Agenda item

A report from the Councils Section 151 Officer is attached.

Following deferment of this item from the previous meeting, Sam Evans, Section 151 Officer presented the risk register for Members consideration.  An accompanying report had been circulated to Members prior to the meeting providing information in relation to:

There are currently a total of 114 risks on the departmental risk register, of which 26% (30 risks) are included within the Red Risk Register, split across the departments of the Council as follows:

All departments have been asked to review their risks and update accordingly, including the addition of a number of new fields. Further work is required in children’s services following the peer review and we anticipate that the number of risks on the departmental register will increase following this piece of work.

The work progressed to date reflects progress on the embedding of good risk management practice as part of routine day-to-day delivery, however there is more work to be done and therefore the audit Committee is advised that the following actions will be progressed so that risk remains dynamic: 

·         Additional information sharing and guidance sessions to be delivered to risk owners on a department by department basis, to support the full population of the risk register template

·         Consideration as to whether the domains review and potential re-basing of risks based on new descriptors should be completed at this time

·         Areas where information not yet captured to be updated as a priority;

·         Risks due for review in October completed accordingly

·         Quality Assurance exercise to be undertaken on risks, actions and assessment to ensure register is complete and ‘tells the story’;

·         Risk to be a standing item on department team meetings and Executive Team agenda (monthly)

·         Corporate Risk Register extracted and presented to Audit Committee on quarterly basis from November 2021

·         Audit Committee to identify a number of risks for ‘deep dive’ analysis discussion at each meeting

In considering the risk register Members of the Committee raised concerns that there were a number of fields that didn’t have action owners as well as a number of areas that did not have a due date for completion.  The Section 151 Officer reported that there is still a great deal of work to do in developing the risk register, a training programme for staff will commence imminently.

Delegated decision:

That the Audit Committee:

·         Note the update provided

·         Support the approach progressed to date to update the departmental risk registers

·         Support the approach that a further corporate risk register will be developed which will incorporate not only departmental risks but overarching organisational risks

·         Request the Executive team review the areas without an action owner and or a completion date and an updated document be presented at the next Audit Committee

·         Identify health and safety and the shortage of HGV drivers as areas for further scrutiny and in doing so, the two lead officers for these areas be invited to the next meeting of the Audit Committee scheduled to be held on 25^th November 2021