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REPORT OF THE CITY TREASURER
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TO THE: AUDIT & ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE
ON: Wednesday 30thJune 2010
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TITLE:STRATEGIC RISK REGISTER PROGRESS REPORTQ1 2010-11
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RECOMMENDATION:
Members are requested to consider the contents of the report.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:The purpose of this report is to inform Membersof progress on the Strategic Risk Register.
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BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS:
(Available for public inspection)
- Institute of Risk Management (IRM) / Association of Insurers & Risk Managers (AIRMIC) /Association of Local Authority Risk Managers (ALARM) produced A Risk Management Standard.
- Risk Management Strategy.
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KEY DECISION:NO
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DETAILS:See report attached.
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KEY COUNCIL POLICIES: N/A
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EQUALITY IMPACT ASSESSMENT AND IMPLICATIONS:N/A
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ASSESSMENT OF RISK:
Risk management activities undertaken throughout the Council ensure that risks are effectively identified and appropriately managed.
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SOURCE OF FUNDING:Existing revenue budget.
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LEGAL IMPLICATIONS:N/A
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FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS:
The production of this report has no financial Implications.
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OTHER DIRECTORATES CONSULTED:N/A
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CONTACT OFFICER: Cliff PeacockTEL. NO. 0161 793 3239
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WARD(S) TO WHICH REPORT RELATE(S): N/A
1 / BackgroundRisk Management is a key component of local authorities’ corporate governance arrangements. It is essentially the systematic process by which key business risks / opportunities are identified, prioritised and controlled so as to ensure the achievement of council objectives and commitments.
The purpose of this report is to inform Members of the Audit & Accounts Committee (AAC)of progress on the Strategic Risk Register on key strategic risks within the register.
2 / Risk Management update
Progress on the Strategic Risk Register was last reported in April 2010. A review carried out during May 2010 has now been completed with the risks owners providing an update on progress as at June 4th 2010.
The current updated risks and opportunities are summarised in the attached appendix and are listed with the highest risk score first.
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Appendix
Strategic Risk Register – Position Statement as at 4/6/10
Identified risk / Risk scoreDirection of travel / Latest actions to mitigate risks / Risk owner
Area of risk identified for the service / Previous
risk
score / Current
risk score / Description
(Detailed reports on progress are available on request via the responsible officer ) / Officer responsible for risk
SSR12. SALIX HOMES BUSINESS PERFORMANCE & PLANNING.
Scope of Risk :Salix Homes fails to achieve 2 stars in its Audit Commission inspection and is not able to draw down £69m of decent homes funding
4/6/10 CP- Risk has now reduced following implementation of action plans as discussed with risk owner .To drop off the risk register and be monitored as a 3. / 16
High / 3
Low /
- Salix Homes has achieved a 2 star / Excellent Prospects for improvement judgment from the Audit Commission for its ALMO inspection. This excellent result now enables it to access Government decent homes funding to improve the quality of Council stock in Central Salford.
- £9m has now been secured for immediate use in 2010/11 to improve tenant’s homes.
- The Council, as part of its budget planning for 2010/11 has generated efficiencies by keeping the Salix Homes management fee at 2009/10 levels but has sought to increase the repairs budget by £0.5m for 2010/11. This will help to prevent further homes becoming non-decent.
Strategic Director Paul Walker
reporting to
Portfolio Holder
Cllr Connor
SRR14. SAFEGUARDING.
Scope of Risk: Practice in safeguarding children may develop with insufficient pace or sustainability. / 16
High / 16
High / 1. Regular performance management of outcomes carried out via Safeguarding Improvement Board.
2. Performance Management reporting in Safeguarding is well established via the “Report Card”
3. Monitoring of progress and challenge carried out regularly both internally and externallyby Government Office and Ofsted.
4. Programme and project management resources anddiscipline dedicated to improvement planning and implementation particularly in relation to planning that flows from the Ofsted inspection.
- The Safeguarding Improvement Programme has been refined to concentrate on the development of localities and integrated working in order to improve quality and effectiveness of work.
reporting to
Acting Strategic Director
Nick Page
reporting to
Portfolio Holder
Cllr Morris
SRR7. BUSINESS CONTINUITY ARRANGMENTS/
EMERGENCY PLANNING
Scope of risk:Failure to recover after major incident. / 12
High / 9
Medium /
- Following recent adverse weather (January 2010) where existing emergency and business continuity plans were robustly tested, a comprehensive review of present arrangements has been undertaken by the Director of Change which has now been considered by the Leadership and Corporate Management Team.
- A comprehensive improvement plan has been developed which is now intended to be discussed further with Cabinet and Scrutiny Chairs and monitored on a quarterly basis by Corporate Management Team. As part of the new arrangements. Managerial responsibility for the emergency planning function has been transferred to the Programme and Projects office.
Reporting to
Strategic Director Alan Westwood
Reporting to
Portfolio Holder
Cllr Hinds
SSR1. WORKFORCE MANAGEMENT
Scope of Risk: impact of ineffective workforce planning and management can lead to poor employee relations; recruitment and retention problems, particularly in known skill shortage areas; morale and motivation issues that can impact on performance e.g. increased sickness absence, conduct, capability, grievance cases. An inadequately skilled and inadequately diverse workforce can lead to poor service delivery. / 9
Medium / 9
Medium / Develop and maintain best practice HR policies i.e. :-
- Agreed recruitment strategy to support Directors to make efficient appointments of staff.
- Organisational Change policy introduced to support major structural reviews e.g. Think Efficiencyand financial impact.
- Developed range of training course and programmes, complemented by e-learningto help achieve both personal and business objectives to support competency framework.
- Attendance management policy continues to be applied.
- Application of the Workforce development strategy will ensure critical staffing issues are addressed.
Reporting to
Strategic Director
Alan Westwood
Reporting to
Portfolio Holder
Cllr Hinds
SRR5. PARTNERSHIP FAILURE.
Scope of risk : Impact of increased partnership working across the City / 9
Medium / 9
Medium /
- Council’s Portfolio Management Board has agreed that the focus for the Council should be on our major partnerships including the likes of Urban Vision, Salix Homes and the Primary Care Trust.
- Resource is in place through the Sustainable Regeneration Directorate to support the Portfolio Board in fully implementing the Council’s Partnership Database which holds all necessary strategic and risk related information on our major partnerships. This information will be reviewed at the Portfolio Board on a quarterly basis.
- A review of Urban Vision partnership governance is complete and is being implemented by the Strategic Director for Sustainable Regeneration. This will be repeated in 2010/11 for other major partnerships.
Strategic Director Alan Westwood
Reporting to
Portfolio Holder
Cllr Connor
SRR15. MEDIACITY – PUBLIC SECTOR DELIVERY.
Scope of Risk: Wider Economic Downturn, International Flights,Public Sector Partnership Approach to Funding, Regional Competition for Inward Investment, Delivery of Public Transport Improvementsdelivery of the Media Enterprise Centre. / 9
Medium / 9
Medium /
- Monthly Public Sector Partner (PSP) Highlight reports to PSP Programme Board which update on progress, and risks and issues across the programme.
- The PSP programme team also regularly reports progress to, and attends, both SCC Portfolio Management Board and the Media City UK (MCUK) Team Salford meetings. These are used to ensure that developments at MCUK are effectively communicated within SCC, that input and direction is obtain from SCC Management, and that risks and issues can be reported and managed effectively.In addition, the delivery of MediaCityUK forms a significant component of the Cabinet Work Plan for 2010-11.
- Potential gaps with Peel Media’s business development messages has been raised internally as an issue, and action is being taken to address this with Peel Media and our other public sector partners at Chief Executive Level.
Reporting to
Strategic Director Alan Westwood
Reporting to
Portfolio Holder
Cllr Merry
SRR10.FINANCIAL STRATEGY incorporating Think Efficiency
Scope of Risk: failure to maintain adequate funding to deliver services. / 8
Medium / 8
Medium /
- Medium-term financial strategy has been updated for 2011/12 to 2013/14for consideration by Budget & Efficiency Cabinet Working Group (B&EG) in early Juneto ensure corporate priorities, service planning, performance management and financial planning are aligned within the likely resource available over the next 3 years.
- Regular reports are made to B&EG to review alignment of financial and service planning and these will continue during 2010/11 to set parameters for determining further efficiencies and refining financial strategy.
- The Think Efficiency implementation plan defines the efficiency targets for each workstream and the actions required to deliver them. The Think Efficiency programme will enter its third year in 2010/11 and has been extended to incorporate a second phase of 6 additional workstreams.
- Progress is monitored via OCT, CMT, B&EG and Budget Scrutiny Cttee.
reporting to
Strategic Director
Alan Westwood
Reporting to
Portfolio Holder
Cllr Hinds
SRR11. RECESSION IMPACT.
Scope of Risk: Failure to effectively manage the recession may detrimentally affect the citizens, economy and prosperity of Salford. / 6
Medium / 6
Medium /
- Salford Recession Task Group established to give focus and coordinated action to measures to alleviate the impact of the recession across the City. Chaired by Strategic Director for Sustainable Regeneration.
- The Council’s Recession Task Group has implemented actions contained within the Partners Priorities Plan to mitigate the impact of the Recession on the people and businesses in Salford.
- A new website has been very successful in providing information to people and businesses across the City on a variety of financial and service issues that relate to the Recession.
- The focus of the Recession Task Group is now, whilst retaining a monitoring and tracking role across the City, turning to how Salford can prepare for the recovery and best position itself for coming out of the Recession. To this end a ‘state of the nation’ report was commissioned by the City and completed by the Commission for the New Economy which assessed Salford’s position in a local, sub-regional and national context (copy attached).
- The Recession Task Group is to be renamed ‘The Recession and Recovery Task Group’ subject to approval from the Group and the Leader of the Council.
Strategic Director Paul Walker
Reporting to
Portfolio Holder
Cllr Hinds
SRR13. PARTNERSHIP DELIVERY
Scope of Risk: The City’s Local Area Agreement and CAA assessment have identified several areas of vulnerability at Area wide and organisational level in terms of performance. If anticipated outcomes are not achieved there will be a significant reputational risk for the City Council. / 6
Medium / 6
Medium /
- Risk assessment has been provided by Audit Commission (January 2010) which has highlighted critical areas for examination during 2010. These include; Progress towards decent homes standard, Safeguarding’sChildren’s Improvement Plan (Highlighted elsewhere within the SRR) and also key areas such as Crime, Equalities and Cohesion and Tackling Health Inequalities.
- Current action taken includes consultation with Salford Partnership Executive and Total Place Board (January 2010) which has initiated a further round of challenge sessions in all target areas to robustly challenge current performance and improvement planning (February to March 2010)
- Following Government’s announcement to end Comprehensive Area Agreement (CAA), all inspection work currently undertaken by Audit Commission has been suspended, cessation of plans to deliver CAA challenge sessions have also therefore been suspended at this time.
- The commencement of the new Place Board governance arrangements (April 2010) with a specific focus on the Better Lifechances pilots will present fresh opportunities to test new delivery models at a locality level in some of the key areas of challenge for the Salford Partnership, e.g. Anti SocialBehaviour, Skills and Work, Community Cohesion.
Portfolio Holder
Leader of the Council
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