Minutes of the East Durham College Audit Committee held on 23rd March 2023

J Bromiley (Chair), M. Curry, S Duncan and R Harrison 

S Judson, Vice-Principal Finance and Business Planning 

C. Tomlinson, Vice Principal Curriculum and Performance 

S Pritchard, (Clerk to the Corporation) 

R. Armstrong Audit One, Internal Audit 

 Apologies received from G Field and J Field. 

Private discussion of Committee and Auditors prior to the arrival of College Officers. 

There were no conflicts of interest that had not previously been declared or which impacted upon the items on the agenda. 

The minutes of the meeting held in November 2022 were accepted as a true record. 

There were no matters arising.  

The Internal Auditor (Audit One) presented the reports to the committee. The reports were confidential for reasons of commercial sensitivity.  

IT Disaster Recovery - The Committee noted the report. 

Internal Audit Progress Report  - The Committee noted the report. 

The Vice Principal Finance and Business Planning presented the confidential update.   

GDPR  - The Vice Principal Finance and Business Planning presented the report which was confidential as it contains information relating to data protection.  

The committee noted the report.   

Cyber Security - 

The Vice Principal Finance and Business Planning presented the report which was confidential for reasons of commercial sensitivity relating to services and systems.  

The Committee noted the report and the risks and issues and progress made with regard to cyber security. 

Breaches and Waivers & High Value Orders - The Principal presented the report which was confidential for reasons of commercial sensitivity.  

The Committee recommended that the Board approve the separate Health and Safety risk register and noted the content of the report and the updated summary of the strategic risks for the College as determined by the Risk Management Group on 10th February but noting that it would be further updated before being presented to the Board to reflect the changing priorities. 

Sub-Contract Arrangements - The Vice Principal Curriculum and Performance presented the report was confidential for reasons of commercial sensitivity as documents contain financial information.  

The Committee noted the report. 

Audit Tracker Report - The Vice Principal Finance and Business Planning presented the report to the committee and highlighted that it was based on internal audit recommendations and showed the progress the college had made against recommendations.  She provided a general update on progress in particular around CAFM, risk assessments and training, standard operating procedures. 

The Chair challenged the ongoing implementation date and asked for a date to be provided for when the work would be complete.  The Vice Principal Finance and Business Planning confirmed that the college would be able to do the high risk pieces of work by the end of the academic year but that there would be other work in lower risk areas that would be ongoing and that the new processes then need to be in place for up to 12 months before they can be audited.   

The Principal explained that the new health and safety manager had reviewed the risk assessment template and that it has been revised, trialled as a template based on the farm, and that the focus was on ensuring that staff and students are safe, but that the health and safety manager would be documenting matters more thoroughly with regard to how the college is keeping people safe and this will be in one single repository.  It was noted that the HSE audit of the farm was a good opportunity to test new processes. 

A committee member confirmed he felt reassured by having a deadline in place for the high risk high priority areas.  The Chair of the Committee reminded colleagues that the committee need to take assurance that the college is following up on recommendations and therefore needed to challenge the college management group to follow up on matters and place more emphasis on high risk matters being complete by 31 August 2023 and asked for this to be reflected in the tracker and for a specific response to this point be prepared by the Vice Principal Finance and Business Planning. 

There was no other business and the Chair brought the meeting to a close.