The report of the Assistant Director – Workforce & Improvement is attached.

Contact: Sam Williams (01743) 252817

The Committee received the report of the Assistant Director – Workforce & Improvement which set out the current strategic risk exposure following the June 2024 bi-annual review and subsequent discussions/amendments.

The Executive Director for Finance (Section 151 Officer) introduced and amplified the report.  He drew attention to the 11 strategic risks that had been reviewed (set out at paragraph 7.4 of the report) along with their direction of travel.  The score for most had remained the same although some titles had been redefined to more clearly state what the actual risk was and what specifically was being mitigated and three new risks had been added.  Any changes to the risk score or assurance levels were included within paragraph 7.7 of the report. 

The Executive Director for Finance (Section 151 Officer) confirmed that the Executive team reviewed the strategic risks on a regular basis and the cycle was due to begin again the following week when Executive Directors would look at individual strategic risks every two weeks which allowed a cross-organisational view.  The risk framework would then be updated as necessary.  He reiterated that the Audit Committee could, at any time, ask any of the risk owners to attend a meeting to discuss their risks.

The Executive Director for Finance (Section 151 Officer) addressed concerns around the scoring for the ‘Failure to proactively manage and mitigate the health and wellbeing of staff’ risk, explaining that stress and associated conditions were among the highest causes of staff sickness. He emphasized the importance of managing staff well-being to mitigate this risk.

In response to a query, the Executive Director for Finance (Section 151 Officer) discussed the ‘Safeguarding children’ risk, explaining that it had been reintroduced to the strategic risk register following a targeted Ofsted report and the establishment of a Children's Improvement Board. He noted that the risk was now managed at a strategic level.

Referring to the ‘Inability to contain overall committed expenditure within the current available resources within this financial year’ risk, concern was raised that the wage increase for staff may be above the projection (2.5%) and as it was understood that every 1% would equal an additional £1m cost to the Council, it was queried whether the likelihood score of three was reasonable, or whether it should it be higher.  In response, the Executive Director of Finance (Section 151 Officer) explained that the scoring set out in the report had been based on the review undertaken in June which was prior to the period 3 monitoring report, so was very early in the year and he explained the rationale for the likelihood score of 3 and the impact score of 5.  He confirmed that until the budget had been set, the likelihood had been higher.

He discussed the seven themes that sat underneath and fed into this strategic risk which was assessed on a regular basis and formed the basis of Period 3 and 4 reporting and shortly the Period 5 report which was being presented to Cabinet on 16 October. He explained that this did not mean that those risks were being realised and he discussed the actions being taken to manage them.  He assured Members that nothing was being seen in terms of projects that would likely lead to a financial implication for this financial year. 

RESOLVED:

To note the position as set out in the report.

Councillor Evans voted against this item.