8 November 2017
It is that time of year when audit committees and boards of trustees are meeting to consider the year-end financial statements and audit findings from their auditors, which must be submitted to the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) by 31 December.
The audit committee’s work must focus on providing assurance to the board of trustees that all risks have been identified and are being managed. This is especially with regard to reviewing the internal financial controls of the trust, and obtaining assurance on those risks.
Academy trusts should manage the programme of risk review through whichever of the following methods are deemed most appropriate:
- appointment of an internal audit service (either in-house, bought-in or provided by a sponsor);
- a supplementary programme of work performed by the trust’s external auditor;
- the appointment of a non-employed trustee with an appropriate level of financial experience; or
- a peer review by a suitably qualified person from another academy trust.
At UHY Hacker Young we provide an all year round quality risk assurance process service. If you have any concerns about the quality risk assurance process at your trust, please contact your local UHY academies expert, or fill out the contact form here.
Further guidelines can be found in this year’s academies financial handbook.
If you’d like to learn more about the services we provide to academies, click here.
