Decision details

The Committee received a report (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book) which provided an update on the Corporate Risk Register and presented a heat map relating to the current residual risk scores and a summary report. It also provided the Committee with the opportunity to comment on and offer challenge to the Corporate Leadership Team as part of the active management of risk.

The Head of Democratic Services and Monitoring Officer set out the report, making reference to the addition of noting any unchanged scores being set out clearly, as the Committee had previously requested. The Committee noted that the summary of risks were very helpful and were much clearer than they used to be.

In response to a question from the Committee regarding the trade-off between the resources put in to mitigate risks, and the impact of not mitigating those risks and using those resources somewhere else, the Head of Democratic Services and Monitoring Officer would provide the Committee with a written answer around this matter. The Committee also commented that it was helpful to know which risks where actions taken to mitigate that risk had looked at the likelihood or how to reduce the likelihood; in reducing the likelihood the impact would be reduced. The Chief Executive agreed and assured the Committee that officers were of that same mindset; it was not necessarily about removing all risk as that was often not cost effective for the level of resource required, when an impact might be tolerated as business as usual.

The Chief Executive further responded to questions from the Committee, advising that earlier in the day there had been a workshop session around the Workforce Strategy; one of the pillars of that was recruitment and retention and this had been received in the context of the LGR framework. Further discussions had taken place in terms of proposals around recruitment, succession planning and personal development, to help reduce leaving, retain talent and make the Council an attractive organisation. When recruiting, the Council had a strong brand and there had been high numbers of quality candidates. Though there were some niche areas that were problematic, broadly the Council had seen positive recruitment.

Whereupon, it was

RESOLVED

that the Committee commented on the reports in the appendices and progress with risk management.