In May 2023 we appointed independent consultants Touchstone Renard to review our work to develop the national auditor appointment scheme for the audits from 2023/24, with a specific focus to:
- review, assess and comment on the effectiveness of our external communications and engagement activities for the project; and
- provide an independent, insightful view informed by external stakeholder feedback as to whether PSAA could have adopted different or better approaches to any aspects of our preparations.
We have published Touchstone Renard’s final report and a standalone Executive Summary. The report makes recommendations for PSAA including some relating to the next procurement, and contains our initial responses. We will update those responses periodically going forwards.
The report also highlights concerns for the wider local audit system to consider, reflecting the wide range of issues that respondents raised with Touchstone Renard that go beyond PSAA’s role. We will ensure that those concerns continue to be heard by the local audit system partners as work progresses to address the challenges.