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DIOCESE OF CHICHESTER ACADEMY TRUST
INDEPENDENT REPORTING ACCOUNTANT'S ASSURANCE REPORT ON REGULARITY TO DIOCESE OF CHICHESTER ACADEMY TRUST AND THE EDUCATION AND SKILLS FUNDING AGENCY
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 AUGUST 2020
In accordance with the terms of our engagement letter dated 18 October 2019 and further to the requirements of the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) as included in the Academies Accounts Direction 2019 to 2020, we have carried out an engagement to obtain limited assurance about whether the expenditure disbursed and income received by Diocese of Chichester Academy Trust during the period 1 September 2019 to 31 August 2020 have been applied to the purposes identified by Parliament and the financial transactions conform to the authorities which govern them.
This report is made solely to Diocese of Chichester Academy Trust and ESFA in accordance with the terms of our engagement letter. Our work has been undertaken so that we might state to the Diocese of Chichester Academy Trust and ESFA those matters we are required to state in a report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than Diocese of Chichester Academy Trust and ESFA, for our work, for this report, or for the conclusion we have formed.
Respective responsibilities of Diocese of Chichester Academy Trust's accounting officer and the reporting accountant
The accounting officer is responsible, under the requirements of Diocese of Chichester Academy Trust's funding agreement with the Secretary of State for Education dated 1 February 2015 and the Academies Financial Handbook, extant from 1 September 2019, for ensuring that expenditure disbursed and income received is applied for the purposes intended by Parliament and the financial transactions conform to the authorities which govern them.
Our responsibilities for this engagement are established in the United Kingdom by our profession's ethical guidance, and are to obtain limited assurance and report in accordance with our engagement letter and the requirements of the Academies Accounts Direction 2019 to 2020. We report to you whether anything has come to our attention in carrying out our work which suggests that in all material respects, expenditure disbursed and income received during the period 1 September 2019 to 31 August 2020 have not been applied to purposes intended by Parliament or that the financial transactions do not conform to the authorities which govern them.
Approach
We conducted our engagement in accordance with the Academies Accounts Direction 2019 to 2020 issued by ESFA. We performed a limited assurance engagement as defined in our engagement letter.
The objective of a limited assurance engagement is to perform such procedures as to obtain information and explanations in order to provide us with sufficient appropriate evidence to express a negative conclusion on regularity.
A limited assurance engagement is more limited in scope than a reasonable assurance engagement and consequently does not enable us to obtain assurance that we would become aware of all significant matters that might be identified in a reasonable assurance engagement.Accordingly, we do not express a positive opinion.
Our engagement includes examination, on a test basis, of evidence relevant to the regularity and propriety of the academy trust's income and expenditure.
The work undertaken to draw to our conclusion includes:
• consideration of the evidence supporting the accounting officer's statements on regularity, propriety, and
compliance;
• analytical procedures on the general activities of the multi-academy trust;
• a review of minutes of committees and board meetings which may be relevant to regularity;
• consideration of discussions with key personnel including the accounting officer and governing body;
• tests of control have been carried out on a control activity which are relevant to regularity;
• substantive testing of individual transactions.
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