Issue - meetings

To consider the Corporate Risk Register.

The Committee discussed the Corporate Risk Register.

During the discussion of this item the following points were made:

·         Councillor Smith advised the Committee that they would be looking at the register in more detail at the September meeting.

·         Sarah Hollamby, Director Locality and Customer Services, highlighted some of the risks in her area.

·         Sarah Hollamby commented that one of the biggest challenges had been the bedding in of the new directorate following the 21^st century Council initiative.  There was still some more work to do with elements of the structure needing further tightening.  There also needed to be more work regarding language as often members of the public did not know what a Lead Specialist necessarily did.  Nevertheless, good progress had been made with encouraging and facilitating greater use of self service.

·         The growing demographic would create additional pressures.

·         Sarah Hollamby referred to the Local Plan and many residents’ concerns about housing numbers.

·         Health and safety of residents, staff and contractors was a risk and ensuring that highways and other assets were maintained and remained safe.  She outlined a strong culture of Health and Safety Risk Assessments and reporting, with regular review (monthly) of this and the broader Risk Register at the Directorate Leadership Team meetings.  The managers in the directorate would be undergoing training on health and safety responsibilities in September.

·         Councillor Burgess questioned how the Children’s Services Overview and Scrutiny Committee monitored the delivering of the SEND role risk.  Councillor Smith explained that the Committee was not specifically responsible for overseeing the risk, but that each risk had been assigned a committee to make sure that each risk was being monitored.  It was suggested that more detail around actions that had been taken to mitigate against the risk, be included against each risk.

·         Councillor Burgess asked why Brexit had been scored as a low risk.  Councillor Sargeant commented that the risk was that the Council had failed to plan for the impact of Brexit rather than Brexit itself.  Members were advised that there was an officer working group which was looking at the potential impact of Brexit locally.  Councillor Shepherd-Dubey asked how many EU national staff were employed by the Council and its companies, who may be impacted by Brexit.  Bob Watson commented that the officer working group had this information.  Councillor Burgess also suggested that the risk was more long term than had been assessed.  Councillor Shepherd-Dubey agreed, stating that there may be issues with property and investment following Brexit which could have a more long term impact on the Council.

·         Councillor Sargeant asked about the delivering of highways capital projects and was informed that the Highways Management Board met weekly and that there was a collaborative planning meeting every 2 weeks.  A capital meeting with accountants took place on a monthly basis.

·         Councillor Shepherd-DuBey asked how many contractors there were within the directorate and was informed that there was approximately 25 in a directorate of 325.

RESOLVED:  That the update be noted.