Page 17 - 2019-20 Annual Report and Financial Statements

DIOCESE OF CHICHESTER ACADEMY TRUST GOVERNANCE STATEMENT (CONTINUED)
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2020
The accounting officer considers how the academy trust's use of its resources has provided good value for money during each academic year, and reports to the board of trustees where value for money can be improved, including the use of benchmarking data where available. The accounting officer for the academy trust has delivered improved value for money during the year by:
• continuing to reduce, proportionally to the size of the Trust, the support costs to ensure more funds are spent on education focussed activities;
• continuing to centralise a number of business and administrative functions, resulting in greater cost and time efficiency;
• carrying out a number of staffing structure reviews and adjusting the staffing structure to better provide support for educational improvement whilst delivering good value for money.
The purpose of the system of internal control
The system of internal control is designed to manage risk to a reasonable level rather than to eliminate all risk of failure to achieve policies, aims and objectives. It can therefore only provide reasonable and not absolute assurance of effectiveness. The system of internal control is based on an on-going process designed to identify and prioritise the risks to the achievement of academy trust policies, aims and objectives, to evaluate the likelihood of those risks being realised and the impact should they be realised, and to manage them efficiently, effectively and economically. The system of internal control has been in place in Diocese Of Chichester Academy Trust for the period 1 September 2019 to 31 August 2020 and up to the date of approval of the annual report and accounts.
Capacity to handle risk
The board of trustees has reviewed the key risks to which the academy trust is exposed together with the operating, financial and compliance controls that have been implemented to mitigate those risks. The board of trustees is of the view that there is a formal ongoing process for identifying, evaluating and managing the academy trust's significant risks that has been in place for the period 1 September 2019 to 31 August 2020 and up to the date of approval of the annual report and accounts. This process is regularly reviewed by the board of trustees.
The risk and control framework
The Trust's system of internal financial control is based on a framework of regular management information and administrative procedures including the segregation of duties and a system of delegation and accountability. In particular it includes:
• comprehensive budgeting and monitoring systems with an annual budget and periodic financial reports which are reviewed and agreed by the board of trustees;
• regular reviews by the Audit and Resources Committee of reports which indicate financial performance against the forecasts and of major purchase plans, capital works and expenditure programmes;
• setting targets to measure financial and other performance;
• clearly defined purchasing (asset purchase or capital investment) guidelines; • delegation of authority and segregation of duties;
• identification and management of risks.
During the previous financial year, the board of trustees engaged a qualified firm of auditors to carry out the audit function. The internal auditors report directly to the Audit & Resources committee, and together with Executive Officers, advise on the principal focus of internal audit for the following 12 months.
Schedule of work was completed as planned and no material issues were raised. Only a number of low-level issues were highlighted which have since been resolved and will be included in the testing as part of the 2020/21 internal audit schedule.
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