Agreed Action

Current Position

Management Team to promote the importance of operational risk management within the organisation and ensure that Senior Managers implement a process for identifying and mitigating risks in coordination with the Corporate Fraud and Risk Manager.

Management Team are currently working with the Fraud and Risk Manager to effectively promote the importance of operational risk management within the Council.  The Corporate Fraud and Risk Manager attends Management Team meetings on a quarterly basis and provides monthly updates.  

One to one meetings will continue to take place between Senior Managers and the Corporate Fraud and Risk Manager to identify and record key operational risks within their service areas. Support to be provided by Internal Audit if required

One to one meetings have now concluded and feedback received. A deadline has been set for Heads of Service to finalise their departmental risk assessments to conclude this action.

Once concluded any required changes to the corporate risk register will be made.

Once all departmental risk registers are implemented, the Corporate Fraud and Risk Manager is to embed a quality control process for monitoring business risks and verifying the recorded mitigating controls. This should involve process walkthrough's, reviews of supporting documentation and assessments of target dates / resources required to implement controls

Following on from the comments above, a quality control process will be implemented once departmental risk registers have been finalised.

Issue Raised

Outcome from Review

The delivery of the Waste and Recycling Service given recent events elsewhere in the country and the failure of large contractors nationally.

The contractor is considered to be a stable contractor and there are no issues relating to their financial performance. A 7 year extension to the existing contract has recently been negotiated.

Item 9b of the corporate risk register addresses the associated general business continuity risk without itemising specific contractual areas.

The delivery of the Planning Service as loss of key staff could contribute towards the failure to comply with legislative requirements

Entry 4a on the risk register specifically relates to loss of key staff; whilst in Planning the existing margin is slight, efforts are in place that over the next three years through the grow your own programme will significantly reduce this risk in planning.

It is not proposed to include a separate item on the corporate risk register over and above the item 4a mentioned above.

Emergency Planning arrangements, in respect of flooding or some other major incident, could result in the Council providing a significant number of alternative residences for a protracted period. This could seriously divert Council Officers from various departments and significantly deplete the financial reserves of the Council in the medium term.

The Council should also be mindful that, in these circumstances, experience shows that the Council will potentially be the target of financial fraud. This would also divert Officers from their normal responsibilities and deplete Council funds.

It is recognised that should the impact occur it would be significant but the likelihood based on previous years, and the counter measures already in place such as insurance teams as well as our own housing teams being familiar with the existing client base, and having access to a wealth of client data, means vulnerability to fraud on the scale of Grenfell is remote and does not need specific entry on the register.

Emergency planning under entry 9a will form part of existing plans for specifically rehousing existing clients; whilst entry 3d addresses fraud and corruption risk.