Agenda item

Isle of Anglesey County Council - Annual Audit Summary 2020

To present the report of External Audit.

Minutes:

The Annual Audit Summary report for 2020 for the Isle of Anglesey County by Audit Wales was presented for the Committee’s consideration. The report shows the audit work completed since the last Annual Improvement Report issued in July, 2019 which it replaces and references pieces of work relating specifically to the Council including reports issued by other Inspectorates as well as national studies and inspections.

 

In presenting the Audit Summary Mr Alan Hughes, Audit Wales confirmed that the report provides a synopsis of the year’s audit work at the Council and nationally and its outcome, and that there are no new issues or concerns to report arising therefrom.

 

In considering the report the following points were raised by the Committee –

 

           The projected demographic changes on Anglesey highlighted in the key facts section of the summary report and their implications for service planning. The Committee noted that the Island’s population is projected to decrease by 0.6% between 2020 and 2040 from 69,896 to 69,499, including a 10.5% decrease in the number of children, an 8.3% decrease in the number of the working-age population and a 22.7% increase in the number of people aged 65 and over.

 

The Director of Function (Resources)/Section 151 Officer in acknowledging the point said that changes in demography influence the amount of funding the Council receives from Welsh Government through the funding formula since population characteristics are a factor in how funding is distributed among local authorities. In recent years the more rural councils to the North and West of Wales have fared less well than councils in the South in relation to the funding formula due mainly to demographic changes which have seen an increasing proportion of the working age population moving to larger urban centres. Consequently this drift has implications for those council areas which have experienced a fall in the working population as this is then reflected in the amount of money they receive as part of the Revenue Support Grant. In the long term the decrease in funding as a result of population changes can lead to problems as those councils who lose out have to make up the shortfall either by cutting services or by raising taxes so demographic changes have implications for the Council’s budget as well as for service planning.

 

           The delays in certifying Housing benefits claims. The Committee further noted that the auditors highlight that the volume of errors identified is higher than they would have expected and are recurrent thereby raising concerns about quality control arrangements and the basis for identifying and addressing the training needs of staff working in this area. The Committee enquired about progress in bringing the position up to date and also sought assurance with regard to the training and quality arrangements issues raised.

 

The Director of Function (Resources/Section 151 Officer advised that Audit Wales has completed its work on the 2017/18 Housing Benefit grant subsidy claim and the audit letter to be forwarded to the Department of Works and Pension in order for the subsidy to be released has been agreed and finalised. The substantive testing work on the 2018/19 and 2019/20 subsidy claims is ongoing with the objective being to complete the work and issue the audit letter for the 2018/19 subsidy claim by the end of March, 2021 and by the end of May, 2021 for the 2019/20 subsidy claim. If this timeline is achieved work can then focus on completing the 2020/21 subsidy claim by November, 2021 which is the customary schedule. The Officer added that the situation is much improved and progress has been made; the Authority’s staff in this area and the auditors have developed a good mutual understanding of what is required and what needs to be done to get there. He was therefore confident that the situation will have been brought up to date in the next three months and that the outstanding subsidies amounting to approximately  £5m can be released back to the Authority by the DWP.

 

In respect of quality control and training issues, these are not able to be remediated until the work on all three years of subsidy claims has been completed as this will show whether errors are one off mistakes within a single year or whether they are part of a recurring pattern and could therefore be indicative of fundamental weaknesses that need to be addressed by a programme of training. The DWP expects the Authority to quality assess the claims process; also the Service’s Performance Team focuses attention on any issues arising from the subsidy to ensure that subsidy related problems are dealt with going forwards.

 

Mr Alan Hughes in reaffirming the timeline for the expected completion of the Housing Benefit grant subsidy audit work agreed that any recurrent errors suggest the need for training; however because of the time lapse between the end of the financial year and when the audit work is undertaken – around November, the same errors are likely to reoccur until such time as training  to rectify those errors is implemented – it is therefore possible that the same errors will be identified by the audit of the 2020/21 Housing Benefit grant subsidy claim.  

 

It was resolved to accept the Annual Audit Summary report for 2020 and to note the contents.

 

NO PROPOSAL FOR ADDITIONAL ACTION WAS MADE.

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