Agenda item

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 Management Team has to take them at face value, and if a low score was found, officers would go back to managers in the division to ‘check and challenge’ where time allowed. Training and tools for the undertaking of risk assessments were given to Directors, Heads of Service and Managers. In October 2014, the Head of Paid Service made the ‘Identifying and Assessing Operational Risk’ training, along with the use of the standard Board approved risk assessment form, compulsory for all staff who have to carry out risk assessments.

Members said the Strategic risk register contained in the report was completed and presented at the Audit and Risk agenda meeting, and was dated 31 January 2015, when concern was already felt, but the Committee did not think this concern was reflected within the risk register. They asked who had completed the document.

The Head of Paid Service said the register had been carried forward from the previous quarter. Members were told the local authority had an improving picture, though there were times where risk management activity became a lower priority in some areas. He said that as a result of the Ofsted report, the risk management process would be looked at to better embed it across all services. During discussion with Members, the Head of Paid Service suggested the following:

·         A regular performance and risk meeting with the Corporate Management Team be arranged;

·         Risk management to become part of his one-to-one meetings with directors;

·         Strategic Directors to have the same conversations with their divisional directors;

·         The Head of Paid Service relied on other people to look at their risk registers, and that they should be aware they were accountable.

·         The risk register for Children’s Services be brought to the Audit and Risk Committee in the new municipal year to look at in more detail.

·         The Audit and Risk Committee could take the operational risk register and decide which risk assessments/registers they wanted to look at in more depth.

Members queried if the issue in Children’s Services would have been picked up if Ofsted had not visited the authority. They also said changes should be made to stop what was suggested to be facile reporting, and real events should be reflected in the risk register. Members added if there had been a tragedy, they would have been held accountable also, and would make every effort to ensure risk was not ignored. They said every Scrutiny Committee should have a risk paper as part of a new form of governance. The Head of Internal Audit and Risk management said that a risk assessment should accompany any paper to any Board/Executive Group where decisions were to be taken as very little that the Council does carries no risk.

Members asked that the new Committee in the new Municipal Year be introduced to the matrix used for risk measurement, but to also have a simpler method of traffic light colours (red, amber, green) used as a measurement of risk.

The Head of Paid Service said active consideration of risk and mitigation would be considered on a far more regular basis. He added the arising from the Ofsted report there were a number of issues for the body corporate to consider.

The Chair moved that the Audit and Risk Committee were satisfied by the assurances from the Head of Paid Service, and would be monitoring new arrangements in the future.

The Chair thanked the Head of Internal Audit and Risk Management for the report.

RESOLVED:

that the Committee:

1.    receive the report and note its contents;

2.    make any recommendations or comments it saw fit either to the Executive or Director of Finance.