Agenda item

Report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services

Also to receive a presentation by Deborah  Butcher, Executive Director – Adult Social Care and Health on two Adult Social Care risks listed in the Corporate Risk Register.

The Committee considered the report of the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services on the updated Corporate Risk Register, indicating that since the last meeting the Corporate Risk Register had been reviewed and updated.

The Chief Internal Auditor presented the report indicating that three new risks had been added or escalated from the Service Risk Registers to the Corporate Risk Register, namely:

·       Financial sustainability beyond 2021/2022 (Housing Development Company)

·       ASC Workforce – recruitment, availability of suitably qualified staff and retention of current workforce; and

·       failure to adequately maximise the benefits of digital growth.

No risks had been de-escalated from the Corporate Risk Register to the Service Risk Registers or deleted from the Corporate Risk Register.

The risks had been re-scored in accordance with the revised assessment guidance included in the Corporate Risk Management handbook which was approved by the Committee in December 2020.

The Chief Internal Auditor indicated that there was no planned update of the Corporate Risk Management handbook in December 2021 as the Council was awaiting the outcome of definition of the Council’s Risk Appetite before carrying out a review, due to take place in January 2022.

The Chief Internal Auditor indicated that as highlighted in September 2021, although there had been substantial work undertaken over the past six years to embed risk management across the Council, there was a gap in delivering key aspects of the Corporate Risk Management Handbook such as the regular updating of Service Risk Registers and updating the Corporate Risk Register and key actions had been set out to address these findings and progress was being monitored with an improvement being experienced in this cycle.

Referring to the Corporate Risk Register at page 35 of the agenda, a member raised a question with regard to the financial implications in respect of the Housing Development Company beyond 2021/22.

It was suggested that the Executive Director of Corporate Resources and Customer Services be requested to provide a presentation to the next meeting of the Audit and Governance Committee on the information and assurances provided to Cabinet in respect of the company and how Audit and Governance Committee can discharge its duty of risk assessing the Housing Development Company whilst respecting commercial confidentiality.

Other matters were raised in relation to:

(i)             the current level of the MTFP (Medium Term Financial Plan) – The Chief Internal Auditor indicated that he would check and report back;

(ii)            the risk of failure to adequately invest in the Highway network and associated assets.  The Chief Legal and Democratic and Monitoring Officer indicated that he would speak to the Head of Highways and Public Protection about action being taken; and

(iii)          lack of census information - The Chief Internal Auditor said he would check and report back.

The Chief Internal Auditor reminded the Committee that at the Audit and Governance Committee held on 18 December 2019, it had been agreed that for future meetings, a short presentation would be made by a risk owner on one of the risks listed in the Corporate Risk Register. In this respect, Ms Deborah Butcher, Executive Director - Adult Social Care and Health, had been invited to the meeting to provide a presentation on the risks associated with Adult Social Care.

Accordingly, Ms Butcher briefed the Committee on the following risks associated with Adult Social Care,the measures in place to mitigate those risks and answered questions thereon:

·       Market failure of social care provision across children and adult services

·       Recruitment availability of suitably qualified staff

RESOLVED: That