About Us

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Our not-for-profit business model and focus on supporting clients means our service offering will be financially competitive, whilst adding significant additional benefits over a private sector solution - ranging from our willingness to work collaboratively and transfer knowledge, to providing on-going support and integration with your existing internal assurance services.  Our work is delivered in full compliance with Public Sector Internal Audit Standards.   We are also a founding partner of “The Internal Audit Network” (TIAN) which comprises all NHS Audit Consortia across the country. Collectively TIAN delivers internal audit to far more NHS Trusts and Commissioners than any commercial firm - covering over 150 different NHS bodies, plus many other organisations across the wider public and third sectors. This national coverage gives us the ability to call on over 200 specialist staff, as well as share best practice and undertake benchmarking. 

Value For Money Clear Pricing:  We can provide highly competitive day rates for the staff assigned, or agree a total price for one-off projects, co-sourcing or the delivery of full annual audit plans. Our rates are fully inclusive of expenses for work undertaken in London..

Our team has extensive experience of working collaboratively with lawyers, HR departments and other professionals to provide efficient and cost effective input to fully investigate cases. We can also call on a bank of specialist associates if required. e.g. To provide expert mediation services or clinical input.  Beyond the core element to investigate allegations and provide a detailed independent report, our depth of knowledge and technical expertise can diagnose root causes, and propose effective solutions to prevent or minimise reoccurrences. In the event of fraud or corruption being identified during the investigation process, we also have the expertise to respond and provide a seamless service in that area.  Our not-for-profit business model and focus on supporting clients means our service offering will be financially competitive, whilst adding significant additional benefits over a commercial solution - particularly regarding retention and transfer of knowledge, problem solving capability, on-going support and integration with your existing HR or any internal assurance services. 

Value For Money Clear Pricing: We can provide a total price for investigations, or highly competitive day rate for the staff assigned. Our rates are fully inclusive of expenses for work undertaken in London.

If you have suspicions of fraud then our team can help investigate and pursue sanctions ranging from court prosecution to recover of assets and internal disciplinary proceedings. Our team has up to date knowledge of all the relevant legislation - plus extensive experience of working collaboratively with the police, lawyers, HR departments and other professionals to provide efficient and cost effective resolution to suspected cases.  We also work proactively with clients to develop their awareness and resilience to prevent and deter fraud from occurring in the first place. Our professional counter-fraud experts can deliver Training and Briefings (from Team to Board-level), undertake Fraud Risk Assessments or carry out reviews specifically designed to identify known fraud indicators.   Our not-for-profit business model and focus on supporting clients means our service offering will be financially competitive, whilst adding significant additional benefits over a commercial solution - particularly regarding retention and transfer of knowledge, problem solving capability, on-going support and integration with your  existing HR or any internal assurance services.

Value For Money Clear Pricing :We can provide a total price for delivering ongoing a programme of proactive work or a one-off investigation; or alternatively highly competitive day rates for the staff assigned. Our rates are fully inclusive of expenses for work undertaken in London. 

Our not-for-profit business model and focus on supporting clients means our service offering will be financially competitive, whilst adding significant additional benefits over a private sector solution - ranging from our willingness to work collaboratively and transfer knowledge, to providing on-going support and integration with your existing internal assurance services.  Our ICT audit work is delivered by qualified experts in full compliance with Public Sector Internal Audit Standards.   We are also a founding partner of “The Internal Audit Network” (TIAN) which comprises all NHS Audit Consortia across the country. Collectively TIAN delivers internal audit to far more NHS Trusts and Commissioners than any commercial firm - covering over 150 different NHS bodies, plus many other organisations across the wider public and third sectors. This national coverage gives us the ability to call on over 30 ICT specialists, with expertise across Systems Development, Networking, Cybersecurity, Data Protection, IG, Data Analytics and Service Desk Management.

Value For Money Clear Pricing: We can provide highly competitive day rates for the staff assigned, or agree a total price for one-off projects, co-sourcing or the delivery of full annual audit plans. Our rates are fully inclusive of expenses for work undertaken in London. 

Mike has over 25 years' audit experience, and is an expert in assurance and governance across both the public and private sectors. He is also a specialist in the development of effective risk management arrangements. Mike is a longstanding member of the HFMA's national Governance & Audit Committee, and has spoken at a number of HFMA's national audit events. His contribution to the NHS finance community was recognised by HFMA in 2019 with a Key Contributor Award. He has a wealth of experience as Head of Internal Audit for a wide range of NHS organisations including helping them through mergers and other major organisational changes such as achievement of Foundation Trust status and exiting Special Measures. In his role as Managing Director, Mike leads on engagement with each of our clients to ensure they all receive a top-class service tailored to meet their specific needs. 

Track record:

· Delivered a variety of high-level governance reviews to clients to develop their risk management and corporate governance arrangements. 

· Supported and advised many clients through periods of organisational change and merger.

· Implemented new corporate risk management and costing processes at Sussex University.

· Delivered many special reviews and one-off investigations involving £1m+ projects and successfully delivered organisational restructuring saving over £50k p.a. recurrent. 

· Led numerous large scale benchmarking studies across the NHS designed to identify and share best practice.

· Regular speaker on NHS Governance and Audit issues, to groups ranging from NEDs to new staff.

Jim has worked in internal audit for over 30 years, initially in the private sector, but has spent most of his career within the NHS. Having joined Barts Assurance as a Senior Auditor in 1995, he quickly moved into an Audit Manager role, with client management responsibilities for a number of London PCTs and their predecessor community trusts, before becoming Assistant Director of Audit in 2004. Since 2012, he has led the team responsible for delivering the internal audit plan for the largest NHS Trust in the country. In addition to the management elements of this role, he is also responsible for undertaking the more complex and challenging reviews and has extensive experience of governance, HR and risk management audits, as well as corporate and HR investigations. As part of ensuring that excellent working relationships are developed and maintained with all levels of client staff and management up to Executive level, Jim is responsible for ensuring that all scheduled audits, as well as off-plan reviews and consultancy work commissioned by senior management, are appropriately scoped and completed promptly, as well as providing ad hoc advice and support to Trust management on an ongoing basis. He regularly attends and presents at meetings of the Audit and Risk, Quality Assurance and Risk Management Committees, as well as being a member of numerous groups and working parties.

Track record:

· High profile governance review into SFI breaches at an acute trust relating to appointment of senior officers.

· Lengthy and complex developmental audit following the implementation of an outsourced temporary staffing function at a large teaching trust, leading to a report containing 50 recommendations

· Investigation into role of a Remuneration Committee in the replacement of a senior Executive.

Sarah has around 30 years of experience in Investigations, 20 of which has been within the NHS at Barts Assurance.  Sarah has developed skills in meeting the needs of all types of NHS organisations including commissioners and provider Trusts. Sarah oversees all clients, she recently passed on the reins of Lead LCFS for Barts Health NHS Trust, one of the largest Trusts within the Country to Kam Johal, Investigation Services Manager, due to the increase in workload across the service.  Sarah oversees all work within counter fraud, including fraud risk assessments and local proactive exercises to identify key risks and makes constructive recommendations which help management address weaknesses in controls. Sarah and her team deliver both reactive and proactive work including, promotion of an anti-fraud culture, national and local proactive exercises, national fraud initiatives and the development of professional relationships with key members of each Health Body. 

Track Record:

· Sarah has a 100% record of receiving positive results in inspections, including recently being asked to share best practice in the risk assessment the team had delivered for their counter fraud clients.

· Since 2015, Sarah has developed a new Service for Barts Health and her other external clients. The team now carry out all types of investigations including Serious Incidents, MHPS investigations, disciplinary, grievance and bullying and harassment cases.

· Sarah has extensive experience of attending all types of hearings including Crown Court Magistrates Court, Tribunal and internal disciplinary hearings. Sarah also presents her cases when required.

· Sarah was shortlisted as Public Sector Counter Fraud Professional of the Year 2021 due to her outstanding work during the pandemic; and since 2012 she has acted as an ‘Independent Person’ within two Local Authorities, in relation to complaints against Councillors.  

 Mark is a career internal auditor with over 40 years’ experience across the private and public sectors, predominantly in the NHS. He joined Barts Assurance in 1996 and has been responsible for managing a wide and varied portfolio of clients. For several years Mark has led our IT / Information Governance audit function, and has overseen and carried out many information governance and data security and protection type audit reviews. Mark understands that client organisations work in an increasingly demanding and cost conscious environment where IT systems and networks and data protection risks are becoming more complex and subject to ever changing threats and vulnerabilities.  Mark therefore knows how important it is for internal audit to support clients in this area, and provide meaningful assurance across all aspects of clients’ IT arrangements, and to be flexible and responsive to new developments and operational needs. 

During his career Mark has been involved in a number of significant major systems development and integration projects, and has extensive project management review experience at both Project Board / Programme and working group (operational) levels providing incisive advisory and governance input at key stages of the project lifecycle. During his career Mark has been exposed to all aspects of internal auditing in both the private and public sectors and has extensive experience of risk and control assessment and mitigation processes. Mark’s strengths lay in his ability to provide up to date advice and support to all levels of management and maintain excellent client / professional working relationships.

Track Record:

· Contributed to major systems development and implementation projects including; Oracle financials Cerner Millennium JAC Pharmacy

· Mark is also an active member of the London Chapter of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association, previously holding positions on the Board: - Director of Certification - Treasurer 

· Contributed to NHS Digital audit guidance for the Data Security and Protection Toolkit