Agenda item

Discussion:

The Head of Internal Audit and Counter Fraud introduced a report which advised Members of progress in delivering the approved 2014/15 work programme, and presented outcomes completed since the last meeting of the Audit Committee.

A discussion took place regarding the audit of compliance with the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). This audit had been carried out in two parts. The first part in 2013/14 had reviewed the council’s procedures to ensure that checking of eligible staff / contractors / volunteers was undertaken in accordance with DBS guidelines. The overall audit opinion was ‘sufficient’. A follow-up was carried out in June, which confirmed that the risks identified in the first part of the audit had been fully addressed.

The second part of the audit reviewed compliance with procedures, including

management’s checking of individuals’ disclosures. Audit testing included looking at:

• council staff (Finding: Sufficient);

• contract staff (Finding: Sufficient);

•  foster carers, family members and regular visitors (Finding: Needs Strengthening)

• council volunteers / non-staff (Finding: Needs Strengthening);

.

Members expressed concern at the weaknesses in DBS checks in relation to some foster carer family members, visitors and non-contract transport providers given the potential risks this posed to looked after children and the reputational damage to the Council that could ensue.  The Committee felt that it was critical that this area was strengthened urgently and called for a report on progress to a future meeting. In response, officers emphasised that DBS checks in relation to foster carers themselves were ‘strong’. The concerns were mainly around regular visitors. An assurance was given that all outstanding DBS application forms not yet returned would be followed up by the end of the month. Also, any outstanding DBS disclosures requiring verification would be carried out by the end of the month. In future there would be clear timescales by which these should be processed. The Council would be sending guidance to foster carers and staff to remind them that regular visitors must be DBS checked and the absence of this could jeopardise a placement or the ‘visitors’/support network involvement in that placement.  Whilst there were some grey areas in terms of what constituted a regular visitor (and the council had to consider how proportionate it was in how it defined this), someone regularly involved in the life of a foster child would always need to be checked.

In response to questions about how long the requirement to carry out DBS checks had been in place; whether a guarantee could be given that there were no children looked after by foster carers who had not been DBS checked and what the extent of the backlog was, the Committee were advised that:

• The requirement to carry out DBS checks (and before that CRB checks) had been in place for a number of years and part of placement regulations
• Efforts were being made to clear the backlogs but the exact figures could not be given at the meeting
• An assurance was given that all foster carers were checked before a child was placed with them. The safety of foster children was monitored very closely and there were a number of mechanisms including LAC Reviews, SW visits (in addition to DBS checks) by which this monitoring took place.

Reference was made to the need for school governors to be DBS checked and a member asked how robust the systems were for this. Members were advised that the Council was responsible for ensuring that maintained schools had systems in place but was not in a position to check every individual.  The Council was responsible for ensuring that maintained schools had the appropriate mechanisms for undertaking DBS checks on their staff, but individual schools had the operational responsibility for ensuring that the appropriate recruitment checks were satisfactory.

A member suggested that the Committee should monitor as part of next year’s audit plan Council expenditure on Rochester airport. The Committee were advised that the proposed 2015/2016 audit plan would be submitted to the Committee at its next meeting and this request could be considered as part of that discussion.

Decision: 

The Committee:-

(1)          noted progress on the 2014/15 audit programme, and the outcome of Internal Audit’s work.

(2)          asked for a progress report in six months on the management of DBS checks for foster carers, family members and regular visitors – including details of progress in dealing with the backlogs and the numbers involved