Minutes of the Audit Risk Assurance Committee: 11 September 2024
Updated 26 November 2024
Applies to England
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Present
Martin Spencer, Chair
Laura Wyld, Board member
Jon Yates, Board member
Jo Moran, Board member
Ian Looker, Co-opted member
Also in attendance
Martyn Oliver, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI)
Matthew Coffey, Deputy His Majesty’s Chief Inspector (DHMCI)
Louise Grainger, Chief Financial Officer
Board Secretary
Khadija Qidwai, National Audit Office (NAO)
Robert Garnett, EY
Tony Smith, Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA)
Curtis Yapp, GIAA
Ian Coates, GIAA
GIAA (items 4 and 5)
Rory Gribbell, Director, Strategy and Engagement (item 10)
Head of the Strategy Delivery Unit (item 10)
Strategic Priorities Risks and Compliance Lead (item 10)
Status
Approved at the ARAC meeting 13 September 2024.
1. Chair’s introduction, declarations of interest, minutes, actions and matters arising
The Chair congratulated Louise Grainger on her new role as Chief Financial Officer.
The minutes of the last meeting were approved as a correct record.
Action: ARAC to receive 6-monthly updates on the volume and origin of attacks identified by Ofsted’s monitoring systems.
2. Verbal report from HMCI
HMCI provided an update on the implementation of changes to inspection from September 2024 (including the removal of ‘Overall Effectiveness’ grades), and engagement with the DfE on the development of the report card. HMCI updated the committee on actions to implement the recommendations of Dame Christine Gilbert’s independent learning review accepted by Ofsted, and on the extensive internal communications and engagement HMCI was to lead following the publication of the Big Listen.
3. Progress against audit recommendations
The committee noted progress made on implementing audit recommendations. The committee noted that 5 actions have been completed since the last report, and 2 actions are on track. Four low-level actions are delayed.
Action: future reports to include a reason for any delayed actions in the written report.
4. Internal audit progress report
The committee noted that 2 reports have been completed since the last committee meeting. Both reports had a ‘substantial’ opinion.
The planning/scoping for all other audits in the 2024-25 plan with one final Terms of Reference (ToR) and 4 draft ToR issued.
The committee noted that the audit plan needed to be able to adapt in focus and scope, particularly given the significant changes of the coming year.
It was suggested that the planned audit of the Ofsted Academy be moved into 2025-26, to ensure that work on the academy has sufficiently progressed so as to achieve maximum value from the audit. This will come to the next ARAC meeting for a decision.
5. Issued internal audit reports
Two engagements have been completed since last meeting: preparation for the migration of Cygnum to Azure, and supported accommodation inspection readiness.
The committee discussed the report on the preparation for the migration of Cygnum to Azure. Substantial assurance was provided. One low priority action has been accepted by Ofsted, to develop a skills matrix of the team delivering this work so as to provide assurance that the team has the right people with the right skills on an ongoing basis.
The committee discussed the plans for delivering this migration, while ensuring continuity of delivery of regulatory services. The committee were assured of robust safeguards in place to mitigate the risk of delivery outage, and that this systems migration did not present an operational risk.
The committee discussed the report on supported accommodation inspection readiness. Substantial assurance was provided.
Action: the committee is to be provided with the corporate volumes for supported accommodation inspection activity.
HMCI left the meeting due to a conflicting commitment.
6. External Audit progress update
The committee noted that lessons learned activity had been completed following the signoff of the 2023-24 accounts prior to parliamentary recess, and that the draft audit planning report for 2024-25 would be presented to the November meeting. The committee noted that no changes to the audit approach were anticipated.
Action: draft audit planning report for 2024-25 to be presented at November ARAC meeting.
Action: indicative fee for 2024-25 financial audit to be shared with the Chief Financial Officer as soon as possible.
7. Value for Money and insight work
The committee noted the recent and upcoming publications.
DHMCI joined the meeting.
8. Finance report
The committee noted the update, including that some activity had been paused due to pre-election silence.
The committee discussed progress on the spending review. The committee noted that the spending review has 2 phases. The first will focus on resetting departmental budgets and making progress on the government’s first steps, will conclude alongside the Budget on 30 October 2024, and will confirm the final control totals for 2024-25 and set budgets for 2025-26. The second will be focused on mission delivery across the Parliament. Phase 2 will cover the years from 2025-26 and will conclude in the spring of 2025.
The committee discussed the need for investment in digital systems to mitigate potential delivery risks in regulatory remits presented by continued reliance on legacy systems.
The committee discussed the need to consider the potential impact on staff office relocations planned for 2025-26.
9. Changes to central government ARAC guidance and implications for Ofsted ARAC
The committee noted the changes to central government audit and risk assurance committee guidance, and noted Ofsted’s planned actions to ensure that these changes are taken on board.
10. Strategic risk
The committee discussed work underway to review the strategic risk register and improve processes to manage risk. This included outputs from a recent session by the executive committee reviewing the focus of current strategic risks.
The committee provided challenge and feedback on the proposals, including that the definition of ‘strategic’ risks be made clearer, and that strategic risks be explicitly linked to Ofsted’s strategic priorities.
The committee also provided feedback on plans to improve the commissioning process for updating the risk register to ensure that it remains a live and dynamic document, providing assurance that teams are proactively and robustly managing risk.
The committee discussed the need for clarity on the process for escalating risks to ‘strategic’, and for greater focus on mitigating actions.
The ongoing role of the committee in scrutinising strategic risks was discussed, and the committee gave feedback on how reporting could be improved to support this.
11. AOB
There was no other business.