How to acknowledge the audit report and recommendations in the Compliance Audit system
Updated 18 October 2021
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2021
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/using-the-compliance-audit-system/how-to-acknowledge-the-audit-report-and-recommendations-in-the-compliance-audit-system
1. How providers are notified of the report
Once the Homes England Lead Auditor releases the report from the Compliance Audit System, a notification email is sent to the provider’s lead contact, development director and chief executive. 5 working days later, a second email is sent to the provider’s development director, chief executive and board chair (or, for local authorities, Leader or Executive Member with responsibility for housing).
It is then the provider’s responsibility to download the PDF of the report from the Compliance Audit System, sign it off at an appropriate board meeting and acknowledge it in the Compliance Audit System.
2. Generating PDF of report
- From the dashboard, select “Audit reports”.
- The provider is presented with a list of their audit reports dating back to 2016/17.
- Select the report for the relevant year. The system will present the details of the report on screen.
- Select the “Download report as a PDF” button. The report can then be saved and/or printed, and presented to the provider’s board for approval.
3. How providers acknowledge the report and recommendations in the system
- From the dashboard, select “Audit reports”.
- The provider is presented with a list of their audit reports dating back to 2016 to 2017.
- Select the report for the relevant year. The system will present the details of the report on screen.
- Select the “Acknowledge Report” button. The Provider will need to complete all the details on the report acknowledgement screen. (Please note the date of the board/committee meeting where the report and recommendations were acknowledged cannot be a future date).
- You must then confirm that the report and recommendations have been acknowledged before you can submit.
After the report and recommendations have been acknowledged, the report status will change from “Report Issued – Provider acknowledgement required” to “Report Acknowledged” and details of the acknowledgement will now be displayed in the PDF version of the report.
4. Recommendations
The Homes England Lead Auditor may include recommendations in the audit report if remedial action is needed due to a breach assigned for non-compliance. It is the provider’s responsibility to:
- note and act on any recommendations
- bring them to the attention of their board/committee
- get their board/committee’s acknowledgement to any actions taken to address breaches
Recommendation details can be accessed in the Compliance Audit system:
- From the dashboard select “Audit recommendations”
- Select the relevant audit programme year and select search
- Providers will then be able to select individual recommendations and will be presented with the breach comment and recommendation text