For the twelve months to the end of March 2025, the average number of day’s sick absence in the council was 14.58 days per full time employee as compared to 17 days in 2023-24. The council has told me that the reasons for the decrease of 2.42 days were two fold.
Consistent application of the Attendance Policy.
The launch of the Health and Wellbeing Strategy in April 2024, which saw a marked increase in health and wellbeing activity, 94 events delivered which were attended by 1,367 staff.
The Local Government Auditor recommends that council carefully monitors and manages absence levels on a continuous basis to improve operational efficiency and reduce lost productivity.
Local Government Auditor’s Report 2025
The annual Local Government Auditor’s Report was published in December 2025 and is available on the NIAO website. The report summarises the Local Government Auditor’s perspective on financial audits and performance improvement work during 2023-24.
The report highlights areas of strength and areas for improvement within local councils. It also considers important issues that may affect councils in the medium term. The council and its members should consider this report in the context of its own activities for any improvements that could be made.
Performance improvement audit and assessment
Under the Local Government (Northern Ireland) Act 2014, the Council has a statutory duty to make arrangements to secure continuous improvement in the exercise of its functions and to set improvement objectives for each financial year.
Each year councils are required to produce an Annual Improvement Plan for the year ahead and a self-assessment report for the year just past. The Local Government Auditor is required to audit the prior year self-assessment report and the incoming Annual Improvement Plan and assess whether the council is likely to have complied with the legislation.
The Local Government Auditor’s Annual Improvement Report for 2024-25 was published on 31 March 2025 and concludes that council met its statutory duties in relation to publication of the 2023-24 Self-assessment Report and 2024-25 Annual Improvement Plan.
Whole of Government Accounts (WGA)
Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) are consolidated financial statements for the whole of the UK public sector. The National Audit Office audits these accounts and sets the overall audit approach. As such the council is within the band of organisations in 2024-25 where additional audit procedures were not required.
The Whole of Government Accounts annual return for 2024-25 has been submitted for HM Treasury’s consolidation process.
National Fraud Initiative (NFI)
The council participates in the National Fraud Initiative, a UK wide data matching exercise undertaken every two years that is designed to highlight savings for the public sector as a whole.
The report summarising the results of the data matching exercise for the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2024 was published on 22 October 2024 and is available on the NIAO website.
The 2024-25 data matching exercise is currently underway, and the results are due to be published mid-2026.
Audit Fee
The audit fees for the financial audit and performance improvement audit are in line with the estimate.
