Agenda and draft minutes

1.1        No apologies had been received.

1.2       The Chair confirmed the meeting was quorate.

Members should declare any financial and non financial interests they have in the items of business for consideration, identifying the relevant agenda item and the nature of their interest.

2.1     The Chair sought any verbal declarations of interest pertaining to items on the Agenda.

The SCOTTISH BORDERS HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD AUDIT COMMITTEE noted there were none.

16.12.2024

(Copy attached.)

3.1       The minutes of the meeting of the Integration Joint Board Audit Committee held on 16 December 2024 were approved.

Action Tracker. (Copy attached.)

4.1       Action 2022-3:  It was agreed to close the item as a number of actions that related to best value were contained within the Annual Delivery Plan for the Health & Social Care Partnership.

The SCOTTISH BORDERS HEALTH & SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD AUDIT COMMITTEE noted the Action Tracker.

Copy attached.

5.1     Mr John Boyd provided an overview of the annual audit plan and drew the attention the Committee to various elements including: best value; core financial statements; areas of identified risk controls; exhibit 4; planned sign off of independent auditors report of 30.09.25; exhibit 5; external audit fee; on-going independence of the IJB; and materiality levels. 

        The SCOTTISH BORDERS HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD (IJB) AUDIT COMMITTEE noted the IJB Annual Audit Plan 2024/25.

Copy attached.

6.1     Mrs Jill Stacey provided an overview of the content of the plan and highlighted several elements including: SBC internal audit charter and global internal audit standards; internal audit strategy for SBC internal audit function; areas of risk within the IJB risk register; learning from internal audit work; 5 year cycle of work; performance management; directions policy; and governance and risk management.

        The SCOTTISH BORDERS HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD (IJB) AUDIT COMMITTEE noted that the Internal Audit Charter and Internal Audit Strategy for the SBC Internal Audit function were applicable for the provision of Internal Audit services to the IJB.

        The SCOTTISH BORDERS HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD (IJB) AUDIT COMMITTEE approved the proposed Internal Audit Annual Plan 2025/26 for the Scottish Borders Health and Social Care Integration Joint Board (Appendix 1) to enable the IJB Chief Internal Auditor to provide the statutory Internal Audit annual assurance opinion to inform the IJB’s annual governance review process.

The SCOTTISH BORDERS HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD (IJB) AUDIT COMMITTEE notedthat any significant changes in-year will be brought back for its approval.

Copy attached.

7.1   Mrs Jill Stacey provided an overview of the content of the proposal and highlighted the value of development sessions in enabling members core knowledge and skills to fulfil the remit of the Committee effectively and demonstrate compliance with the CIPFA good practice guidance.  She drew the attention of the Committee to the proposed format and content of each proposed development session and the proposal joint development session on global internal audit standards.

7.2   The Chair thanked Mrs Stacey for her work in ensuring the Committee members were appropriately skilled to be able to fulfil their roles on the IJB Audit Committee.

7.3   Mrs Karen Hamilton echoed the Chairs comments.

        The SCOTTISH BORDERS HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD (IJB) AUDIT COMMITTEE approved the schedule for Development Sessions 2025/26 for the members of the IJB Audit Committee, that is set out in paragraph 4.1.

        The SCOTTISH BORDERS HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD (IJB) AUDIT COMMITTEE noted that feedback on the Development Sessions will be obtained to re-assess the members’ core knowledge and skills and to evaluate the effectiveness of the IJB Audit Committee annually.

8.1     Mr John Boyd provided a brief overview of the Accounts Commission report which set out its findings of IJBs across Scotland and various key messages.

8.2     Discussion ensued that focused on: scheme of integration and the reflection that what was sown was what was reaped; if the partners were in a good financial position the IJB would be in a good financial position and vice versa; there was no ability to deviate from the partners budget setting processes; reconciliation of the report to the strategic plan and the demographic challenges within the Scottish Borders; implications of the findings of the report on the Scottish Borders; medium term framework; and the offer of someone from the national team to speak to the next meeting of the committee on the implications of the report for the Scottish Borders.

The SCOTTISH BORDERS HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD (IJB) AUDIT COMMITTEE noted the report.

The SCOTTISH BORDERS HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD (IJB) AUDIT COMMITTEE agreed to receive a precise of the findings of the report and the impact on the Scottish Borders.

The SCOTTISH BORDERS HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD (IJB) AUDIT COMMITTEE agreed that someone from the national team be invited to attend the next meeting of the Committee to present the implications of the findings on the Scottish Borders.

The SCOTTISH BORDERS HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD (IJB) AUDIT COMMITTEE agreed to share the report with the wider membership of the Scottish Borders Health & Social Care Integration Joint Board.

Copy attached.

9.1     Mrs Jill Stacey provided a brief overview of the content of the report.

The SCOTTISH BORDERS HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD (IJB) AUDIT COMMITTEE noted the report.

Scrutiny of Action Plan arising from evaluation and Best Value areas of Improvement.

10.1     Mr Chris Myers reminded the Committee that the last MSG self-assessment had taken place 2 years previously.  He sought views on the approach taken previously and if the Committee were content to follow the same process.  He reminded the Committee that it was a mandatory exercise to be undertaken every 2 years.

10.2     Mrs Karen Hamilton suggested the Committee have sight of the previous self-assessment so that it could see the synergies between the development sessions and the next self-assessment. 

The SCOTTISH BORDERS HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD (IJB) AUDIT COMMITTEE noted the update.

The SCOTTISH BORDERS HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD (IJB) AUDIT COMMITTEE agreed to receive the output from the previous MSG self-assessment as a reminder of the process.

Copy attached.

11.1   Mrs Jill Stacey provided a brief overview of the background to the item and advised that the report was in accordance with the IJB risk management strategy.  She highlighted: risk management activity undertaken during the year which helped the Audit Committee to satisfy its oversight of risk management arrangements; twice a year reporting strategic risk updates the IJB; good engagement around quarterly conversations in reviewing the strategic risk register and the assessment of individual controls associated with individual risks and any further mitigation actions.

11.2   Ms Emily Elder highlighted the training work that had been undertaken the previous year as well as the changes made to the policy and strategy and she reiterated the roles and responsibilities and good practice case studies. 

11.3   Further discussion focused on: demographic growth and associated challenges; workforce challenges for both within the partners and the third sector; impact of employer national insurance contributions; future presentation of the risk register; current risk score, inherent score and control environment.

The SCOTTISH BORDERS HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD (IJB) AUDIT COMMITTEE noted the work undertaken during 2024/25 to review the IJB Strategic Risk Register and report outputs of these reviews to the IJB, in line with the IJB Risk Management Strategy 2024-2026.

The SCOTTISH BORDERS HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD (IJB) AUDIT COMMITTEE acknowledged the embedding of the Risk Management arrangements within the IJB during 2024/25, in accordance with the IJB Risk Management Policy and Strategy.

The SCOTTISH BORDERS HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD (IJB) AUDIT COMMITTEE noted the benefits for the IJB that accrue from more systematic and assured Risk Management practices as detailed in this report and concluded in paragraph 6.9.

Copy to follow.

12.1   Mrs Wendy Henderson provided an overview of compliance with the equalities duty and highlighted several elements including: mainstreaming of the equality duty; publication of outcomes and reporting on progress against the new outcomes; review of outcomes; working with managers to collate their responses; mainstreaming report was made public; mainstreaming was a snapshot of what was being done and the potential to capture information on a quarterly basis; and the mainstreaming framework.

12.2   Discussion focused on: equality and human rights (E&HR) commission report; IJB E&HR sub group; assessments to be completed as change is progressed; reviewing and assessing policy in practice; corrective actions to address poor performance in producing impact assessments; assurance process on robustness of impact assessments; area of risk of non compliance and unintended consequences of decisions made by the IJB; future proposal would be to have an online system for impact assessments across the partnership; budget setting process and equality impact assessments are produced by and submitted to the partner organisations before they are submitted to the IJB; and compliance and governance challenges and embedding into culture.

The SCOTTISH BORDERS HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD (IJB) AUDIT COMMITTEE noted the update.

The SCOTTISH BORDERS HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD (IJB) AUDIT COMMITTEE agreed to receive the mainstreaming framework.

1.1      Lay Member:  Mrs Jill Stacey advised the Committee that Mr Kai Harrod was due to conclude his lay member role of the Committee in October 2025.  The role of Lay Member of the Committee would be renewed for the period November 2025 to October 2028 and a recruitment process would be undertaken as per the SBC lay members recruitment process.

1.2      The Chair commented that he hoped Mr Kai Harrod would apply for a further 3 year appointment as his expertise was greatly appreciated by the Committee.

The SCOTTISH BORDERS HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE INTEGRATION JOINT BOARD (IJB) AUDIT COMMITTEE noted the update.

Monday 9 June 2025, 2.00pm to 4pm, via Microsoft Teams

Monday 8 September 2025

Monday 8 December 2025

14.1   The Chair confirmed that the next meeting of the IJB Audit Committee would be held on Monday 9 June 2025 at 2.00pm via Microsoft Teams.