The Interim Chief Officer – Finance, Performance and Change presented a report, the purpose of which, was to provide the Governance and Audit Committee with an updated Corporate Risk Assessment 2021-22 and updated Corporate Risk Management Policy, and to provide an update also on Incident and Near Miss occurrences.

She reminded Members, that the Corporate Risk Assessment is considered and reviewed by the Corporate Management Board (CMB), Senior Management Team, and Governance and Audit Committee, as part of the Council’s quarterly Corporate Performance Assessment framework, and is used to inform the Overview and Scrutiny Committees’ Forward Work Programme and the budget process.

The Corporate Risk Assessment was attached at Appendix A to the report. It identified the main risks facing the Council, their link to the corporate well-being objectives under the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, the likely impact of these risks on Council services and the wider County Borough and identified what is being done to manage the risks and who is responsible for the Council’s response. The risk assessment was also aligned with the Medium Term Financial Strategy.

The Interim Chief Officer – Finance, Performance and Change, explained that as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, the Corporate Risk Assessment was being continuously reviewed to take into account any COVID-19 related risks which have occurred due to the pandemic, and identifies how the Council is responding to these risks, both corporately as a whole and on a Directorate by Directorate basis via the compilation of weekly SITREP reports.

Additional corporate governance measures had also been agreed to ensure that, where appropriate, risks can be escalated to CMB. The Council has established an operational ‘Silver’ group, made up predominantly of Heads of Service, to consider appropriate issues and make recommendations to CMB who, when necessary, meet separately as the strategic ‘Gold‘ group to make COVID-19 related decisions, with any risks of some considerable concern, escalating on to matters to Cabinet/CMB.

The Council was currently experiencing immense pressure across the authority, in particular in Social Care ie through the provision of PPE equipment and the Test, Trace and Protect (TTP) service and were exploring ways to bolster resources to prioritise and support these critical functions. In addition the authority is working closely with the Health Board to manage the roll out of the COVID-19 vaccination programme. The Council had recently opened its first COVID-19 vaccination Centre focused on immunising frontline health and social care workers and this was operating successfully.

The Corporate Risk Management Policy timeline, included in Appendix B to the report, had been amended for 2021-22 and also been agreed by CMB.

The Insurance team maintains a log of near misses in line with the current Near Miss reporting procedure. A log of incidents reported during 2020, was attached as Appendix C to the report. There were two incidents reported, one green and one amber. There were no red incidents reported during the period,

A new E-Learning module was being developed to raise awareness of the issue and the Council’s intranet page is being updated to allow for interactive submissions of incidents and near miss forms.

The Council’s Insurance Officer had instigated regular contact with Heads of Service to make enquiries within their team of any incident and near misses that have occurred, to try to minimise the late notifications.

A Member felt that the health and wellbeing of Council staff during the Covid crisis was of paramount importance, particularly as they were trying to come to terms with long periods of lockdown away from the normal routine of life, including the office environment. She noted that some staff were being seconded to emergency related work, including supporting the Covid vaccine rollout. She hoped that the individuals concerned were being protected in terms of administering the vaccine to numerous individuals, by having the vaccine themselves prior to becoming involved in the support of this work.

The Interim Chief Officer – Finance, Performance and Change confirmed that staff supporting the vaccine rollout had volunteered to do this, rather than been requested to do it. In answer to a query and without being entirely sure, she felt that in all probability they would be vaccinated after they had received training for administering the vaccine before they became involved in this support work. In answer to a further question on the well-being of staff, she added that the Council’s Intranet offered a number of avenues of support to those employees who were finding it difficult in lockdown and that staff were directed to these through Corporate Bridgenders emails. Training had also been provided for senior staff, in how to effectively manage staff remotely.

A Member felt it would be beneficial, in view of the hostile environment local authorities such as BCBC found themselves in on a daily basis, due to the adverse knock-on effects of the pandemic, if Audit Committee Members could have a summary for example on a quarterly basis, of how it was mitigating risks it encountered as part of its Risk Framework. This could highlight the ever constant and additional changing pressures Covid was putting on the Authority, as well as the actions being taken to address these.

In terms of Risk 2 on the Action Plan attached to the report, and the difficulty the Council was facing with regards to delivering transformation/different ways of working proposals including the securing of agreed financial savings, she enquired why this risk level had reduced from 16 to 4 on both the likelihood and impact categories. She considered this to be quite a radical change, given that there is no adequate evidence to support this reduction in risk. Financial savings could also she felt be realised by other mechanisms, other than just from at the staffing levels of the organisation. There were separate factors other than the Human Resources element of the organisation by which to achieve savings.

The Finance Manager – Governance and Exchequer advised that this was a valid point and, therefore, she would review this risk and expand with any further information that may be available by which to make financial savings, over and above those that were purely staffing related.

The Chairperson referred to Risk 6 in the Action Plan which she considered now to be an historic risk, so she felt that this could now be removed from the Risk Register. In relation to Risks 14 and 15 on schools, she enquired if these were Covid related.

The Interim Chief Officer – Finance, Performance and Change, confirmed that she was of the impression that the first risk was wider than just being Covid related, while the second risk was probably more associated with the pandemic. She assured the Chairperson however, that she would seek further information on both of these outside of the meeting with the Corporate Director – Education and Family Support and in turn, update Members accordingly with any findings.

RESOLVED:                              That Committee:

(1)  Considered the updated Corporate Risk Assessment 2021-22 (Appendix A to the report) and the updated Corporate Risk Management Policy (Appendix B), including the timeline at Appendix 2 (within Appendix B)

Noted the incident and near miss occurrences reported in Appendix C to the report.