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From quiet to manic in one single leap as I have visited the audit committee of a London Borough twice, once for the fairly standard pre-meeting training session but my second visit was spent going through the agenda for that night's meeting suggesting questions to be asked. The members were grateful; I'm not so sure what the officers thought. I've also started a longer-term project helping a county council develop its partnership risk management arrangements. This is a new aspect of risk for me and is making me think about things differently. I ended the month spending my nights at a Champneys spa and my days carrying out a PSIAS review. Sadly, all the fun classes and treatments took place during the day so I spent a lot of my time there feeling that I was missing the point. The PSIAS review, on the other hand, went well and the client was very positive about the process.
The start of the month was spent being blown to pieces in various parts of the north of England. I truly am a soft southerner. I started by carrying out a review of risk arrangements for a district council where I have provided risk training in the past. Fortunately I didn't find myself contradicting what I had previously said, just updating it. Once again, the practicalities versus the theory of risk management made an interesting contrast. I then provided two training courses on internal audit, one an open course with lots of contrasts and one an in-house course where we were able to concentrate on their methodology. As always, I learnt a lot from the delegates. I completed the month with a PSIAS review - another very positive experience with a complimentary client.
March started with the excellent news that I got through my risk exams (a merit and a distinction) and I can now include IRM(Cert) after my name. It will be nice to be able to prove that I know what I'm talking about. The big question, of course, is do I do the remaining four units to become an FIRM? After not very much soul searching, I decided not to. I spent a fascinating few days at a government agency looking at their risk arrangements and enjoying being back in London. The rest of the month was spent setting things up for the rush to come.
I concentrated on audit matters this month, carrying out another PSIAS review, discussing with CIPFA how we are to manage the greater volume of reviews that seem to be coming up and sorting out a bid for a group review. I also attended the audit conference in Nottingham to talk about what is coming out of these reviews. I particularly appreciating the old music hall in which we had supper the night before. To make a slight change, I trained a large internal audit team on some of the considerations to build into audits.
Work is steadily ramping up and I spent the month flitting from topic to topic, again with quite a bit of setting up for future work going on. A new experience for me was an early morning conference call as I had to discuss something with colleagues in the Philippines. We hadn't factored in rural Irish internet connections but, after a lot of back and forth, we managed a useful discusion and I'm hoping a training visit to Delhi will come out of it. I provided more internal audit training and was also trained myself, to carry out reviews of agencies who are hoping to provide locum staff to the NHS. I ended the month by carrying out eight of these reviews - hard work but interesting. I was pleased to hear that we had won the bid for the group PSIAS review.
After a welcome break due to half term, it was back into the swing of the NHS work, with the added advantage of a little trip to Plymouth and Truro. I had to have a cream tea while I was there, of course. I broke my "one PSIAS review a month" rule and, combining that with a few sales trips and other bits and pieces, it has been a good distraction from the pain of the referendum. I was struck by two points made in relation to this that link closely to risk and explained the way in which campaigns were being run: we fear a loss more than we relish a gain, hence the remain campaign's concentration on what we stood to lose if we left; but if we believe that we have already lost a huge amount, we are more prepared to take a leap in the dark to try and address it, hence the leave campaign's focus. Also, most people have a bias towards optimism (not auditors, of course) which explains the leave campaign's assertions that everything will be rosy once we have left the EU (written on the afternoon of 23 June with fingers firmly crossed for the right result).
Where did my nice quiet summer go? Two days a week (at least) supporting a police body with their risk management (it was great to be doing rather than advising, but it did also remind me why I prefer the consultancy life to that of being an employee), plus visits from family, plus attending all the concerts at the Milton Abbey International Music Festival (the amazing Voces 8 doing their fantasic stuff), plus singing in the Wessex Festival (two concerts and three services over a weekend together with rehearsals) all rounded off with a trip to Portugal to visit my daughter. A great way to spend a summer.
My bluff was called - all those years when I have said that I'd love to visit India, fairly safe in the knowledge that it wouldn't happen, and I have just returned from a fantastic week in Delhi with two days' training on risk-based audit for the Indian Government internal audit functions and the rest of the time to sight-see. The training was interesting as some of the audit teams were still at the tick and bash stage, acting as a management check on transactions before they were implemented. Talking to them about independence and risk-based audit was perhaps a step too far. Other teams, however, are clearly on their way towards this and just need a little encouragement and support. I enjoyed being addressed as ma'am (to rhyme with jam) or Miss Elizabeth (future delegates please note!). Delhi was hot and humid and full of poverty but also full of colour and delight. The driving (not by me but by my taxi drivers) was probably the most scary I have ever seen but it seems to work, with no accidents or bumps in evidence. I'm already planning my return ... From India to Leeds, for audit committee training, and then Brussels for risk, fraud and internal control training. Despite my vow not to get worked up about Brexit, we all bewailed the current situation. I ended the the month (and started October) with two weeks in Lincolnshre carrying out PSIAS reviews.
After a second week in Lincolnshire it was nice to spend much of the rest of the month at home, other than a day in Brussels, where, once again, we bewailed Brexit in between talking about risk and internal control (a bit ironic really - I'd love to have seen David Cameron's risk register ...)
After the peace and quiet of October, November was a bit of a shock. I started with audit committee training in Norfolk (nice to catch up with old colleagues), followed by another PSIAS review of a shared service that was struggling to be a real partnership. I caught up with the police body that I had worked with over the summer to help them update their strategic risks (technology hindering rather than helping) and then a second PSIAS review (so much for my one a month commitment). I went from chilly East Anglia to steamy Jamaica, which was a bit of a shock, ending the month working with the Government of Jamaica on their risk management arrangements. No time to sight-see this time, but we have four more visits planned in 2017 and I'm looking forward to my trip to the Blue Mountains.
No jet setting for December, just two PSIAS reviews back to back for a developing partnership. I was surprised at how unconnected they were. I was also suprised at how much time I saved when I didn't have to type up my interview notes for QA.
And so ended my most successful trading year yet. Thanks everyone and good wishes for 2017.
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