on your 2014 15 financial statements Interim accounts audit January 2015 and Yes Our interim accounts audit has been completed Our interim fieldwork visit includes March 2015 successfully Details were included in our audit plan e updating our review of your control environment issued to the April 2015 Audit and Governance e updating our understanding of financial systems Committee e review of Internal Audit reports on core financial systems e early work on emerging accounting issues e early substantive testing e proposed Value for Money conclusion 2014 15 final accounts audit July August No We anticipate receiving your draft financial Including 2015 statements in late June Our final accounts audit will e audit of your 2014 15 financial statements commence in early July e proposed opinion on your accounts e proposed Value for Money conclusion 2015 Grant Thornton UK LLP Audit and Governance Committee Update for the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames June 2015 Progress at 2 June 2015 Work Planned date Complete Comments Value for Money
4. VfM conclusion March In progress Weare currently carrying out our value for money The scope of our work to inform the 2014 15 VfM september 2015 review conclusion comprises The current key messages are e Review of your current financial performance e We will consider your 2014 15 financial e Review of your 2015 16 budget setting and financial performance upon receipt of the draft financial planning statements in late June e Review of your saving plans through Our Kingston e You have set a balanced budget for 2015 16 onwards however there remain significant e Impact of the hold on the Thames Agreement savings to be found in the following years e Review of arrangements over Achieving for Children 9 9 e You are developing your plans for the Our e Review of arrangements where you require different Kingston programme and we will review the ways of working progress made later in the year Update of progress implementing the improvement e OFSTED are currently carrying out an inspection plan following the 2013 OFSTED findings of your children s services We will consider the outcomes arising once their report is published 2015 Grant Thornton UK LLP Audit and Governance Committee Update for the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames June 2015 All Aboard Local Government Governance Review 2015 Grant Thornton Our fourth annual review of local government governance is available at http www grant thornton co uk en Pub
5. all authorities include An independent review of the functions and sustainability of local government in advance of the next spending review e Freedom to set council tax and council tax discounts and full retention of business rates and business rates growth Multi year financial settlements e The ability to raise additional revenue through the relaxation of the rules on fees and charges Pioneer authorities would also implement e Single placed based budgets for all public services Management of funding equalisation across a sub national area e Further council tax reforms including the ability to vary council tax bands and undertake revaluations e Newly assigned and new taxes such as stamp duty airport taxes and tourism taxes e The establishment of Local Public Accounts Committees to oversee value for money across the placed base budget Challenge question Have members been briefed on the key findings of the Independent Commission s final report 2015 Grant Thornton UK LLP Audit and Governance Committee Update for the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames June 2015 10 Earlier closure and audit of accounts Accounting and audit issues Legislation was recently passed to bring forward the deadlines for the preparation and audit of Local Government financial statements from 2017 18 onwards The timeframes for the preparation of the financial statements and their subsequent audit will be reduced by one month and two mon
6. chieved and will share our findings in a national report expected in early 2016 2015 Grant Thornton UK LLP Audit and Governance Committee Update for the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames June 2015 11 Grant Thornton 2015 Grant Thornton UK LLP All rights reserved Grant Thornton means Grant Thornton UK LLP a limited liability partnership Grant Thornton is a member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd Grant Thornton International References to Grant Thornton are to the brand under which the Grant Thornton member firms operate and refer to one or more member firms as the context requires Grant Thornton International and the member firms are not a worldwide partnership Services are delivered independently by member firms which are not responsible for the services or activities of one another Grant Thornton International does not provide services to clients grant thornton co uk
7. eive internal audit reports and 15 per cent do not have specific internal audit coverage and nearly half of funds have no information around the value of their liabilities in between the triennial valuations Hard copies of our report are available from your Engagement Lead or Audit Manager 2015 Grant Thornton UK LLP Audit and Governance Committee Update for the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames June 2015 Independent Commission into Local Government Finance Local government issues The Independent Commission on Local Government Finance was established in 2014 to examine the system of funding local government in England and bring forward recommendations on how it can be reformed to improve funding for local services and promote sustainable economic growth It published its final report Financing English Devolution on 18 February 2015 The report notes that the core of the Commission s proposition is the devolution of powers funding and taxes to sub national entities over a 10 year period They estimate that this could lead to over 200 billion in public expenditure being controlled at a sub national level The expectation is that councils and their partners would work collaboratively to manage differences in capacity and resources They see local areas becoming self sufficient The Commission advocates a variable speed approach to reform with Pioneers able to and wishing to reform at a faster pace Reforms advocated for
8. lications 2015 Local Government Governance review 2015 All aboard1 We note that the challenges faced by local authorities are intensifying as austerity and funding reductions combine with demographic pressures and technological changes to create a potential threat to the long term sustainability to some organisations Maintaining effective governance is becoming ever more complex and increasingly important Against this background we have focused this year s review on three key areas GrantThornton A n instinct for growth Governance of the organisation the main area of concern highlighted in this year s governance survey Is the level of dissatisfaction with the scrutiny process All aboard Governance in working with others there is an urgent need for scrutiny to exercise good governance over the complex array of partnerships in which local authorities are now involved Boundary issues notwithstanding by shining a light on contracted out activities and joint operations or ventures scrutiny committees can bring a new level of transparency and accountability to these areas Governance of stakeholder relations despite the work that a number of local authorities are doing with the public on co production almost a third of respondents to our survey did not think their organisation actively involves service users in designing the future scope and delivery of its services We conclude that local authorities need to
9. r provides you with a report on progress in delivering our responsibilities as your external auditors The paper also includes a summary of emerging national issues and developments that may be relevant to you and a number of challenge questions in respect of these emerging issues which you may wish to consider You can find further useful material on our website www grant thornton co uk where we have a section dedicated to our work in the public sector htip www grant thornton co uk en Services Public Sector Here you can download copies of our publications including All aboard our local government governance review 2015 Stronger futures development of the local government pension scheme Rising to the challenge the evolution of local government summary findings from our fourth year of financial health checks of English local authorities 2020 Vision exploring finance and policy future for English local government Where growth happens on the nature of growth and dynamism across England If you would like further information on any items in this briefing or would like to register with Grant Thornton to receive regular email updates on issues that are of interest to you please contact either your Engagement Lead or Audit Manager Paul Grady Engagement Lead T 020 7728 2301 Paul D Grady uk git com Chris Long Audit Manager T 020 7728 3295 Chris Long uk gt com 2015 Grant Thornton UK LLP Audit and Governance Committee Update for
10. s and is available at htip Awww grant thornton co uk Publications 2015 Stronger futures development of the LGPS With the local government pensions scheme LGPS continuing to face significant change and challenge there is a clear commitment to ensuring its survival and the provision of affordable pension benefits for the future Following the implementation of a career average pension scheme in 2014 administering authorities are preparing for significant changes in governance arrangements effective from April 2015 some of the key messages from the report are Grant Thornton Stronger futures there are increasing strong examples of innovation and increased collaborative working across the LGPS to achieve reduced costs and improved use of specialist skills and knowledge implementation of the career average scheme from April 2014 went well and demonstrated good project management and effective communication with members and employers and there have been several other positive trends across the LGPS since our 2013 review particularly around the widening scope of reporting to Pension Committees including performance reporting risk management and internal audit reviews However we saw a wide variation in practice including a concentration of risk reporting on investment risk over half of funds have not implemented the CIPFA knowledge and skills framework as part of their member training 45 per cent of Pension Committees do not rec
11. sations Key findings include e reduction to discretionary housing payments would have significant financial implications for local iP Genii authorities diisi e the proposed withdrawing of ring fenced funding for local hardship schemes in 2016 will also Easing the burden contribute to the financial pressures on local authorities ee e there is a danger that reduced funding for welfare will undermine the capacity of local authorities to pursue some of the more efficient methods of delivering welfare such as early intervention strategies e however in the face of reduced funding welfare reform has been a key driver for innovation and improvement Q e policies to reduce benefit dependency coupled with a growing economy and better joint working A between different agencies have already mitigated some of the impact This could support the argument that a further devolution of powers to local government for welfare administration could be the key to a sustainable future Hard copies of our report are available from your Engagement Lead or Audit Manager 2015 Grant Thornton UK LLP Audit and Governance Committee Update for the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames June 2015 Stronger futures development of the LGPS Grant Thornton Our second review on governance in LGPS funds in England and Wales is based on comprehensive research with pension fund senior officers supported by insights from pension fund auditor
12. ths respectively as follows e Deadline for preparation of financial statements 31 May currently 30 June e Deadline for audit completion 31 July currently 30 September Although July 2018 is over 3 years away both local authorities and their auditors will have to make real changes in how they work to ensure they are match fit to achieve this deadline This will require leadership from members and senior management Local government accountants and their auditors should start working on this now Top tips for local authorities e make preparation of the draft accounts and your audit a priority investing appropriate resources to make it happen e make the year end as close to normal as possible by carrying out key steps each and every month e discuss potential issues openly with auditors as they arise throughout the year e agree key milestones deadlines and response times with your auditor e agree exactly what working papers are required Auditors are already working on bringing forward more testing to before the financial statements are prepared and will be discussing further changes with local authorities including greater use of estimates in the accounts which will enable the audits to be brought forward further Some authorities currently produce their financial statements ahead of the current deadline or have plans to do so in 2014 15 and some audits are completed before 31 July We will be assessing how this has been a
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search