The Committee were provided with a report that informed them of the results of the surveys aimed at identifying the level of satisfaction with the services provided by the Internal Audit & Counter Fraud Teams.

The Head of Internal Audit & Counter Fraud advised that the surveys were sent out to gauge satisfaction of the services, and they should be undertaken annually but the last survey was conducted at the end of 2018-19. Due to the impact of the covid pandemic, it was not possible to conduct the surveys at the end of 2019-20 and 2020-21.

The Head of Internal Audit & Counter Fraud directed Members to appendix two and three of the report which held the results satisfaction surveys for Internal Audit and Counter Fraud. The results of both surveys would form the baseline for future surveys.

The Head of Internal Audit & Counter Fraud asked Members to look at appendix two and outlined key points from the Internal Audit survey results.

The Head of Internal Audit & Counter Fraud fielded questions from Members and explained

that:

• The second table in 3.2 held a typo; there were five respondents under ‘N/A – Elected Member’ not four
• The intention was to increase the number of responses received to each survey next year; the report was also taken to Management Team where it was requested that a higher number of respondents be achieved. Next year, the surveys will be sent to officers and Members earlier to give them more time to answer them as well as regular reminders circulated to ensure they were completed
• The Head of Internal Audit & Counter Fraud agreed to consider giving Members paper copies of the surveys at a Full Council meeting next year but advised that a climate change action was to reduce paper waste and it depended on a Full Council meeting being held during the period of time where the surveys were circulated. Additionally, sending out paper copies would require further analysis as the current system in place only compiled online submissions

The Head of Internal Audit & Counter Fraud asked Members to look at appendix three and outlined key points from the Counter Fraud survey results.

The Head of Internal Audit & Counter Fraud fielded questions from Members and explained

that:

• The internal audit survey was sent to all officers within Wider Management Team which was comprised of twenty-five senior officers and all forty-four elected Members; a total of fourteen responses were received from forty-nine recipients which was a low response. The survey was designed for people that had direct contact with Internal Audit which was limited to senior officers and Members; it wouldn’t be beneficial to send all staff the survey as the majority of officers did not work with Internal Audit and nothing substantive would be gained. Although, when the surveys were sent to Wider Management Team a message was included asking them to forward the survey to any other officers which may find it relevant 
• The Counter Fraud survey was sent to all staff and Members as the Team needed to gauge Counter Fraud awareness across the organisation

The Chair recognised Members concerns that the response rate was low and advised that

he had raised similar concerns at a previous meeting and would work with the Head of

Internal Audit & Counter Fraud to increase the number of responses next year.

Members noted the results of the Internal Audit & Counter Fraud satisfaction surveys.