To consider the status of the council’s Corporate Risk Register in order to monitor the effectiveness of risk management within the Performance Management Framework.

The head of corporate performance introduced the report, details of which are outlined in the agenda pack for the meeting.

It was noted that the interim director of children’s services will be reviewing the children and families risk registers which will be taking place during May 2021 after the forensic deep dive.

A new risk performance framework had been implemented last year and was due to be reviewed over the next couple of months.  There had been changes over the 3 months and the risk registers look different to those presented last year.  The position was improving but further work will be required.

The head of corporate performance agreed to provide a written statement on what the wording in paragraph 6 (“The improving position with COVID-19 locally since the last report to committee, as well as the updated Local Outbreak Management Plan and financial commitments for some dedicated staff for the coming year”) was in relation to.

Where there were changes, updates or amendments on the risk registers, it was agreed that these were highlighted to aid the committee to see them.

It was explained that the transformation work should be identified in the mitigating actions for the relevant risks.

There would be further work on the horizontal and vertical aggregation of the risks to ensure that they are captured appropriately.

It was commented that the corporate services risk CS22 looked like a copy of CS21.   It was noted that the public health department and Fastershire sat in the corporate centre and that was the reason why their risks were set out in that risk register. 

There were a number of risks in connection with budgets across the risk registers and a longstanding budget risk in children’s services.  There would be work undertaken on these risks to see if the risks should be aggregated and then sat on just the corporate risk register rather than individual risk registers.  The deputy S151 officer also explained that performance and budget were reported to Cabinet on a quarterly basis but that consideration would be given to the role of the audit and governance committee.

The committee indicated that they would welcome further training on the risk framework, either as a joint session with the Leadership Team or just for the committee.

It was noted that having a risk register means that risks have been identified which should assist the management team in dealing with them.   It was felt that ensuring there was wider communication of the risk register(s) would aid awareness.   

The risk registers should be aligned to service business planning and then risks are escalated / de escalated as appropriate.

The committee agreed that there would be need to be further consideration of identifying 1 or more risks in the directorate risk registers and undertake a deep dive to provide assurance that the risk management framework was being applied appropriately.

RESOLVED that

Consideration be given to the committee identifying one or more risks to undertake a deep dive on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 68