Issue - meetings

The Director of Finance submits a report that provides Committee with the regular update on the work of the Council’s Risk Management and Insurance Services team’s activities.

The Committee is recommended to receive the report and note its contents, and make any recommendations or comments it sees fit either to the Executive or Director of Finance.

The Director of Finance submitted a report which provided the Audit and Risk Committee with a regular update on the work of the Council’s Risk Management and Insurance Services Team activities. The Committee was recommended to receive the report and note its contents, and make any recommendations it saw fit either to the Executive or Director of Finance.

The Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management introduced the report, and drew Members’ attention to the following:

·         The Risk Registers as at 31 January 2015 were presented at Appendix1, Strategic Risk Register, and Appendix 2, Operational Risk Register.

·         The level of submission of the Divisional risk registers to Risk Management and Insurance Services was 100%.

·         A response from Housing was reported regarding gates on Charnwood Estate. A letter from the Coroner following an inquest requested that risk management processes be refreshed with staff in Housing. Five half-day training sessions covering 175 operatives had been delivered.

·         Year on year insurance claims figures showed a decrease of 15%.

·         Two cases had gone to Court since the last report, and both had been successfully defended, allowing a return to reserves of £45,000 and £26,500.

·         Two significant events were reported, although neither required formal intervention by the Corporate Business Continuity team:

o   Power loss to the Customer Service Centre on 21 January 2015. Power was restored prior to opening, with no loss of service.

o   Final stage of demolition of New Walk Centre on 22 February 2015. Phoenix House remained closed on the Monday on the grounds of Health and Safety, due to rubble in front of the fire escape. The building opened as usual on the Tuesday.

·         Key significant risk issues remained as reported at the last meeting of the Committee and included strike action affecting various unions.

Events under Horizon Scanning in the report were brought to Members’ attention. Members made particular reference to the recent Ofsted visit and subsequent report, and the Safeguarding item listed in the LCC Strategic Risk Register. Members spoke of the concern they had for the safety of children in the city and the potential risk of harm to children, as outlined in the Ofsted report. They said Council delegated responsibility to the Committee to ensure there was robust risk management, and asked that not just Children’s Services but Adult Services also were monitored, and stated that the strategic risk registers had some weight.

The Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management said firstly the key point made during the delivery of training was that, even the best risk assessment process in the world would not stop things from going wrong. He added that risk assessment was a point-in-time view of what was happening.

Secondly as a risk manager he was less worried about the content of the risk register than how risk management was embedded within the authority, and whether people knew how to identify risk.

The Head of Audit and Risk Management said when the quarterly risk registers come in from the 15 divisions, the Risk  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4