Veritau provide a range of assurance and advisory services to help your school or Trust to comply with relevant legal and regulatory obligations, manage risks and identify areas for improvement.
These services include data protection officer (DPO), internal audit and counter fraud support.
About our service
Veritau is a shared service with an established reputation for providing high quality and cost-effective services to North Yorkshire Council and many other public sector organisations.
Assurance can be a complicated area. Our services are designed to work in harmony and provide a holistic approach to help you to manage your school effectively, and ensure that your services, systems and governance frameworks are achieving the required outcomes.
We have a large team of professionally-trained experts with specialised knowledge in counter fraud, data protection and internal audit. We can help ensure your statutory requirements are met, from compliance with data protection legislation through to meeting your reporting obligations as set out in the Academy Trust Handbook.
We offer a comprehensive assurance portfolio, tailored to suit the needs of your school. You can rely on the expertise of professionals who understand the regulatory environment, governance arrangements, controls, the management of risks, standards and best practice within schools.
How we can help
We recognise that all organisations are different, so our services can be tailored to meet your specific needs. Our approach is forward-looking and collaborative, and we view assurance as more than just a box-ticking exercise. Officers listen carefully to your requirements and concerns, review existing arrangements, and design the service accordingly. An overview of the service offer is below.
Data protection officer (DPO)
Data protection can seem like a daunting area, and we understand the pressure that schools are under to comply with the UK GDPR and keep data safe. We provide a DPO service to over 600 schools and multi-academy trusts. The service includes access to a large suite of model documents and templates, an advice hotline, regular newsletters, training webinars, and an optional annual compliance review.
Your DPO will support you with everything from simple queries to complex issues, such as data breaches and requests or complaints from parents or staff about data protection matters. We also act as the first point of contact for enquiries from the UK regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office. The service also includes access to Veritau Learn, our dedicated e-learning platform.
Internal audit
Internal audit is all about taking an independent view of your key business processes, risks and objectives, and providing insights that add real value. Our internal audit service provides a professional, cost effective and resilient service, using the latest audit tools and techniques. The internal audit programme of work can include a mixture of both financial and non-financial engagements and it’s flexible so can be updated if risks or priorities change during the year. Our internal audit service also includes support with new projects and general support and advice on your controls and processes.
Counter fraud
From helping you implement fraud prevention measures to investigating whistleblowing concerns, our corporate fraud team can help protect your school from the risk of fraud. Our specialist team will highlight fraud risks, develop prevention policies and strategies, provide fraud awareness training, and investigate cases of suspected fraud or other wrongdoing. With proper policies and procedures in place, you can be confident of what do to if someone in your school raises a whistleblowing concern, or you are subject to an attempted fraud.
