This meeting was scheduled to receive reports on a wide range of audit, governance, standards, risk and financial matters. It was also scheduled to receive verbal updates from representatives of Feckenham Parish Council¹ on standards issues relevant to parish councils.

External Audit

The most significant item on the agenda was scheduled to be a report on the external audit of the council's accounts for the financial years 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23. The report, prepared by the council's Interim Head of Finance & Customer Services, Debra Goodall, explained that due to the UK Government's imposition of a backstop date² for the completion of local authority audits, the accounts for these years were likely to receive a disclaimer of opinion from the external auditors, Grant Thornton. A disclaimer of opinion means that the auditors were unable to form an opinion on the accounts, due to a lack of sufficient time to complete their work. The report pack explains that a disclaimer due to the backstop does not of itself indicate a local authority failing.

The report pack includes draft Disclaimer of Opinion reports from Grant Thornton for each of the three years, as well as a letter to the council explaining the application of the backstop.

Financial Compliance

The meeting was scheduled to consider a Financial Compliance report providing an update on the council's compliance with various legislative reporting requirements. The report noted that the council was compliant with all key returns, such as the Capital Payments & Receipts return, the Non-Domestic Rates Forecast, and the Council Tax & NDR Collection return.

The report explained that two key returns had not been delivered: the Revenue and Capital Outturn forms for 2021/22, and VAT returns. It explained that the council's tax advisors, PS Tax, had been working with HMRC to resolve the issues with the VAT returns and that a deadline of January 2025 had been set to resolve the issue in order to be eligible to claim back the money owed to the council.

The report also provided an update on the submission of the council's accounts. It stated that draft accounts for the financial years 2020/21 and 2021/22 had been produced and were available for public inspection on the council's website. It also stated that draft accounts for 2022/23 would be published on 2 December 2024, meaning that they would only have 11 days, rather than the required 30, for public inspection before the 13 December backstop date.

The report also discussed the appointment of the council's new external auditors, Ernst and Young, following the resignation of Bishop Fleming.

Internal Audit

The meeting was also scheduled to receive a report from Chris Green, the Head of the Worcestershire Internal Audit Shared Service (WIASS) on the progress of internal audit work during the 2024/25 financial year.

The report explained that 181 productive days of audit work had been delivered against a plan of 328 days. It stated that, following recruitment to fill vacancies in the WIASS team, there were now adequate resources in place to deliver the Internal Audit Plan.

The report listed each of the audits that are planned for 2024/25, their current status and the planned reporting dates. It also provided a summary of the findings of the audits that had been completed. In particular it provided an update on a review of Procurement and Contract Management. The meeting report pack includes a full copy of the final report on this audit which returned a 'Limited Assurance' rating. It found that the councils are largely compliant with errors limited to specific service or process areas.

There are ongoing improvements among services, led by the procurement service, to ensure compliance with the procurement rules, this however has not yet been fully achieved. The process started in April 2023 and has been ongoing for 18 months at the time of the audit. Procurements have continued with the expectation that services will work towards being fully compliant, however service areas such as Garages and Environmental Services improvements have not yet reached fruition. No deadline or end date has been set by management.

Risk Management

The meeting was scheduled to be provided with a report on the status of the council's Corporate and Departmental risks, prepared by Peter Carpenter, the council's Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive.

The report explained that the Council had procured the 4Risk system for logging and mitigating risks. It stated that since the initial baseline of risks in April 2022, the number of departmental risks had fallen from 119 to 47, while the number of corporate risks had risen from 9 to 25.

The report explained that a new process for escalating departmental risks to the corporate risk register had been adopted by the council.

For a Risk to move from being Departmental in nature to being Corporate in nature that it must have significant impact on Councils finances, be cross departmental in nature and/or result in Serious reputational damage. The Officer Risk Board will vet departmental risks using this definition to move them to Corporate Risks at their quarterly meetings.

The report listed the council's 25 corporate risks, and provided detail on each of the risks, and how they are being mitigated. The highest priority corporate risks were identified as:

• Non-Compliance with Health and Safety Legislation
• Protection from Cyber Attack
• Non-Adherence with Statutory Inspection Policy
• Financial Position Rectification
• Delivery of Towns Fund, UKSPF Initiatives
• Cost of Living Crisis
• New Customer Facing Interface
• Environment Bill

The report also listed each of the council's 47 departmental risks, and included information about their risk level, and how they linked to the corporate risks. The one Red rated departmental risk was:

• Revenues – Data Compliance

Financial Savings Monitoring

Finally, the meeting was scheduled to be given a report by Debra Goodall on the progress made on the council's 2024/25 savings programme.

The report explained that two savings options from the 2023/24 budget, which related to future years, were still being monitored, and that progress on these would be noted:

• The Capacity Grid project which was recouping historic council tax and business rates debt
• The Service Review which related to staff vacancies and the use of agency staff

The report also highlighted several savings options from the 2024/25 budget, which require careful tracking:

• Filling the vacant office space at the Town Hall
• Delivering a 7% increase in fees and charges
• Achieving the planned increases in planning income
• Establishing a new partnership with Worcestershire County Council for environmental services

The report explained that one savings target, Finance Vacancies, which sought to reduce reliance on agency staff, would not be achieved.