Home
About Tilia
Solutions
What are we doing?
Suggested reading and
listening
Comments
Contact Tilia
Solutions
A month of quiet catch up and recovery, with a trip to Cipfa's new headquarters (very impressive, although the Prayer Room did confuse) to discuss the Governance Mark (a potential new string to my bow). I also provided risk training in Winchester, including an interesting session assessing members' risk appetite. I ended the month with a singing day including Allegri's Miserere and a soloist who could just float those top Cs. Delicious
A busier month with my first trip of the year to Brussels to talk about internal control. All these months of French Duolingo practice did seem to have an effect as I'm sure I could understand more easily what was being said. I also spent time with a police audit committee, having carried out a review of their effectiveness. We had a useful discussion about strengths and weaknesses and I've been invited back next year. I ended the month in Swansea (I'm ashamed to say that this was my first ever visit although I spent my teenage years only an hour down the road), talking to a health board about risk management. They too invited me back, which was very gratifying.
March foccussed entirely on risk: I went to Brussels again, for risk management training, to Cumbria for risk management facilitiation (except we hit a snag when we realised that the organisation hadn't identified its objectives for the year) and I finished the month in London providing FoRM training for the IRM. You would think that I'd be "risked-out" but I'm seriously considering getting a formal risk management qualification. Watch this space ....
The focus in April was on Public Sector Audit Standards (PSIAS) as I worked with CIPFA to develop an evaluation tool, visited a council to discuss the aforementioned tool and then ended the month carrying out a review of a shared service internal audit function. In between all of this audit work, I sang, carried on working on my French and we had our village hall AGM. I am now officially in my last year as the treasurer.
May was spent on matters relating to risk, revisiting Cumbria to consider objectives following the aborted risk facilitation session and planning the risk facilitation session, and delivering my second FoRM of the year (for which I received glowing accolades - thanks!). I delivered audit committee training to two government departments as well (more risk, albeit tangentially). I also took the plunge and signed up for the IRM certificate. I'm hoping my friend's assessment of the work required is a more accurate estimate than the 200+ hours suggested by the IRM.
I have now undertaken what may be my last trip to Brussels, delivering management supervision and introduction to internal audit courses at the start of the month. I hope I've got enough Eurostar points this month to retain my Carte Blanche status for another year ... I've also paid my final visit to Cumbria for a successful risk identification facilitation with the management team. We got there at last. And I paid a speedy trip to London to spend an hour with a London Borough's audit committee to challenge their effectiveness. Given their problems with maintaining a quorum and the fact that only two out of five committee memembers turned up, I wonder if I delivered. Life now becomes quieter and I turn to my summer pursuits - the garden, singing and the little matter of the study that I signed up to.
It was fortunate that July was a quiet month workwise as it was a busy month socially. I attended a TIS meeting, which is always a thought-provoking time as we discuss new ideas in relation to risk and how we can present those. I was pleased, at last, to be able to add to the reading list and also to have another document accepted. I came away with some interesting research to carry out on using NLP principles in risk management. My other work during the month was to write the CIPFA testing methodology for PSIAS external assessments. Hopefully this will make both the review and the quality assessment speedier and more effective.
August alternated between singing, sewing, the garden and a little work thrown in. The singing (two concerts, a compline, matins and evensong in four days) was exhasuting but great fun. Bits are still going round my head (Stanford's Mag and Nunc were particularly dramatic). Workwise, I paid two trips to a council in the next county (how nice just to nip up the road) to talk risk registers with their senior management team. A worthwhile exercise they have reported back.
I managed to combine a mini-break with work, by going to Liverpool and Darlington with a day off in between, spent exploring the glories of Fountains Abbey. The training was interesting too, working with a central government department delivering FoRM in a day-long version. I also spent two days delivering audit committee training to two groups of members. I continue to be surprised at the different paths a course can take depending on the delegates. I rounded September off with an afternoon trip to talk risk in Paris, waving to the sights as I raced past and nearly getting stuck forever on the metro (no helpful staff around, unlike the London underground) as I hadn't validated my ticket.
October had a police flavour to it, as I helped two audit committees with their enquiries. I had a return trip to Wales (2016 is already in the planning), finally making it to Llandudno. We had great fun with the Mona Lisa .... I also spent time on bids to do PSIAS external evaluations for CIPFA as we are now in the middle of the first five year period. I suspect I will be doing a lot of them in 2016.
In November, I finally made it to Paris for fun, spending a lovely weekend there the week before the tragic shootings of the 13th. We felt happy, welcome and safe in the Marais, not that far from the 10th and 11th arrondissments where it all happened. I so hope that Paris can recover and show ISIS what we are made of. November was also a month of audit committees, as I trained, sat in on one and fed back how it went (generally good).
A quiet month, workwise, to end the year with a day's training for me: my first ever training the trainer. This was a great day spent with fellow risk trainers learning the ins and outs of the IRM's new Fundamentals of Risk Management course. It will certainly be a new way of doing things for me, with toys on the table, drawing and other activities. Domestically things were less quiet, with decorating, a choir concert (my first ever Messiah) and taking Christmas to France, which was lovely although I won't be doing that drive again if I can avoid it. And I was glad that the month wasn't too busy as I am bracing myself for a hectic start to 2016. Happy New Year one and all!
2012 2013 2014 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024