Fulford School
Source: data.gov.uk (2018-10-29)

CYC Internal Audit Reports 2017. These reports are presented to the Audit and Governance Committee for consideration, and are also included with the agenda papers for the [relevant meetings](http://democracy.york.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CommitteeId=437). 

Reports are also grouped together by calendar year and published at this York Open Data platform. Reports for other years are available at the [__CYC Internal Audit Reports__](https://data.yorkopendata.org/dataset?q=internal+audit&sort=score+desc%2C+metadata_modified+desc) datasets.

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Fulford School 
City of York Council 
Internal Audit Report 2016/17 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Business Unit: Children's Services, Education & Skills  
Headteacher: Ms L Savage 
Date Issued: 6 July 2017 
Status: Final 
Reference: 15692/002 
 
Overall Audit Opinion 
High Assurance 
Actions 
4 
0 
P3 
P2 
P1 
0 

 
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Summary and Overall Conclusions 
 
Introduction 
This audit was carried out on 20th and 21st March 2017 as part of the Internal Audit plan for Children, Education and Communities for 2016/17. 
Schools are audited in accordance with a detailed risk assessment. 
Objectives and Scope of the Audit 
The purpose of this audit was to provide assurance to Governors, the Headteacher and management that procedures and controls in the areas 
listed below are working adequately and are well controlled.  The audit covered the following areas in accordance with the specification issued: 
 
  
• 
Governance and Financial Management 
• 
System Reconciliation 
• 
Banking Arrangements 
• 
Contracts, Purchasing and Authorisation 
• 
Income 
• 
Capital and Property 
• 
Extended Schools Provision 
• 
Human Resources 
• 
Payroll and Staff Costs 
• 
School Meals 
• 
Pupil Numbers 
• 
School Fund 
• 
Data Protection and Information technology 
• 
Insurance and Risk Management 
• 
Joint Use Facilities 
• 
Inventories 
• 
Safeguarding 
 
Key Findings 
Most processes reviewed within the school were operating well. Recommendations for improvement have been made for benchmarking 
reporting, lettings, disposals of inventory and recording of minibus journeys are set out below. 
 
In addition, the school has an action plan in place to address some issues with information governance, and advice has been given regarding the 
recording of tender openings and presentation of the contract register to Governors. 
 
Overall Conclusions 
It was found that the arrangements for managing risk were very good. An effective control environment appears to be in operation. Our overall 
opinion of the controls within the system at the time of the audit was that they provided High Assurance.  
 

 
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1 Benchmarking 
Issue/Control Weakness 
Risk 
Benchmarking is not presented to Governors 
Governors may not be made aware of issues and actions 
being undertaken to address them 
Findings 
The school undertakes informal benchmarking; however this is not reported to Governors. Reporting the benchmarking to Governors would 
give governors assurance that expenditure being incurred by the school is reasonable, and highlight to them areas in need of explanation or 
action. 
Recommendation 
The school should present the results of benchmarking to Governing Body meetings 
Agreed Action 1.1 
Benchmarking information has been retrieved, and as suggested, reviewed by the Head 
and SBM. It was not felt necessary at the time to share this with governors but this will be 
done at the next governors meeting in Autumn 2017. 
Priority 
3 
Responsible Officer 
Sam Bradford 
Timescale 
December 2017 
 
 

 
4 
  
 
 
2 Lettings 
Issue/Control Weakness 
Risk 
Lettings charges are not always raised in a timely manner 
The school may not recover all income due 
Findings 
A sample was taken from lettings diaries for November 16 for the school and for the Sports Hall.   
 
For Sports Hall -  in the case of three lettings charges for November had not yet been raised (these were charged the day after the audit ) 
These were Yorkshire Pathways Indoor Cricket, Sambarca Football School, University of York Volleyball.  
 
The charging procedure was queried with the Fulford School Community Sports Manager she agreed that these charges should have been 
raised sooner but stated that they are shortly introducing a new system which will either invoice in advance or within a set period. This should 
hopefully become automated and alleviate any issues. 
 
 
Recommendation 
 
The school should also ensure that the process for managing bookings includes prompt charging. 
Agreed Action 2.1 
 
The School will ensure that charges are made in a timely manner for the Sports Hall in 
future periods. 
Priority 
3 
Responsible Officer 
Sam Bradford 
Timescale 
October 2017 
 
 

 
5 
  
 
 
3 Inventories 
Issue/Control Weakness 
Risk 
Inventory disposals are not documented 
Items may not be correctly disposed of or issues identified 
Findings 
Several inventories show items that have been disposed of or are ‘location unknown’, however the information is not recorded with the 
inventory to show that these items have been approved for disposal or that lost items have been investigated for theft. 
 
 
Recommendation 
For all disposals a record should be kept on file of the disposal with appropriate authorisation. Once an item has been recorded as disposed off 
it should be removed from the inventory. Where an item is lost a note should be kept of any investigation into locating the item – this could be 
on the disposal notice if the item is ultimately not found. 
Agreed Action 3.1 
Accepted – this will be done in future. 
Review of these items has not indicated that there are any high value or high risk items that 
cannot be located. (i.e. the majority of items are TV’s that are over 10 years old). 
Priority 
3 
Responsible Officer 
Sam Bradford 
Timescale 
October 2017 
 
 

 
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4 Minibus 
Issue/Control Weakness 
Risk 
The log of journeys is incomplete 
Inappropriate vehicle usage may not be identified 
Findings 
The school maintain a log of journeys undertaken with start and end mileage. There were however some gaps in the mileage log. While these 
were mainly short journeys which are most likely for trips to get petrol all journeys should be logged 
Recommendation 
All journeys taken should be recorded on the log to ensure that there is no missing mileage on the log 
Agreed Action 4.1 
Accepted – this will be done in future. The Site team will be e-mailed to ensure that they 
complete the log when refuelling or taking the bus for repair/maintenence etc. 
Priority 
3 
Responsible Officer 
Sam Bradford 
Timescale 
May 2017 
 
 

 
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Annex 1 
Audit Opinions and Priorities for Actions 
Audit Opinions 
Audit work is based on sampling transactions to test the operation of systems. It cannot guarantee the elimination of fraud or 
error. Our opinion is based on the risks we identify at the time of the audit. 
 
Our overall audit opinion is based on 5 grades of opinion, as set out below. 
 
Opinion 
Assessment of internal control 
High Assurance 
Overall, very good management of risk. An effective control environment appears to be in operation. 
Substantial 
Assurance 
Overall, good management of risk with few weaknesses identified.  An effective control environment is in 
operation but there is scope for further improvement in the areas identified. 
Reasonable 
Assurance 
Overall, satisfactory management of risk with a number of weaknesses identified.  An acceptable control 
environment is in operation but there are a number of improvements that could be made. 
Limited Assurance 
Overall, poor management of risk with significant control weaknesses in key areas and major 
improvements required before an effective control environment will be in operation. 
No Assurance 
Overall, there is a fundamental failure in control and risks are not being effectively managed.  A number of 
key areas require substantial improvement to protect the system from error and abuse. 
 
Priorities for Actions 
Priority 1 
A fundamental system weakness, which presents unacceptable risk to the system objectives and requires urgent 
attention by management. 
Priority 2 
A significant system weakness, whose impact or frequency presents risks to the system objectives, which needs to 
be addressed by management. 
Priority 3 
The system objectives are not exposed to significant risk, but the issue merits attention by management. 
 

 
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