CHEIA February 2021 Update

Message from the Chair
This time I have a favour to ask of everyone.  Not just a single favour either, but a recurring one…
The Executive has spent a lot of time in recent months deliberating about how CHEIA can better support its members, not just during these lockdown days when we can’t meet together in person but looking further ahead too.  You’ve heard it said before, but we’d like to build up the members-section of the CHEIA website into a really good, go-to place for whatever stuff we find ourselves needing to plan and carry out our audits.  We need your help to do this! 
So next time you’re asking around, have you audited this or that, why not use the discussion boards to ask your questions? And when you’ve done your research, and done your audit, we’d all like to share what you’ve learnt – your audit programme or equivalent, your report, lessons learnt, tips for others, etc – if we all share, we can all save time.  Just email Nkechi – contact@cheia.ac.uk – and she will do the posting for you.
Juliet Simpson, Chair of CHEIA
Head of Internal Audit, Newcastle University
juliet.simpson@newcastle.ac.uk

CHEIA Conference 2021 – hold the date!
Yes, there will be a CHEIA Conference this year! 
The Executive is busy making arrangements to hold the 2021 conference virtually, with a full programme of presentations, workshops and discussions and plenty of opportunities to catch up with colleagues. We will announce further details in due course, but in the meantime please hold the week commencing 06 September 2021 free in your diaries.

CHEIA Website – Get the Best out of it
There is so much you can do on the CHEIA website, like advertising any roles you have in your team, booking for CHEIA events, catching up with current and previous editions of the CHEIA Monthly Updates as well as looking up the available materials which can support you in your work or personal development. 
As mentioned in the January issue of the Update, we would like you to help us to build up the resources on the website by submitting your own material, for example:
- template documents (terms of reference, reports, working papers)
- work plans for particular audits (risk and control matrices or the like)
- audit policy papers/statements (such as how reports are graded, how we decide whether recommendations are H/M/L etc), business plans, resourcing strategies/models, training plans, QAIPs, etc.
This list is by no means exhaustive and we would welcome any resources that you find creative or useful. Thank you in advance. 

CHEIA Bitesize Events
We’re finalising details for the next Bitesize session and should be sending further information to you within the next week. Since the first session in April 2020 on ‘Internal Audit’s Role during and after the Pandemic’, we have organised nine sessions in total, attracting more than 300 delegates in all. Were you able to join in any of the sessions? Have you had any further reflections on the topics shared? Feel free to start a conversation on the Discussion Board on the website and if you have any suggestions for future topics or any other comments, please email contact@cheia.ac.uk.

BUFDG Audit Survey
BUFDG have announced that the annual audit survey will take place in March 2021. This is happening a bit later than usual to accommodate institutions who are taking advantage of the later accounts’ submission date. To make this Survey a useful tool for the sector, please look out for it and encourage the responsible officer in your institution to complete it. Only those who complete the survey receive the report that is produced.

Monthly Updates in 2021
We are looking for more input from CHEIA members in the Monthly Updates. If you have any feedback on any of the Bitesize sessions you have taken part in, how useful you have found CHEIA and the HE Internal Audit community or any tips, short pieces or links to yours or other blogs which is relevant to HE Internal Audit, we want to hear from you. Our next Update will be on 8 March, so please send in your contribution on or before 1 March.

BUFDG Conference
BUFDG (https://www.bufdg.ac.uk/bufdg-2021) continues to update information about their 2021 conference. This is a reminder that they are opening up attendance this year to include more people than usual and the cost of the conference will be on an institutional, rather than individual basis. The programme is available on their website. Do check with your colleagues if you can be part of the booking to take advantage of the sessions on offer.

Action Learning - a Powerful Development Experience for Leaders
BUFDG is partnering with ARMA, AUDE, CHEIA, HEPA, HESPA, SCONUL, UCISA and UHR to offer online Action Learning Sets to Senior Leaders.  An Action Learning Set is a small, confidential forum where each participant brings to the meeting an organisational task, problem, challenge or opportunity on which they intend to act.  Supported by a skilled facilitator, other participants then pose questions and raise discussions which help the presenter create insight and options for action. Further information is available on BUFDG: British Universities Finance Directors Group

Sector News
HE Governance 
In case you missed it, here is the Time Higher Education piece by a professor of governance and leadership at Henley Business School published in mid-January.
Governance failings are putting UK universities at risk of collapse | Times Higher Education (THE)

Auditor Spotlight
Kathryn Hardwidge, Group Internal Audit Manager, Jisc
1) Why did you become an internal auditor?
Having trained as a chartered accountant in practice looking at financial statements, I wanted to look at the whole entity and help to improve from the inside rather than judge from the outside.
2) What is your favourite CHEIA memory?
My first CHEIA conference in Glasgow and the Riverside Transport Museum (even the coach trip there!)
3) What are your hobbies/interests outside of audit?
At the moment, my time is spent with our two young English Setters – a welcome distraction at any time but particularly helpful in trying to shift the covid stone…
4) What do you wish you knew more about?
How to cut my own hair during a lockdown!
5) What’s your favourite food and drink?
Anything during a tour of vineyards in Surrey, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, France, Spain, Italy……
6) Where is the best place you’ve visited?
A difficult choice as I have been fortunate to visit many fantastic places.  Gorah Elephant Camp, South Africa and Knights Inlet, Canada spring to mind immediately as seeing the animals (Elephants & Grizzly Bears respectively) in their natural environment was simply magical. 

Contact CHEIA:
CHEIA Administrator 
contact@cheia.ac.uk