Appendix-2009-150 Audit Committee Mins 260509

Iris Bishop

Description

Appendix-2009-150 Borders NHS Board thMinutes of a Meeting of Borders NHS Board Audit Committee held on Tuesday, 26 May 2009 at 2.30 p.m. in the Committee Room, BGH. Present: Mrs J Edey (Chair) Mr A Lucas Mrs D Steele In Attendance: Mrs M Wilson Mr R Kemp R Pearson Mrs S Swan C Gillie Mr D WoodsM Campbell-Smith Mr M Ferguson Mrs B Everitt 1. Apologies and Announcements Julia Edey welcomed those present to the meeting, especially to Doreen Steele who will replace Geraldine Strickland on the Committee. Apologies were received from Mr J Glennie, Mr G O’Brien and Mr C Revie. 2. Minutes of Previous Meeting: 30 March 2009 Martin Campbell-Smith asked for a minor change to item 8 (Progress Report). The minutes also to be forwarded to Alison Ferahi for comment. The minutes were noted and would come back to the next meeting if any changes were notified by Alison. 3. Matters Arising • Fraud Awareness Day – 16 March 2009 Julia Edey asked when feedback from the staff questionnaires was expected. The timing of this was not known at present. • Action Tracker Julia Edey advised that item 10 (Interim Management Letter 2008/09) was now complete. Robbie Pearson referred to item 14 (Information Governance Annual Report 2007/08) where he suggested that this be a substantive item on the agenda at the September meeting. This was agreed. • Bank Staff Update Robert Kemp advised that sentencing of the individual ...

Informations

• Publié par: Thion
• Nombre de lectures: 53
• Langue: English

Extrait

Appendix-2009-150

1

Borders NHS Board

Minutes of a Meeting of

Borders

NHS Board Audit Committee

held on Tuesday, 26

th

May 2009 at

2.30 p.m. in the Committee Room, BGH.

Present

:

Mrs J Edey (Chair)

Mr A Lucas

Mrs D Steele

In Attendance

:

Mrs M Wilson

Mr R Kemp

Mr R Pearson

Mrs S Swan

Mrs C Gillie

Mr D Woods

Mr M Campbell-Smith

Mr M Ferguson

Mrs B Everitt

1.

Apologies and Announcements

Julia Edey welcomed those present to the meeting, especially to Doreen Steele who will replace

Geraldine Strickland on the Committee.

Apologies were received from Mr J Glennie, Mr G O’Brien

and Mr C Revie.

2.

Minutes of Previous Meeting: 30 March 2009

Martin Campbell-Smith asked for a minor change to item 8 (Progress Report).

The minutes also

to be forwarded to Alison Ferahi for comment.

The minutes were noted and would come back to the next meeting if any changes were notified by

Alison.

3.

Matters Arising

•

Fraud Awareness Day – 16 March 2009

Julia Edey asked when feedback from the staff questionnaires was expected.

The timing of

this was not known at present.

•

Action Tracker

Julia Edey advised that item 10 (Interim Management Letter 2008/09) was now complete.

Robbie Pearson referred to item 14 (Information Governance Annual Report 2007/08) where

he suggested that this be a substantive item on the agenda at the September meeting.

This

was agreed.

•

Bank Staff Update

Robert Kemp advised that sentencing of the individual concerned had been deferred as

approximately £1,500 has now been repaid with a further £6,000 expected.

•

Audit Scotland Fee

The Committee noted the fee payable to Audit Scotland in addition to that paid to

PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Appendix-2009-150

2

•

National Fraud Initiative Update

Susan Swan referred to the two outstanding issues discussed at the last meeting.

It was

noted that it had been a timing issue for the three members of staff who did not have a

current visa at the time of the exercise.

In the case of invalid NI numbers this was still being

pursued but this was linked to the issuing of NI numbers by Inland Revenue.

Julia Edey

asked if having a current visa was not part of the pre-employment checks.

Robert Kemp

advised that this would come under Human Resource’s remit and agreed to speak to Louise

Hamilton-Welsh and report back.

4.

Counter Fraud Services

•

CFS Quarterly Report to 31

st

March 2009

Susan Swan advised that there was one new case which is currently being investigated.

The Committee noted the report.

5.

Internal Audit

•

Progress Report

Martin Campbell-Smith advised that the plan for 2008/09, as agreed by the Audit Committee,

was now complete with the exception of one exercise, Board and Senior Committee

Benchmarking, which is currently in its second draft and would be presented at the June

meeting.

It was noted that two exercises from the 2009/10 plan are now complete.

Mary Wilson asked about the timings of the two audits that had been postponed, namely

Staff Governance and Appraisal.

Robert Kemp advised that Louise Hamilton-Welsh had

attended the December meeting and given a comprehensive update.

The postponement of

these audits had also been discussed and it had been agreed that Louise would attend a

future meeting for further update.

Martin Campbell-Smith added that a broad HR audit is

scheduled for later in the year and this would pick up some of these elements.

The Committee noted the report.

•

Executive Summaries Report

Martin Campbell-Smith took the Committee through the executive summaries of audits

completed during May 2009 but not selected for detailed review by the Committee.

Adrian Lucas asked who had overall responsibility for the Consultants’ Contract.

Robert

Kemp answered that this lies with the Medical Director and Director of Workforce and as the

issues in question related primarily to Acute it was for the Chair of the BGH Clinical Board to

take forward.

Doreen Steele asked how information on job plans and appraisals are reported

to the local Discretionary Awards Committee.

Following discussion it was agreed that there

would be merit in seeing the full audit report and asking Ross Cameron to attend the June

meeting to speak to this.

Julia Edey queried the issue in the summary for “Capital Projects – Financial Management”

that the Scheme of Delegation is not up-to-date.

Robert Kemp advised that this had been

taken forward by Neil Strother prior to his retiral but completion had been postponed

following receipt of a comprehensive document from NHS Tayside picking up this and other

key governance documents and NHS Borders intention to replicate this format of

presentation.

The Committee noted the report.

•

Patients’ Funds

Martin Campbell-Smith spoke to this item which had a “requires improvement” rating.

Martin

explained that the reason for this rating was due to different sets of documentation being

Appendix-2009-150

3

used post amalgamation in 2003.

It was noted however that the issue around interest has

now been actioned by Finance.

Mary Wilson referred to the recommendation to have one set of forms and asked if this had

been progressed.

Susan Swan explained that an attempt had been made to amalgamate

these but had not proved possible due to the amount of detail required to be included.

Susan advised that it is the intention to re-issue the policy with the new documentation and to

include as part of staff induction training.

The Committee noted the report.

6.

Audit Follow-Up

•

Internal Audit Reports

Robert Kemp spoke to this item which was a regular update on progress with Internal Audit

recommendations.

It was noted that 86 recommendations from 2007/08 have now been

implemented which is a significant increase from the last report.

From the remaining

recommendations it was noted that none of these are critical and Louise Hamilton-Welsh is

currently working through them as the majority fall within her remit.

Robert also added that

there are no critical recommendations from those outstanding for 2008/09.

Mary Wilson referred to the outstanding recommendations relating to disaster recovery in IT

and asked if there were any concerns around this.

Robbie Pearson said work on this was

continuing and confirmed that Service Continuity plans have now gone to the Clinical Boards

and they had given feedback .

The Committee noted the report and the significant improvement made.

7.

National Audit Reports

•

Practitioner Services

•

National Information Technology Services

•

National Procurement Logistics

David Woods advised the Committee that these reports provide assurance to Boards on

services provided by NSS.

It was noted that the full reports have been presented to NSS’s

Audit Committee which gives an added assurance.

David confirmed that all reports had

received an unqualified opinion and that action has been taken on any weaknesses

identified.

Mary Wilson declared that Bill Matthews also chairs two other Audit Committees which she is

a member of, namely the Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service and the Corporate

Services of Scottish Government.

The Committee noted the reports.

•

Financial Management System Computer Services

Robert Kemp spoke to the report from NHS Tayside’s External Auditor, Audit Scotland, on

the services provided to the Tayside Shared Financial Services Consortium.

Robert

highlighted the issue around disaster recovery testing and explained the reason this had not

taken place was due to a timing issue.

This was being developed to take place during 2009.

The Committee noted the report.

8.

External Audit

Michael Ferguson reported that they are now in the third week of the audit and everything so far

has gone smoothly.

Noted that a clearance meeting has been arranged for 17

th

June and the

Annual Report would be presented to the Audit Committee on 22

nd

June.

Appendix-2009-150

4

9.

Payment Verification

•

Report to 31

st

December 2008

Carol Gillie advised that there were no major issues to note from these reports.

Carol

highlighted that the information for Pharmacy is only to 30

th

September and for other

contractors to 31

st

December.

She explained that NHS Borders are working with colleagues

at PSD on improving the timing of these report.

The Committee noted the report.

10.

Draft Annual Accounts 2008/09

Robert Kemp explained that the accounts are currently in draft and are still subject to audit.

The

final version would be presented at the next meeting before going to the Board for sign-off on 25

th

June.

Robert advised that the audit has gone well so far and thanked his finance team involved in

producing the accounts.

Robert highlighted that it has been a difficult year for NHS Borders and

noted the achievements made by the Clinical Boards and support service departments in securing

challenging efficiency savings.

Robert reminded the Committee of the introduction of IFRS and

that a shadow set of accounts in this new format will require to be produced by the end of the

summer.

Susan Swan went on to give a presentation highlighting the key issues within the accounts.

It was

noted that NHS Borders had achieved its three financial targets,

namely remain within the

revenue and capital resource limits and cash target

.

Robert highlighted that there had not been

the same flexibility as in previous years and discussions are still to take place with SGHD about

the £93K carry forward.

Mary Wilson enquired about what was happening with equal pay across NHS Scotland.

Robert

replied that this should remain as a contingent liability within the accounts and he understood that

Audit Scotland are considering with other auditors regarding the wording of the audit opinion.

The Committee then went through the detailed accounts, asking for clarification on a number of

points and agreed footnotes where required.

The Committee noted the answers provided and approved the draft annual accounts.

11.

Reports from Other Governance Committees

•

Clinical Governance

Julia Edey referred to the Clinical Governance Committee which Martin Campbell-Smith had

attended.

This had proved useful in looking at year-end arrangements on what is required

for supporting the Statement on Internal Control.

Julia highlighted that the format is

significantly different to previous years.

It was noted that the report had not been formally

signed-off at a Clinical Governance Committee meeting but had been circulated by e-mail for

comment.

Julia advised that she still had a point to pick up and the report would be re-

submitted if there were any changes to the June meeting.

The Committee noted the report.

•

Public Governance

Robbie Pearson reported that the recent meeting of the Public Governance Committee had

not been quorate.

Robbie advised that a draft was currently out for comment and he would

ensure that a copy of this be circulated around the Audit Committee prior to the June

meeting.

Mary Wilson highlighted that this is not a statutory committee but one which NHS

Borders chose to have and stressed the importance of recognising the work undertaken.

The Committee noted the update.

Appendix-2009-150

5

•

Risk Management Board

Robbie Pearson spoke to this report produced by Joanne Weir.

Robbie highlighted that this

is the first year for an annual report of the Risk Management Board as requested by the audit

committee

in addition to the minutes received by the Committee.

It was noted that the report

still had to go to BET.

Martin Campbell-Smith referred to the sentence under Internal Audit Reports which stated

that the Risk Management Board oversees Internal Audit and highlighted that this is actually

within the remit of this Committee.

Robbie agreed to have this amended.

The Committee noted the report.

Julia Edey referred to the recent facilitated session with Scott-Moncrieff and asked if the

results of this would be fed back to the Board.

Robbie confirmed that it is planned to do a

session with the Board at a future meeting.

•

Staff Governance

The Committee discussed the report and agreed that to ensure consistency some areas

could be further developed and a sentence added by the Chair of the Committee to give the

Audit Committee assurance that it had fulfilled its role.

Mary Wilson advised that she had met with Edwina Cameron and Louise Hamilton-Welsh to

discuss the reporting arrangements of the Remuneration Committee into Staff Governance.

It had been agreed that a report would be submitted twice a year.

The Committee noted the report.

12.

Statement on Internal Control

•

Draft Statement on Internal Control (SIC)

Robert Kemp introduced this item.

The Committee went over the draft statement which

is

one of the key statements within the accounts

.

Adrian Lucas asked if it would be

appropriate to add a paragraph detailing the challenges encountered with the Strategic

Change Programme.

Michael Ferguson replied that the SIC usually concentrates on internal

controls and the wider issues sit better within the Directors’ Report.

It was agreed that the necessary changes be made for the June meeting.

•

Chief Internal Auditor’s Annual Report 2008/09

David Woods spoke to this item where it was noted that no reports had been issued during

2008/09 with an unsatisfactory rating.

David highlighted that Internal Audit complies with

NHS Internal Audit Standards as well as the International Standards for the Professional

Practice of Internal Auditing.

The Committee noted the report.

•

Letter from SGHD re Corporate Governance

The Committee noted the letter detailing the corporate governance criteria when preparing

the SIC.

13.

Draft Audit Committee Annual Assurance Statement

David Woods introduced this item that would be presented to the Board by the Audit Committee

Chair at the June Board meeting.

It was noted that the statement was in the same format as

previous years.

The Committee discussed the statement and the only area of concern was the

lack of an annual report for Information Governance for 2008/09.

Robbie Pearson reminded the

Appendix-2009-150

6

Committee that the Information Governance Committee is not a standing committee of the Board

and that it actually reports to the Risk Management Board.

Appendix-2009-150

7

Mary Wilson commented that there was no reference of the Audit Committee minutes being

routinely presented to the Board.

David agreed to add this.

14.

Letter to Chair of Scottish Government Health & Wellbeing Audit Committee

The Committee agreed that there were no governance issues arising in 2008/09 that required to

be reported to the Chair of the Scottish Government Health & Wellbeing Audit Committee.

15.

Risk

•

Risk Management Board Minutes – 16

th

December 2008

Julia Edey referred to item 4.5 – Audit Scotland Report: Review of NHS Diagnostic Services

which stated that this would presented to the March Audit Committee.

Julia highlighted that

this had not been on the agenda for the March meeting.

Agreed that this would be put on the

agenda for a future meeting.

Mary Wilson suggested that the Risk Management Board use

the action tracker to support the minutes as is being done by other governance committees.

Robbie Pearson agreed to action this.

The Committee noted the minutes.

16.

Technical Bulletin (2009/1)

David Woods highlighted areas of interest within the Technical Bulletin.

The Committee noted the report.

17.

AOCB

None.

18.

Date of Next Meeting

22

nd

June 2009 @ 2 p.m., Board Room, Newstead

BE

10/6/09