Meeting of the Audit and Risk Committee
A meeting of the Audit and Risk Committee was held on Wednesday 11 December 2013 at
10:30 am in the Boardroom, The Optima, Glasgow.
1.
Apologies/welcome*
Present:
Moi Ali
Alan Armstrong
Laura Burman
Morag Campsie (External Auditor)
Alastair Delaney
Kate Dunlop (Chair)
Les Henderson (Internal Auditor)
Gillian Howells
Bill Maxwell
Laura Nelson (External Auditor)
Iain Nisbet
Linn Phipps
Linda Rae
Gayle Reilly
Stuart Robinson
Apologies:
Alasdair Craik (External Auditor)
Jennifer Inglis-Jones
Craig Munro
Kate opened the meeting by welcoming Laura Nelson, External Auditor to her first
meeting of the Audit and Risk Committee.
2.
Minute of previous meeting and action log*: 17 September 2013
Noted 1: The minute of the previous meeting was approved.
Noted 2: The actions from the previous meeting are now complete.
3.
Matters arising*
Noted 1: Linn asked if it would be possible to have an update on how the corporate
governance arrangements are working. Les explained that there will be an
annual report from internal audit.
Action:
It was agreed that an update on the review Corporate Governance
should be provide within the next six months.
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Wednesday 11 December 2013
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4.
Declarations of interest*
Noted 1: No changes to the current declarations were made. However, there was
discussion regarding what should be included in the declarations of interest.
Les confirmed that he was happy to look into this and let members know.
Action:
Les Henderson to look at what should be declared on the declarations
of interest register.
Items for discussion
5.
Internal Audit*
5.1
Progress report on Annual Governance review 2012/13
Noted 1: The second progress report on implementation of recommendations was
shared with the committee and members were asked to note that positive
progress had been made. The following comments were noted:
 Recommendation No. 3 – Policies and Procedures: Management Board
to sign off policies following CMG sign off.
 Recommendation No. 5 – The Business Plan has been published on the
website.
 Recommendation No. 6 – The performance measures will be ready by
March 2014.
 Recommendation No. 8 – Corporate risk register. Linn asked about the
effectiveness of the risk register and processes in place for monitoring
risk.
 ICT Strategy completion date now March 2014.
It was suggested that a Governance framework needs to be in place to
show how policies and risks are placed and managed. Once this is done it
should be brought to the Audit and Risk committee.
Action:
A governance framework to be presented to the committee in
June. Stuart and Laura to take this forward.
5.2
Progress report on Audit Plan 2013/14
Noted 1: Les provided the committee with a verbal update on the audit plan for
2013/14. The audits which are planned are (i) IT and Glow, (ii) the process
for policy advice and (iii) Annual Governance. The first two will begin in
January and the third will start in February. Les said that he will be able to
provide an update on these audits at the February meeting. Reports for (i)
and (ii) will be written and (iii) will be verbal.
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Noted 2: There was discussion regarding whether members should see the final
reports. It was agreed that reports could be shared with the committee
members if they are ‘red’. The committee would see the full report if
something is not consistently improving.
Action:
Agreed scope of terms of Reference to be shared with audit and risk
members.
6.
External Audit*
Noted 1: Kate expressed her thanks to Morag Campsie as this was her last meeting.
Noted 2: Morag thanked the Chair and said that she had enjoyed her time working
with Education Scotland and introduced the committee to her replacement,
Laura Nelson.
Noted 3: Morag explained that the audit plan will be published for the next committee
meeting.
Noted 4: External Audit have started a performance audit in Best Value in Children’s
Education. They are working with four local authorities and liaising with
Joan Mackay and Claire Lamont at Education Scotland. Emerging issues
will be available in late January with a final report available in May. Morag
suggested that someone could come along to Audit and Risk to discuss the
outcomes.
Noted 5: Morag and Stuart have gone through last year’s audit and noted progress
had been made on all items.
Action:
Performance Audit colleagues to be invited to a future meeting to
report on best value and children education audit.
7.
Corporate Risk*
Noted 1: Stephen provided the Committee with an updated corporate risk register.
The following was noted:
 A Risk Management Group has been established to oversee progress
and practice.
 CMG will review the corporate risk register at strategic level.
 Risk 1 – Finances: this risk will need to be carefully managed given a
possible overspend.
 Linn suggested that it would be helpful to have some indication of the
direction of each risk. She further suggested the use of a tool for
interrogating a risk and said that she would be happy to discuss this
further if it would be helpful.
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7.1
Update on Glow
Noted 1: Stephen provided the Committee with a verbal update on the progress that
had been made with Glow. On Monday 9 December the extension contract
with RM was signed. Kate acknowledged the successful work leading to a
significant milestone.
8.
Audit and Risk Committee self-appraisal
Noted 1: Kate informed the Committee that a self-appraisal checklist had been
brought for discussion following the last meeting where there had been
discussion on evaluation of the performance of the Committee.
Noted 2: Moi thought this was a helpful checklist and made suggestions on some
sections.
Noted 3: There was discussion on how the checklist should be completed, either
individually or as a group. It was decided that it would be best completed as
a group with a facilitator at a separate meeting in June.
Action:
A meeting to be arranged with the Non-Executive Directors and a
facilitator to complete the self-evaluation checklist in June.
9.
Performance report
Noted 1: The Committee discussed the corporate performance report for November.
This is an interim report looking at the RAG status for all projects.
Noted 2: Kate asked how this could be improved regarding dates and RAG status.
There was concern about the number of projects, ie how can we be
assured that all of these projects are managed in a timely and effective way.
Noted 3: Linn asked about what did we mean by ‘Green’ as no commentary has been
provided. She asked what sits beneath these as no assurance was given.
Noted 4: Stuart advised that this report is a mixture of business as usual and
transformational change projects. The business planning tool (BPT) is used
for managing projects.
Noted 5: It was noted that a lot of the ‘amber’ RAG status’ were around resource
issues. There was discussion regarding the employment of secondees and
the possible impact that difficulties in this area may have. It was felt that the
commentary read quite negatively.
Noted 6: Linn is seeking assurance for overall management of budgets, rather than
the management of specific budgets.
Action:
Stuart asked the committee to provide him with any comments on the
performance report by email.
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10.
Improving learning and engagement for young offenders
Noted 1: Alan presented a paper on improving learning and engagement for young
offenders. This is a joint project between Education Scotland and the
Scottish Prison Service which aims to establish a curriculum and learning
environment at Polmont Young Offenders Institution.
Noted 2: Moi suggested that it would be helpful for the committee to learn about such
projects in greater depth, perhaps in appropriate locations.
Action:
The Agenda for the December meeting should include a in-depth look
at one area of the business.
Items for noting
11.
Finance report
Noted 1: Gillian provided the committee with an update on finances. The following
was noted:
 There is a projected £1.8m overspend as at October 2013 but this has
dropped slightly.
 There are a number of pieces of work which Scottish Government asked
us to take forward and have now asked us to absorb as much of the
costs as possible.
 Gillian and Stuart will be meeting with the Directors to help support them
to manage their projects. There should be a robust budget view after
this.
 Some of the underspend stems from the IT costs. We are in the final
phase of the move to one corporate platform and this should be
complete by the end of March 2014.
 Payment performance is increasing but still aiming for 100%.
12.
Publications
12.1
Corporate Plan
Noted 1: The Corporate Plan was launched at the Scottish Learning Festival in
September. It is being used widely with our stakeholders and has been well
received.
12.2
Annual Review
Noted 1: This review has moved away from the traditional form. Bill thanked the
committee for their comments received whilst the report was being drafted.
Noted 2: It was suggested that the review could take more account of diversity
issues. There was also discussion about the lack of impact reporting in the
review.
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13.
Any other business*
13.1
Buddying
Noted 1: A question was asked regarding arrangements place for buddying.
Action:
Linda to look at the buddying arrangements for Moi and Iain.
13.2
PISA results
Noted 1: Kate asked Bill if he could provide the committee with an update on the
PISA results. He informed the committee that there had been slight gains,
and that the results were broadly encouraging.
14.
Date of next meeting*
The next meeting is scheduled to take place on Friday 21 February 2014 at 10.30 am,
Livingston.
Kate thanked the Committee and wished them a Merry Christmas and happy New Year.
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