Agenda item

The Committee considered the latest refresh of the Corporate and Transformation Risk Registers.

The report indicated that the Corporate Risk Register and the Transformation Risk Register were key documents in the Council’s approach to risk management. They captured the key strategic risks to the delivery of the corporate objectives and provided a context through which directorates construct their own risk assessments and were used to inform decision making about business planning, transformation and service delivery.

As part of a review conducted earlier this year the resulting outcomes were approved by Future Fit Programme Board (FFPB) in May 2014. Since then, work had continued to further embed both existing and new processes for managing risk across the organisation.

The review resulted in a number of fundamental changes to the way risks were managed and reported, including:

·         The number of corporate risks were reduced from 24 to 10 with some risks being combined to provide a more focused approach and others being devolved to directorate level risk registers

·         The introduction of a Transformation Risk Register (TRR) to run in parallel with the Corporate Risk Register (CRR) where both contain four 'Shared Risks' that impact both corporately and on organisational transformation

·         The CRR was revised to include further detail on activities undertaken during the reporting period to control or mitigate individual risks therefore providing better assurance that risks were being managed actively

·         'Risk Appetite' was included as part of the overall risk assessment based on a five point scale ranging from low to high; the inclusion of risk appetite enabled the Council to determine the amount of risk it was willing to take to achieve its strategic objectives and to enable tolerance levels to be set that ensure risks remain within the agreed parameters and the Council was not exposed to unnecessary risk.

The CRR and TRR were updated quarterly and reported to Cabinet and Future Fit Programme Board respectively on a twice yearly basis.

In the ensuing debate, the following principal points were raised:

·         The controls currently in place as set out in the register did not seem to be specific enough for staff to be able to implement at an operational level. The Risk and Business Continuity Manager replied that the controls set out in the register were generic in nature but there were more specific plans that underpinned this document. The Chief Financial Officer added that a balance needed to be struck between providing members of the Committee with sufficient information to understand the nature of the controls and producing a concise document

·         In response to a query, the Risk and Business Continuity Manager confirmed that there was an appropriate level of staffing within individual projects in Children's Services to sustain Business as Usual and to deliver transformation

·         The representative of the Head of Legal and Democratic Services would provide members with details of the governance arrangements for the Social Work Workforce Board.

RESOLVED that:

a)    The latest refresh of the Corporate and Transformation Risk Registers be agreed; and

b)    The red risks and mitigating actions be noted.