CIPFA - Policy and Technical - The 2011 Cliff Nicholson Award for Innovation and Excellence

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Cliff Nicholson Award for Innovation and Excellence in Public Service Audit 2011

Winners:	Southend-on-Sea Borough Council
Highly Commended:	Cambridgeshire Health Internal Audit Service
	Falkirk Council

CIPFA Annual Audit Conference, Brighton, 11-12 May 2011

Anthony Barrett, Audit Panel Chairman, welcomed delegates to the Thistle Hotel in Brighton for the conference dinner and presentation of the Cliff Nicholson Award for Innovation and Excellence in Public Service Audit.

Visitors to this page may already be aware that Cliff Nicholson sadly passed away on 01 May. Jaki Meekings Davis, CIPFA President and Anthony Barrett paid tribute to Cliff’s life and work in the Conference opening address and Award presentation speech respectively.

Anthony thanked CIPFA’s Audit Panel for their involvement this year, as well as the CIPFA staff including Matthew Allen who ably project managed the award. He also praised the excellent entries received from across a range of public sector organsiations this year, making this a very difficult competition to judge.

Anthony then went on to announce the winners of the awards. The highly commended entries this year were:

Cambridgeshire Health Internal Audit Service for their work on adding value to the Head of Internal Audit’s opinion in the light of the Taking it on Trust Audit Commission report.

Members of the CHIAS team are pictured right, proudly showing off their highly commended certificate.

Members of the CHIAS team proudly show off their highly commended certificate

Falkirk Council for their work on reviewing the Council’s arrangements for managing the risks relating to the potential and actual impact of Serious Organised Crime.

Members of the Falkirk team are pictured on the right, showing delight at receiving their highly commended certificate.

Members of the Falkirk team proudly show off their highly commended certificate

Representatives from CHIAS and Falkirk were not able to make it to the conference but have kindly agreed for their photo and presentation to be uploaded on to the CIPFA website

Anthony then went on to announce this year’s winner and invited Linda Everard from Southend-on-Sea Borough Council to come and collect the council’s trophy and certificate on behalf of everyone on the winning team for their work on

The council’s team had established an internal audit working group, joined by a number of local services to provide ground-breaking audit work. This included a cross-partner review of the Local Safeguarding Children Board where the Council, health, police and probation services co-operate to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people within the local area.

Linda Everard from Southend Council receives the magnificent crystal trophy and winning certificate from Audit Panel Chairman; Anthony Barrett. Plus Linda and members of Southend’s winning team.

PRESS RELEASE ON SOUTHEND’S SUCCESS

MEDIA RELEASE FROM SOUTHEND

PRESENTATION GIVEN BY SOUTHEND AT THE AUDIT CONFERENCE

Comments from the Award Winners

Linda Everard, Head of Internal Audit, Southend-on-Sea B.C:
“We are proud to be recognised by CIPFA for working with our public sector partners to help the Southend Local Strategic Partnership assess whether services, which rely on cross sector working, are delivering real outcomes to the public and specifically local children”

Colin Larby, Audit Manager, Cambridgeshire Health Internal Audit Service
“The CHIAS team were delighted to hear of their success in this year’s Cliff Nicholson award. We are all pleased to have our work recognised in this prestigious national competition, and the certificate presented, is now proudly on display.

Most importantly the certificate is recognition of the value of the work we do for our clients and the contribution we make to the governance of the organisations we serve”

Gordon O’Connor, Internal Audit Manager, Falkirk Council
‘Falkirk Council Internal Audit is delighted to have been highly commended by the Cliff Nicholson Award judging panel for our work on Serious Organised Crime.

As a small Internal Audit Section, the opportunity to work closely with colleagues from the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency has been insightful and of real benefit. Not only has this allowed us to develop our own approach to auditing the risks associated with Serious Organised Crime and to provide assurance and make recommendations to our own senior management team and Audit Committee, it has allowed us to share that approach with other Local Authorities and public sector bodies.

Consideration of Serious Organised Crime risks has become a routine and embedded part of the audit process at Falkirk, and it is extremely pleasing that the efforts of the Internal Audit team have been recognised by CIPFA in this way.’

For further information on the work of the three award winners please contact:

Linda Everard
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council
LindaEverard@southend.gov.uk

Colin Larby
Cambridgeshire Health Internal Audit Service
Colin.Larby@nwmhp.nhs.uk

Gordon O’Connor
Falkirk Council
gordon.oconnor@falkirk.gov.uk

If you would like to find out more about the award then please contact Matthew Allen on telephone: 020 7543 5680 or email: matthew.allen@cipfa.org.uk

If you would like to find out more about the CIPFA annual audit conference please contact Rikki Ellsmore on telephone: 020 8667 8564 or email: rikki.ellsmore@cipfa.org.uk

Click here to view the awards for 2010
Click here to view the awards for 2011