The Health & Social Care Integration Joint Board Audit Committee met on 8 September 2025, where they reviewed and approved the external annual audit report and the IJB's audited annual accounts for 2024/25, recommending them for board approval. The committee also discussed recent audit reports of interest and reviewed actions arising from the previous meeting.

IJB Audited Annual Accounts 2024/25

The committee reviewed and approved the IJB's audited annual accounts for 2024/25, recommending them to the IJB board for approval. The report highlighted that the external audit confirmed an unqualified audit opinion, with no material changes required to the accounts.

The key points from the financial outturn for 2024/25 included:

• An overspend of £5.1 million in healthcare delegated services, which is a slight increase from the £4.5 million overspend in the previous year. This was attributed to high-cost individual learning disabilities placements, prescribing pressures, and undelivered financial savings in NHS Borders.
• An underspend of £1.4 million was returned to Scottish Borders Council, mainly due to lower than anticipated care costs and staff vacancies.
• The set-aside overspend increased from £3.6 million to £7.1 million because high service demand required significant supplementary staffing.
• Reserves increased by £2.2 million over the year, from £6.8 million to £9.1 million, as funding allocations were reserved for future use.

The report also noted that with the role of Chief Officer currently vacant, the Local Authority Accounts (Scotland) Regulations 2014 dictate that those parts of the accounts required to be signed by the Chief Officer are to be signed by such other person as the IJB nominates for that purpose.

External Annual Audit Report

The committee reviewed the draft annual audit report for 2024/25 from Audit Scotland¹, which was presented by John Boyd from Audit Scotland, and approved it. The report highlighted that an unqualified audit opinion had been provided, with no material changes required to accounts.

The key messages from the audit included:

• The annual accounts are free from material misstatement.
• There were no significant findings or key audit matters to report.
• The IJB has effective and appropriate arrangements in place for financial management, financial sustainability, vision, leadership and governance, and use of resources to improve outcomes.
• The IJB should work with its strategic partners to develop a strategic financial and operational plan to deliver health and social care services in a financially sustainable way, incorporating scenario plans around service levels, financial assumptions and funding levels.
• The IJB needs to carry out an annual assessment of how Best Value² is delivered and introduce an overarching strategy for achieving Best Value.

The report included one new recommendation and carried forward three recommendations from previous years.

Matters Arising

The committee reviewed the action tracker³ from the previous meeting. Actions 2025-1, 2025-2 and 2025-3, regarding the Accounts Commission Report Integration Joint Boards Financial Bulletin 2023/24, were discussed, and it was agreed that Jill Stacey, Chief Internal Auditor, and Lizzie Turner, Interim Chief Financial Officer, would discuss further what representation is required, local or national officers, and that this would be added as an agenda item for the next meeting of the IJB Audit committee. Actions 2025-4 and 2025-5 were marked as complete.

Audit Scotland – Recent Audit Reports of Interest

The committee noted recent audit reports of interest from Audit Scotland.