The report of the Risk and Insurance Manager is attached.

Contact: Angela Beechey 01743 252073

37.1  The Committee received the report of the Risk and Insurance Manager – copy attached to the signed Minutes – which sets out the challenges and achievements accomplished by the Risk and Insurance Team during 2018/2019 (and up to the preparation of this report). 

37.2  The Risk and Insurance Manager informed the meeting that the Emergency Planning Unit had recently been incorporated into the team, which had been renamed ‘Risk, Insurance and Resilience Team’.  She then drew attention to the ‘good’ assurance level achieved following a risk management audit undertaken by external auditors.

37.3  The Risk and Insurance Manager informed the Committee how the quarterly reviews of strategic risks were undertaken in order to ensure that risk levels were closely monitored. She reported that the last review had been undertaken in June 2019.  There were currently 16 strategic risks identified on the register, 8 of which were considered high risk, as detailed in the report.

37.4  Turning to Operational Risks, the Risk and Insurance Manager reported that all operational risks had been moved onto a specific ‘SharePoint’ site to allow a real time view of current operational risk exposure which could be updated whenever changes were required.  She reported that Project Risk Registers would also be moved onto the ‘SharePoint’ site. 

 37.5 The Risk and Insurance Manager reported that an additional level of business continuity tactical plans were being developed for HR, Finance and Assets which were currently being finalised and would provide a corporate approach across these areas.  She then drew attention to the Business Continuity exercise recently undertaken along with the week-long live exercise undertaken during Business Continuity week in May each year. 

37.6  In response to a query, the Risk Management Officer explained how businesses came to be invited to the ‘Your Business Matters’ facilitated sessions.  She reported that currently the Emergency Planning Team contacts were invited by email, but in future, the Business Growth Team were hoping to extend the invitation to wider businesses.  Data from these sessions would be provided next year and would include the percentage of businesses that attended.

37.8  Both the Risk and Insurance Manager and the Risk Management Officer answered a number of queries from Members in relation to the following strategic risks: Staffing, Work Related Stress, Failure to Safeguard Vulnerable Children/Adults and the Economic Impact of Brexit.  The Risk and Insurance Manager explained that there were detailed risk profiles sitting behind each risk and reminded Members that if they wished they could ask for individual risk profiles to be brought by the risk owner to future meetings for Members to look at in more detail.

37.9  In relation to Failure to Safeguard Vulnerable Children/Adults the Risk and Insurance Manager explained that the impact of the risk could be mitigated by having a lot of controls in place and this may well be the reason for the lower ‘likelihood’ score for Safeguarding Vulnerable Children.  Members requested that both the Director of Children’s Services and the Director of Adult Services be invited to the next meeting to discuss the risk profiles.

37.10Concern was raised about whether the Economic Impact of Brexit should have a higher score as it could have an effect on a number of different areas.  In response, the Risk and Insurance Manager confirmed that this was being reviewed as part of the Strategic Risk Update for September and it was felt that the definition needed to be wider.  She reported that the Brexit Lead Officer was being updated via the EU Working Group on a weekly basis and that the risk would be escalated if required.

37.11RESOLVED:

          A.   To accept the position as set out in the report.

          B.   That the Directors for both Children’s Services and Adult Services be invited to
       attend the next meeting of the Audit Committee to discuss their current strategic
       risks.