Agenda item

This report informs Members of the results of the surveys aimed at identifying the level of satisfaction with the services provided by the Internal Audit & Counter Fraud Teams.

Discussion:

The Head of Internal Audit and Counter Fraud introduced the report, which outlined the results of the Internal Audit and Counter Fraud Surveys.

The Internal Audit Survey was distributed to senior officers, service managers and above and Members. Service managers were also encouraged to forward to operational managers who had interacted with Internal Audit. The Head of Internal Audit and Counter Fraud reported that there had been a marked increase in responses received which was positive.

There was a small decrease in respondents who reported a good understanding of the role of Internal Audit, analysis suggested this was linked to greater responses from operational managers. There were also a number of requests for additional training opportunities for staff. Additional training sessions had already been planned as part of the Complete Medway Manager training programme.

Responses remained consistent with previous years, with satisfaction of the service just under target. Two comments were received that the service may lack the necessary resources, this is likely driven by the resourcing issues experienced by the team in 2024-25 which were now resolved.

The Counter Fraud Survey also had an increased response rate, there remained a large number of staff who were not aware of the Counter Fraud and Corruption Strategy. The strategy was being updated and would be distributed to all staff via meta compliance.

Awareness of the service was positive and included a marked increase in staff knowing how to report concerns. The report identified a request for training from a number of respondents which stated their team would benefit from training and those were being followed up. It was disappointing however, that training sessions were available during the year but had been cancelled due to lack of attendance.

As with Internal Audit, a number of respondents stated that Counter Fraud did not have enough resources and some comments suggested the profile of the team could be raised. The Head of Internal Audit and Counter Fraud stated that the team did publicise successful outcomes and would consider how to promote this further, however, the team was not always made aware of the outcome of cases which were referred to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

The following issues were discussed:

Responses to the surveys – the increase in responses was welcomed by the Committee, it was asked whether a prize draw or some other reward for completing the surveys had been considered to maintain progress. The Head of Internal Audit and Counter Fraud stated that this had been considered but not followed up on this occasion, it could be considered for the future. He added that several reminders had been sent to complete the survey. But it was undertaken at a very busy time for the Council and it may be a case of staff prioritising their workload.

Use of resources – a Member commented that the survey was resource intensive and asked whether other methods of ascertaining opinion may be more useful in the future. The Head of Internal Audit and Counter Fraud stated that the surveys formed part of the drive for continuous improvement and post audit surveys were also undertaken for that purpose. The Chief Operating Officer agreed that different ways of completing the surveys would be considered for future years.

The Committee discussed the scope of surveys which staff are requested to complete such as the staff survey and whether the audit and counter fraud surveys could be included within that. The Chief Operating Officer stated that the Council wanted to keep the staff survey similar from year to year to provide comparative data whilst not making the survey too long which would be off putting for staff. He would consider greater use of short surveys known as Pulse surveys.

Counter Fraud training – the Committee discussed counter fraud training. The team would not have the capacity to train all staff but digital training was something under consideration and this could be made mandatory. The Chief Operating Officer stated that this type of approach was taken with other issues such as GDPR in bite size pieces.

Decision:

The Committee noted the results of the Internal Audit & Counter Fraud satisfaction surveys and the actions detailed in appendix 3.