An inspectorate of the Department for Work and Pensions.

Report

Charter Mark - Awarded for excellence

Resource management

5.1 Benefit administration, including counter-fraud activity, has to be set within the broader context of a local authority’s overall strategies and responsibilities. Members, managers and staff should therefore have a clear sense of direction, purpose and focus for their work. Members and senior officers should also have assurance that HB and CTB administration is effective and secure.

Managing the Benefits service

Performance enablers

5.2 Haringey council met enablers 50 and 51.

5.3 Objectives and targets to improve the performance of the Benefits service were published in the Benefits and Local Taxation Business Plan and showed an incremental rise, across a wide range of performance indicators, for each financial year up to 2010. Targets included:

5.4 The links between the objectives and targets of the Benefits service and the council’s 5 corporate priorities were clearly set out as an appendix to the Business plan. The appendix gave details of the officer with lead responsibility for achieving the objective or target and how success would be measured. Each objective was broken down further into team work plans.

Monitoring performance

5.5 Haringey Council met both enablers 53 and 54.

5.6 The council provided all data to the Department in an accurate and timely manner, including returns against the Performance Standards.

5.7 Performance of the Benefits service was closely monitored and management checks were carried out on a minimum of 4% of all cases.

5.8 The council documented its achievement against targets, including explanations for any failure to meet targets, in its monthly report to the Benefits and Local Taxation manager, who reported performance against a range of performance indicators to senior officers and Members.

Providing for a skilled and competent workforce

5.9 Haringey Council did not meet enablers 55 and 56.

5.10 The council did not have a staff retention policy, either at a corporate level or specific to the Benefits service. See recommendation 17.

5.11 The council told us it had documented policies and procedures relating to:

5.12 However, some of the documentation that covered these policies and procedures was undated, had no version control and was several years old. For example, the council’s Code of Conduct, including disciplinary rules, was dated December 2005. See recommendation 17.

5.13 Staff told us that before starting work for the council they were required to provide references and complete a declaration of interest once they had commenced work. The council also employed agency staff and we were told that they were subjected to the same appointment checks as the council’s permanent staff. However, commencement of employment was the only time they were required to sign a declaration. It is good practice to review declarations of interest annually as circumstances can change. See recommendation 18.

5.14 All new staff received corporate induction training, 2 weeks training on benefits legislation and one week on the operation of the Benefits IT system. Following this, they received one-to-one coaching from colleagues. Staff gave us positive feedback on the quality of the training they had received.

5.15 The council had an appraisal process, which involved staff in monthly, one-to-one discussions about their performance, and 6-monthly reviews with their manager to discuss their progress. These discussions contributed to their annual report.

5.16 The training needs of staff were identified through the appraisal process but staff could nominate themselves for training at any time. Several staff had asked for self-employed and overpayments training but this had not yet been delivered. See recommendation 19.

5.17 The council had completed an analysis of training needs 3 years ago based on a staff self-assessment and had started to keep a centralised record of training completed by staff. However, the records had not been maintained and we found that it was not mandatory for Team leaders to keep a record of the training completed by their staff. See recommendation 19.

5.18 To support the training process the council produced a Smart Learning for Smart Working booklet. This listed learning and development courses, which were available to all grades, from 2007 to 2009.

5.19 Changes in benefits procedures contained in Departmental circulars and bulletins were cascaded to staff in e-mails and through team meetings. This information was then placed on the council’s intranet.

IT systems

5.20 Haringey Council did not meet enabler 59.

5.21 The council used a variety of IT systems to support its administration of benefits, in particular:

5.22 These systems also provided accurate management information and statistical information and enabled the production of management information and exception reports, when needed.

5.23 However, this was in contrast to the IT support provided to the Fraud Investigation team. The team did not have a fraud-specific software system. Instead it had developed, over a period of time, a database and a series of spreadsheets on which relevant fraud data was recorded.

5.24 We found that the time taken to input data to the database and spreadsheets was time consuming. Additionally, management information was difficult to obtain and data was prone to error because of the high level of manual input. Prior to our inspection, a business case had been submitted to replace the existing fraud database with a fraud-specific IT system and this was still under consideration. See recommendation 9.

Assurance

5.25 Large numbers of HB and CTB payments pass through a council’s accounting and payment system. It is therefore essential that there are rigorous internal control mechanisms to provide assurance that the benefits system is secure.

Performance enablers

Internal control mechanisms

5.26 Haringey council met enabler 63.

5.27 The council had arrangements in place to validate the integrity of the performance data of the Benefits service before it was submitted to the Department. The check consisted of a random sample across the full range of data.

5.28 Errors discovered as a result of this check were formally logged and the information used to identify training needs.

Secure administration

5.29 Haringey council met enablers 64 and 65.

5.30 The council had a risk-based, Internal audit programme, approved by Members. It examined the working practices of the Benefits service, including the Fraud Investigation team, for compliance with procedural and legislative requirements. The Benefits service was classed as a key financial system and was audited on an annual basis.

5.31 The Internal audit team comprised the Head of Audit and Risk Management who had responsibility for the overall management of the Internal audit programme, risk management and insurance. However, the day-to-day Internal audit work was outsourced to a contractor.

5.32 The Benefits service was last audited in February 2007 and focused on key risk areas identified by local risk criteria. Performance Standards had not been used as part of the audit methodology.

5.33 Weaknesses in procedures had been identified in several areas. These included:

5.34 A total of 7 recommendations had been made in the 2006/07 report which also included 2 recommendations carried forward from 2005/06. These related to an out-of-date user list and delays in referring cases to the Rent Service, and had only been partially implemented. However, the council had accepted all of the recommendations and had plans in place to rectify the weaknesses identified.

5.35 We talked to External audit about its relationship with Internal audit and its view on the effectiveness of the service. It confirmed that a managed audit approach was used and it relied on Internal audit to conduct reviews of the council’s main financial and processing systems on its behalf.

5.36 The relationship between the teams was described as good and regular meetings were held to discuss the future work programme and prevent duplication of effort. Both teams had access to each other’s working papers and jointly attended Audit Committee meetings. We were told that, in general, the council responded positively to External audit recommendations.

5.37 The Internal audit arrangements in place provided assurance to Members and senior managers on the effectiveness and security of the council’s benefits administration. However, this assurance would be enhanced if the arrangements included an assessment of the performance of the Benefits service, including its counter-fraud function, against the Department’s Performance Standards.
See recommendation 20.

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