The Internal Audit Service provides important assurance and support to the Council and is staffed by committed and professional officers. At the time of our review, we identified several areas which could be strengthened to ensure the effectiveness of the service and its ability to support the Council to deliver value for money through its audits. These relate to audit planning, reporting, performance management, leadership support and value of the role of internal audit. 
We are concerned that some of our findings are similar to those identified in our Special Inspection report in 2014 and follow-up of the special inspection in 2015. However, we recognise these reports are over 10 years old. Since then, there have been significant events such as COVID -19 and leadership changes at the Council. 
The Council is already aware of most of these areas and is in the process of taking actions to address our findings. However, these were not underway or embedded at the time of our fieldwork to enable us to assess their impact. The Council will have the opportunity to set out how it is addressing our recommendations in its management response form.