Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from
material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue a Report of the Auditors that includes our opinion.
Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.
The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:
In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement in respect of irregularities, including fraud and
non-compliance with laws and regulations, we considered the following:
- the nature of the industry, control environment and business performance including the design of the group's
remuneration policies, key drivers for directors' remuneration, bonus levels and performance targets;
- our enquiries of management about their own identification and assessment of the risks of irregularities;
- any matters we identified having obtained and reviewed the group's documentation of their policies and
procedures relating to:
- identifying, evaluating and complying with laws and regulations and whether they were aware of any instances of non-compliance;
- detecting and responding to the risks of fraud and whether they have knowledge of any actual, suspected or
alleged fraud;
- the matters discussed among the audit engagement team regarding how and where fraud might occur in the
financial statements and any potential indicators of fraud.
As a result of these procedures, we considered the opportunities and incentives that may exist within the organisation for fraud and identified the greatest potential for fraud in the following areas: bank payment processing, payroll, sales
processing, and credit card/cash transactions. In common with all audits under lSAs (UK), we are also required to
perform specific procedures to respond to the risk of management override.
We also obtained an understanding of the legal and regulatory framework that the group operates in, focusing on
provisions of those laws and regulations that had a direct effect on the determination of material amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. The key laws and regulations we considered in this context included the Companies Act 2006, Ofsted, pensions legislation and tax legislation.
Audit response to risks identified:-
Our procedures to respond to the risks identified above included the following:
- reviewing the financial statement disclosures and testing to supporting documentation to assess compliance with
provisions of relevant laws and regulations described as having a direct effect on the financial statements;
- enquiring of management concerning actual and potential litigation and claims;
- reviewing a sample of bank payments, sales transactions (including accrued income) and payroll entries;
- reviewing correspondence with Ofsted in the year.
- performing analytical procedures to identify any unusual or unexpected relationships that may indicate risks of
material misstatement due to fraud; and
- in addressing the risk of fraud through management override of controls, testing the appropriateness of journal
entries and other adjustments; assessing whether the judgements made in making accounting estimates are indicative of potential bias; and evaluating the business rationale of any significant transactions that are unusual or outside the normal course of business.
We also communicated relevant identified laws and regulations and potential fraud risks to all engagement team
members and remained alert to any indications of fraud or non-compliance with laws and regulations throughout the
audit.
In addition, we considered provisions of other laws and regulations that do not have a direct effect on the financial
statements but compliance with which may be fundamental to the group's ability to operate or to avoid a material
penalty.
There are inherent limitations in our audit procedures described above. The more removed that laws and regulations are from financial transactions, the less likely it is that we would become aware of non-compliance. Auditing standards also limit the procedures required to identify non-compliance with laws and regulations to enquiry of the directors and other management and the inspection of regulatory and legal correspondence, if any. Material misstatements that arise due to fraud can be harder to detect than those that arise from error as they may involve deliberate concealment or collusion.
A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council's website www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our auditor's report.