Friday 21 February 2025, 10am
Board Room, University Street, Belfast
Members Present:
Dorinnia Carville, Chair (C&AG)
Rodney Allen (COO) – left the meeting at agenda item 8
Patrick Barr (Director)
Suzanne Jones (Director) – online via Teams
Colette Kane (Director)
Brian O’Neill (Director)
Seamus Wade (Director) – online via Teams
Tomas Wilkinson (Director) – joined the meeting at agenda item 4
In Attendance:
Jill Aicken (Head of People and OD) – online via Teams agenda item 2 and 3.2
Louise Halligan (Secretariat Support)
Suzanne Murphy (Audit Manager) – online via Teams – agenda item 1
Apologies
No apologies were received.
The C&AG thanked everyone for accommodating the rescheduling of the meeting from Monday 17 February 2025.
Declaration of Conflicts of Interest
There were no conflicts declared by members.
Minutes of previous meeting
Minutes of the previous meeting held on 20 January 2025 were agreed.
Corporate Management Team (CMT) Briefing
Suzanne Murphy provided an update on the following key areas discussed at the CMT meeting on 6 February 2025:
- Trainee Forum – There was agreement that trainees shouldn’t be expected to attend in-office training during approved study leave;
- Resourcing – Discussion surrounding the distribution of the portfolio of work following a recent staff departure;
- Trainee Forum – There was agreement that trainees shouldn’t be expected to attend in-office training during approved study leave;
- Further consideration regarding job titles will be on the agenda for the March CMT meeting;
- An update to staff on progress made by ORT is to be arranged; and
- Discussion surrounding the opinions of CMT members relating to core working hours.
Members thanked Suzanne for the comprehensive update provided and checked with Suzanne on any necessary feedback from SLT at this point.
People and OD
2.1 People and OD Monthly Report
Jill Aicken presented a report, highlighting the following key areas:
- Recruitment - A competition for three management roles, the Head of Corporate Affairs, Head of Corporate Services and Head of Quality and Innovation will commence next week with a closing date of 21 March 2025.
- Employee Opinion Survey – A final report on the findings is imminent and will be shared with SLT when available. A meeting will be scheduled with ‘AAB People’ who conducted the Survey in the coming weeks.
- Health and Wellbeing – A procurement exercise to provide health assessments for staff is underway with bids being sought from various providers. The assessments hope to be available to staff by the end of March 2025.
- Diversity Mark – The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Committee have appointed a Chair and members have been allocated responsibilities for actions to progress the accreditation process.
Strategic Projects
3.1 Accommodation Project
Further issues have arisen with the Office heating/cooling system and Rodney assured members these have been raised with the relevant parties.
Seamus Wade provided a verbal update and advised that the operational resourcing team were scheduled to meet after the SLT meeting today to consider resourcing requirements for public reporting. The C&AG requested that a public reporting timetable be prepared and made available for SLT to review in March for onward consideration by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) at the start of April 2025.
The following key areas were also covered:
- The resourcing of pre summer recess audits;
- Proposals on the reset of portfolios will be reported to SLT in April 2025.
- Strategic Performance
Management Information (MI) Report – Financial Audit and Public Reporting
A combined report providing a breakdown of the costs associated with the 2023-24 financial audits and the costs and the timing for completing public reports was presented.
Members discussed the accuracy of the information contained in the report and the need for staff to regularly update the Custom Fields section in the Administration Tab on Time and Space for all jobs so that up-to-date information is recorded and presented.
After discussion it was agreed that going forward, Audit Managers should liaise with their respective teams to ensure that information is recorded correctly on Time and Space, therefore the monthly report MI Report will be submitted to CMT for review before being presented to SLT. Brian O’Neill agreed to take this forward with CMT.
4.2 Position re Backlog Accounts
Members provided the C&AG with an update on the current position regarding the number of backlog audits, advising the reasons for any backlog and upcoming target certification dates. The C&AG welcomed the positive position to date.
4.3 SLT Terms of Reference (ToR)
A revised ToR providing additional information relating to the interaction/relationship between SLT and CMT was presented with tracked changes highlighted. Members endorsed the ToR presented for onward progression to the Advisory Board on 24 February 2025.
Quality Report
5.1 Technical Team Update
Suzanne Jones provided an update on the following key areas:
Audit Quality
The QCR reviews by ICAEW are in the final review stages. The teams have responded to queries raised and the reviewers are conducting their own internal review before producing their findings. A final summary report of findings is expected by the end of March 2025.
It was agreed that going forward a streamlined report focussing on quality would be presented to SLT.
Financial Management
6.1 Corporate Services Report
Members noted the report presented by Brian O’Neill.
It was noted that SLT had endorsed the updated Financial Guidance Manual at a previous non-minuted meeting, all agreed this should now be issued to staff.
- Corporate Governance
- Business Support Services Report
A report to update members on Complaints, Procurement, Legal Advice, Information Management, Governance and Assembly Liaison was presented. No significant issues were raised.
Communications and Engagement
8.1 Communications and Engagement Report
Members noted the paper presented with no significant issues raised.
8.2 Handling Correspondence Quarterly Update
A report to update SLT on the current position regarding MLA Correspondence and Raising Concerns cases was presented. Members were reminded that following the approval of the proposal to remove hard copy Raising Concerns files, the Counter Fraud Unit (CFU) has requested that all open (and recently closed) hard copy case files are returned to CFU for shredding.
9. Risk Management
9.1 Corporate Risk Register (CRR)
The Corporate Risk Register was presented by Colette Kane. Members were advised that only minor changes had been made since the last meeting. Changes were highlighted in red for members’ convenience.
The Corporate Risk Register Working Group (CRRWG) met on 5 February 2025 to review of the Corporate Risk Register. SLT were advised the following steps would be initiated by CRRWG to take this forward:
Outline a project plan.
Some initial risk identification.
Obtain Corporate Risk Registers from other audit agencies;
Carry out a survey of staff on the topic of risk; and
Liaise with internal audit to see if there are any suggested good practices we could adopt.
A draft of the revised Corporate Risk Register will be brought to SLT for initial discussion, this will then be followed by a workshop with members of SLT and the Advisory Board. A timeline for this will be presented to SLT when available.
The C&AG requested that consideration be given by the CRRWG to any potential risks associated with the appointment of a new Local Government Auditor at the end of 2025.
10. Papers noted:
10.1 ARAC draft minutes – meeting held 27 January 2025
10.2 Advisory Board agenda – meeting scheduled 24 February 2025
11. Matters for Escalation to Advisory Board, ARAC, RemCom
- Next meeting dates:
Advisory Board – 24 February 2025
ARAC – 28 May 2025
AOB
No AOB to note.
13. Date of next meeting
The next meeting will be held on 18 March 2025.