Management Information Sheet

The County Council’s internal auditors, Norfolk Audit Services, carry out audits of LA establishments on behalf of the Executive Director of Finance to ensure good practice is being followed and that there is compliance with finance regulations. As previously communicated, their revised approach with LA maintained schools includes carrying out an annual programme of themed audits, visiting a representative sample of schools and sharing common findings and examples of good practice.

The themed audits will be undertaken during both summer and autumn with subsequent findings and examples of good practice being shared to all schools as soon as final reports have been issued.

The Local Authority strongly recommend that the outcomes of these audits are considered by individual school’s governors and leadership teams and any necessary actions be taken in order to address any improvements required for each school. Any issues and proposed actions should be discussed by the relevant committee of the Governing Body for approval, monitoring and evaluation. Question 18 of the SFVS also makes reference to schools taking into account recommendations made from these type of audits.

Each school will be rated at the end of the financial year with either a ‘Green’ or ‘Red’ rating. For a green rating to be achieved, Finance Support Officers (FSO), during their autumn term visit to each school, will be asking for evidence in the form of Governor’s minutes highlighting where discussions have taken place relating to the themed audit findings. It has been agreed that this is necessary to make sure that all schools are undertaking serious consideration of the audit findings to reduce the level of risk in their school.

Subsequently, and as agreed by the LA Schools Finance Consultative Group, the financial management RAG risk criteria will be updated to reflect the actions taken above.

If evidence cannot be provided at the autumn term FSO meeting, then copies of minutes should be emailed to the School’s FSO to demonstrate that discussions have taken place before the end of the financial year. Failure to do so will lead to Red Rag Rating being issued, and follow up actions to ensure compliance may be considered.

A limited number of schools will still receive a compliance audit as part of the annual audit plan. Schools that have received a compliance audit will be rated on the RAG scale depending on the issues found in the audit, and the governor’s responses to it in the form of an Action Plan.

Attached is the latest version of the RAG matrix. This can also be found on our website, via our A-Z under ‘R’ http://efs.norfolk.gov.uk/a-z.htm

If you have any questions relating to anything above or require any further guidance then please contact your school's Finance Support Officer in the first instance.