Risk Assurance Maps and Risk Assurance Frameworks are a vital tool for a modern progressive internal audit function.
A robust assurance map or risk assurance framework can:
- Give greater confidence to stakeholders that key risks and objectives are being properly managed
- Help to clarify how the risk assurance jigsaw is joined up – or not
- Act as a tool to enhance the quality of risk assessments by the wider organisation
- Act as an important accountability framework to confirm and clarify how key business objectives and key business risks are being managed
- Inform board and audit committee debates about assurance
- Provide stakeholders with a clearer sense of the best way to allocate the resources of internal audit
Having first worked on assurance mapping in 2003, Director James Paterson learned a huge amount in this area working with a number of the big 4 consulting forms. In 2010 he started the first Assurance Mapping course for the IIA UK and in 2011 he began to train for CIPFA UK – focusing on Assurance frameworks.
We have worked with a number of leading clients on risk assurance mapping. We help heads of internal audit to refocus their efforts in relation to risk assurance mapping, since it is very easy to spend a lot of time an effort in this arena with limited benefit.
I contacted [James] for advice as to how Assurance Mapping techniques could be applied in my own authority. Not only were his ideas very constructive, his approach was very professional yet carried out in a friendly, easy going manner which greatly helped my understanding of the issues involved. James was then always happy to deal with any follow up queries I had and he helped to fine tune and discuss the approach with the rest of my team who similarly very quickly formed the same positive view of James’s style and manner. We have recently introduced this new approach into my authority and the results and comments to date have been very encouraging, thanks in no small way to James’s advice and assistance. I would have no hesitation recommending James to anyone.
James has helped me and my team in a number of areas, examples being improving the way we conduct and report on our audits and helping with our assurance mapping. This has all been done in a positive and supportive manner, helping the team to embed learning from these sessions.