External auditors say there are 'no significant weaknesses' in how Rutland County Council is operating. 

At the audit and risk meeting last week (December 10), external auditor Helen Lillington, of Grant Thornton, said Rutland County Council, which is in the middle of a three-year savings plan, did not have any flashing red on its value for money report. 

She said, though, that the council 'cannot afford to take its eye off the ball' with its schools budget. 

She said 'none of us know what is going to happen' around the current arrangement in which councils are currently permitted to go into the red on education funding – which comes down from central government and is then largely passed onto schools – but that is due to end in 2026. She said if the government called in the debts, the situation would cause some authorities to go bankrupt – but that would not be the case for Rutland. 

The Liberal Democrat-run county council is predicting that it will have a £5m school's budget deficit by the end of this year. 

The value for money audit gave the authority a relatively clean bill of health, with no noted significant weaknesses. In total auditors made six recommendations which included coming up with new ways to reduce the special educational needs costs; setting up a savings board to monitor the savings programme and paying attention to capital projects so there is not a slippage on timings. 

The auditors have not as yet finalised the audit of the 2023/24 accounts, but Ms Lillington, said she was confident the accounts would be signed off by this month. This means the authority will not have to enter into a backstop arrangement, which will be the case for many local authorities, which means the accounts are not given assurance. 

Across the country audits of local authorities have been delayed for several years due to a news system and staff shortages. The situation led to the national audit office giving a 'disclaimed' conclusion on the government's own accounts for 2022-23. This means it did not have enough information to give assurance on spending and is the first time it has ever happened. 

The meeting also heard from the internal audit team. Head auditor Rachel Ashley-Caunt said her team is on track to deliver 90 per cent of the planned audits on time. She said an internal audit on flooding would be moved to next year – which could then look at whether recommendations from the scrutiny committee had been implemented – and said a new internal audit on building control would be carried out.