'Satisfactory': How internal auditors assessed North unitary’s first year

Auditors say the authority has not been able to robustly hold the children’s trust to account and say there are evidence gaps around procurement

By Sarah Ward

An overall grading of ‘satisfactory’ has been given to North Northamptonshire Council’s first year in its annual audit report.

Auditors carried out 68 audits across the council’s various departments and gave 50 per cent satisfactory assurance, 40 per cent good assurance and ten per cent were given limited assurance.

Limited assurance was given to the legacy bank accounts of the former authorities; the way the authority was handling deprivation of liberty; the handling of money owed by developers (section 106 monitoring) and asset management.

Auditors also raised concerns about the governance of the contract for children’s services which has been handed over to independent organisation Northamptonshire Children’s Trust.

This is the first audit for the authority, which was founded last year after the financial collapse of Northamptonshire County Council.

There was a two year run in to create the new councils - which involved a transformation team amalgamating existing borough and district services into the two new councils - but the audit has highlighted that as yet things are not running as they should be in all areas. The work of the transformation team in disaggregating services was however found to be good.

Issues

The 25 page report highlights issues in some service areas, including: