LA-maintained school internal financial audits
Case reference FOI2024/01276
Received 26 July 2024
Published 22 August 2024
Request
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request information held by your council on local authority-maintained school internal financial audits.
Specifically, I would like to be sent:
• The number of schools that haven’t been audited since January 1, 2019
• Of these schools, the name of the school(s) with the longest wait since its last internal audit. I would like you to also state the year in which the school(s) was last audited
• Does the council publish the findings from its audit reports in the public domain? If so, it would be appreciated if you could state whether the council names schools, how they are published and provide me with any relevant links
• The number of council investigations launched on the back of local authority-maintained school internal audit reports, along with information on what the investigation centred on, the year(s) the probe took place and a copy of the investigation report
• Council guidance outlining how often, when and why internal audits are carried out
If any of the information is already in the public domain, please can you direct me to it, with page references and URLs if necessary.
Response
I am writing to you under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to request information held by your council on local authority-maintained school internal financial audits.
Specifically, I would like to be sent:
• The number of schools that haven’t been audited since January 1, 2019
A) The Service Area have advised that 3 individual school audits have taken place since 1 January 2019; 98 schools have not had an individual audit however other thematic reviews in relation to schools have been undertaken since that date (Schools Property Maintenance and Pupil Referral Unit).
Schools’ audits did not take place during the Covid periods 2019/20 and 2020/21 due to additional pressures faced by schools during this time. In 2022/23 a School Governance Audit was distributed to all schools.
In addition to Internal Audit review, schools are required to complete the Schools Financial Value Standard and submit to the Council each year and are also subject to Ofsted inspections.
• Of these schools, the name of the school(s) with the longest wait since its last internal audit. I would like you to also state the year in which the school(s) was last audited
A) The Service Area have advised internal audits would have taken place for the 98 schools before 2019, however we do not hold this information due to our retention policy.
• Does the council publish the findings from its audit reports in the public domain? If so, it would be appreciated if you could state whether the council names schools, how they are published and provide me with any relevant links
A) The Service Area have advised details of the audits completed form part of the annual opinion reports that go to Audit and Governance Committee on a yearly basis (usually around quarter 2/July time).
Individual audit reports are taken to the Committee on a risk-based approach, meaning usually if there are high corporate risks, a no or limited assurance given, or high priority actions agreed. This is not the case for any of the schools audits outlined above.
We publish our Internal Audit Annual Opinion Report on the Herefordshire Council website via the following link: Contents (herefordshire.gov.uk).
As such we consider this information to be exempt under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 because it is reasonably accessible to you via other means. Please take this letter as a refusal notice under S17 of the Act.
• The number of council investigations launched on the back of local authority-maintained school internal audit reports, along with information on what the investigation centred on, the year(s) the probe took place and a copy of the investigation report
A) The Service Area have confirmed no council investigations have been launched on the back of local authority maintained school internal audit reports.
• Council guidance outlining how often, when and why internal audits are carried out
A) The Service Area have advised the Council’s Internal Audit function is delivered by South West Audit Partnership (SWAP). The approach to internal audit planning is outlined in the Internal Audit Planning Report 2024/25 that was taken to Audit and Governance Committee in March earlier this year. Where additional audit risks are identified during the year, audits are added to the Internal Audit Rolling Plan.
The Internal Audit Planning Report 2024/25 is publically available on the Herefordshire Council website via the following link: Contents (herefordshire.gov.uk)
As such we consider this information to be exempt under Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 because it is reasonably accessible to you via other means. Please take this letter as a refusal notice under S17 of the Act.
If any of the information is already in the public domain, please can you direct me to it, with page references and URLs if necessary.
A) Please see responses above.
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
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