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Joint Protocol for Internal Audit and Clinical Audit

  • Last modified date:
    8 February 2007

This protocol provides guidance for Internal Auditors on working with Clinical Audit when assessing the clinical governance aspects of the Assurance Framework underpinning the Statement on Internal Control.

There has been a range of guidance provided to NHS organisations on the requirements for building an Assurance Framework and for completing the Statement on Internal Control. This particular guidance is specifically designed to help Internal Auditors and deliberately avoids repeating the guidance provided to NHS organisations contained within these documents.

This guidance seeks to provide a high level summary of the key considerations for Internal Auditors when reviewing performance management frameworks in the NHS.

More detailed guidance on the evaluation of performance management frameworks, for example by the production of a detailed checklist, could be produced for future years.

Statements on Internal Control for NHS bodies for 2002/2003 indicated that organisations had not yet fully developed Assurance Frameworks linking principal objectives, principal risks, key controls and assurance requirements.  However, there is a requirement that these frameworks are in place by the end of 2003/2004, and will be used to provide a comprehensive method for managing principal risks and meeting the requirements for the 2003/2004 SIC.

NHS bodies are currently making progress towards completing the Assurance Framework, and should have been considering the assurances they have received during the year, in order to produce an appropriate SIC.  To date, there is little guidance on how to draw an overall conclusion on the assurances received from a variety of sources.

This paper considers the characteristics of the review mechanisms that should be in place in a Health Body's Assurance Framework to bring together the various assurances received, and to provide sufficient evidence to support a SIC which meets NHS requirements for 2003/2004.

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