Upcoming CIAN Training course:

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The next CIAN training day will be held on Wednesday 12th June 2024

 

The topic will be Radical Reporting

 

The cost will be £140

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It will be held at BDO offices in London (at 55 Baker Street, Marylebone, London W1U 7EU, United Kingdom)

 

Lunch and beverages throughout the day will be provided.

 

If you would like to attend, please contact training@cian.org.uk to request the booking form. Places are limited and so will be allocated on a “first come-first served” basis.

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Please don't forget that we offer one free training place for charities without a training budget. Please email training@cian.org.uk for more information.

 

The course:

The course helps participants produce clear and compelling writing. It does so through engaging them in intensive analysis of logic, language and the very purpose of written communication. The course is extremely practical and tailored to each client, using their own written work sensitively in examples and exercises.

 

After attending this course, participants will be able to communicate more effectively to a variety of audiences through:

 

- going to the root of their own thoughts, objectives and assumptions;

- recognising bad habits that make written communication hard to read and understand; and

- using proven techniques to produce clearer, more concise writing.

 

They will then be able to produce reports that meet the business’ or client’s needs, having practised:

 

- analysing both the overall structure and the individual components of a report for maximum effectiveness; and

- reviewing their own and others’ work in a focussed, efficient and productive way.

 

This course is for anyone who needs to produce reports with clear, concise content. The course is particularly popular with audit, risk and fraud teams, as well as with departments that want to revise their current report structures and templates.

 

The trainer:

 

Sara I. James, PhD, CIA

Owner, Getting Words to Work®

 

With over 30 years' teaching, writing, publishing and corporate experience in the US and Europe, Sara provides report-writing training

worldwide through her business, Getting Words to Work ®. She has written numerous articles on language and reporting, and spoken at national and international conferences. As a member of the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors’ Technical Guidance Working Group, Sara provides resources for members in the UK and abroad. She is the author of the bestselling Radical Reporting: Writing Better Audit, Risk, Compliance, and Information Security Reports, and was one of Richard Chambers’ 2022 Internal Audit Beacon Award winners.

 

For more information, please visit www.saraijames.com

We are reliant on members' feedback for the topic selection of future training courses. If there is a training course you would like to see, please let us know at training@cian.org.uk

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Slides from all previous network meetings are available in the resources section in the members' area of the website.  Some sessions have also been recorded. Details of our most recent sessions are included below. 

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Sustainability Special Interest Group (SSIG)

The Sustainability SIG is for internal auditors who are keen to learn how to audit sustainability within their organisations and discuss challenges with colleagues in the sector. 

 

The next meeting is on 8th May 2024 Online 11am - 12pm.

This is the first meeting of our new SSIG exploring the world of today’s sustainability strategies, practices and reporting in charities, and how the UN sustainable development goals are or should be impacting your internal auditing plans and practices.
An introduction to the Group will be presented by Professor Jeffrey Ridley, founder of CIAN, past president of the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors and author of Proactive Internal Auditors Transform our World into being a Better Place* – published in the US by Thomson Reuters in 2023.   Jeffrey will be speaking on his thoughts for how we and our organisations can, and some are, addressing sustainability in their values, strategies, practices and reporting.   Following that there will be opportunities for questions and suggestions for how future meetings of the Group will be held in 2024.

 
If you would like to attend, email comms@cian.org.uk. 

 

Small Audit Function Special Interest Group (SAF SIG)

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The SAF SIG is for internal audit teams of three people or fewer - we appreciate that being an internal auditor in the charity can be challenging when you're in a small team with limited resources, and members of this SIG find it extremely valuable. 

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The next meeting with a full agenda is on Thursday 7th March at 2:30pm, online via Teams.

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We also provide a series of lunchtime ad-hoc catch ups, where SAF members may attend as they wish. One or more of these may be on a specific topic TBA:

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25th January 2024 at 1:00 pm

 

Lunchtime IIA Standards/EQA discussions, where those SAF members interested discuss between them:

15th February 2024 

 

Previous meetings have included practical tips for Quality Assurance and Improvement Programs and how we can undertake these effectively with limited resources, including a constructive conversation with Liz Sandwith, the Chief Professional Practice Advisor for the Chartered Institute of Internal Auditors.

 

If you'd like to join the SIG, email comms@cian.org.uk and we'll get you on the mailing list!

 

Retail Special Interest Group (Retail SIG)

If your charity has a Retail element, you'll love our Retail Special Interest Group! The next meeting is on TBC.

 

Previous meetings have had extremely engaging speakers on subjects such as safeguarding in retail.

If you'd like to join the Retail SIG, email comms@cian.org.uk and we'll get you on the mailing list!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

24th October 2023 - In-Person Training with John Chesshire - Auditing Third Party Risk

This half-day training course was presented by John Chesshire (http://jc-audit.com/). Slides from the training are available in the resources area of the website.

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11th September 2023 - In-person Network Meeting and AGM

Slides from the following presentations are available in the resources area of our website and were emailed to the attendees, in the Network Meetings folder:

Richard Evans (Head of Risk and Assurance at Crowe) on Leadership in Uncertain times

Benchmarking Survey results presented by Garry Smith NSPCC

Break-out sessions to discuss Charities and ESG Reporting – our role as Internal Auditor

 

23rd March 2023 - Webinar Network Meeting

Slides from the following presentations are available in the resources area of our website and were emailed to the attendees, in the Network Meetings folder:

Presentation on current issues in cyber security - Paul Kelly - Azets

Q&A with Paul Kelly and Mark Sedman - WaterAid

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27th April 2022 - In-Person Training - Assurance Framework and Mapping

This half-day training course was presented by John Chesshire (http://jc-audit.com/). Slides from the training are available in the resources area of the website.

 

23rd March 2023 - Webinar Network Meeting

Slides from the following presentations are available in the resources area of our website, in the Network Meetings folder:

Presentation on Updating Standards for a Changing World - Liz Sandwith - Chartered IIA

Insider Threat - Tracey Carpenter - Cifas

7th October 2022 - In-Person Network Meeting

Slides from the following presentations are available in the resources area of our website, in the Network Meetings folder:

Presentation on State of the Sector: A Data Led Approach to Tailoring Charity Regulation - Vicki Feltham & Kim Andrews - Charity Commission

Presentation on Internal Audit perspectives for 2023 planning - Richard Evans - Crowe

 

4th May 2022 - Webinar Network Meeting

Slides from the following presentations are available in the resources area of our website, in the Network Meetings folder:

• Presentation on Data Analytics – Challenge the Plan - Derek Jamieson (The Institute of Internal Auditors)

• Presentations on Internal Audit – Ideas for Resourcing on a Budget

          Vanessa Clark (Action for Children) - Benefits of Design-Only Audits

          Jonathan Orchard (Sayer Vincent) - Making the most of Secondments

          Laura Kemp (RSPB) - Internal Audit Apprenticeships

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2nd February 2022 - Webinar Network Meeting

Slides from the following presentations are available in the resources area of our website, in the Network Meetings folder:

• Data protection – key do’s and don’ts for charities” Iain Bourne – Grant Thornton

• Fighting Fraud: How implementing a robust “Counter-fraud Framework” can transform counter-fraud in your organisation” Sandeep Das – St John Ambulance