The Corporate Director – Resources submitted a report, reminding Members that the Audit Committee oversees risk management within the Council. The purpose

of the report was to inform the Audit Committee of amendments to the Risk

Management Policy and procedures, as well as the changes made to the 2015-16

Corporate Risk Assessment which have arisen out of the quarterly reviews

undertaken during the year.

The Insurance and Risk Manager gave some background information, then confirmed that the Corporate Management Board (CMB) had reviewed the Authority’s Risk Management Policy, as well as agreeing that this be shared with Senior Management Team (SMT). The reason for this he explained, was that these Officers often have a hands-on day to day involvement with the risks of the Council, and have a high level understanding of these, as some of these Risks were in their service areas.

The Insurance and Risk Manager confirmed that he reported these Risks to CMB and SMT on a quarterly basis, suggesting any changes that may be required to the Council’s Risk Management Policy, and if necessary, incorporating these changes into the Policy.

He referred Members to Appendix 1 attached to the report, which was a Corporate Risk Assessment which had been reviewed and updated by SMT, and this identified the main risks facing the Council, and the likely of these on Council’s services and the wider County Borough, what was being done to manage the risks, and allocates responsibility for the Council’s response.

The Insurance and Risk Manager then gave a resume of the principal changes to the Authority’s Risks as outlined in paragraph 4.4 of the report, and explained in more detail in the attached Appendix 1. The areas the changes were made in were as follows:-

·         Using Resource Effectively

·         Welfare Reform

·         Local Government Re-organisation

·         Supporting Vulnerable People

·         Economic Climate and Austerity

·         Disposing of Waste

·         Healthy Lifestyles Maintaining Infrastructure

·         Collaboration with Partners

·         Educational Attainment

·         Health and Safety

A Member referred to Local Government Reorganisation and asked if the Risks explained in the report and attached Appendix 1, accounted for any costs associated with this proposal.

The Insurance and Risk Manager replied that they didn’t, adding that no extra funding would be made available by WAG to support the proposals.

A Member noted that in respect of the Economic Climate and Austerity, it reflected that these were improving in some areas of the country, the dollar was improving against the pound and exporting of goods was also on the rise. He asked how these things were taking place in a period of austerity.

The Insurance and Risk Manager confirmed that he had further statistics in respect of the above that were presented to the Council’s Corporate Performance Assessment Team as part of other data and statistics. Different parts of the country were performing differently in the recession he added, and also recovering at different paces.

A Member asked if residual risk in the Council has improved (or not), and if it had, perhaps this could be further explained in future such reports.

The Insurance and Risk Manager advised that he could give further explanation in future such reports as to why the levels of scoring of the Risks identified had changed, ie the reasons for these changes.

With regard to Healthy Lifestyles, a Member advised that Clubs and Associations who manage certain Sports Pavilions which teams use when they play rugby and football etc, have in place a Management Agreement with the Council to maintain these premises. He was aware that the Authority gave these between £2 - £4k a year to maintain these establishments, and asked Officers if this money would still be provided by the Authority following the relevant Asset Management Transfers being completed.

The Head of Finance and ICT confirmed that he would obtain a response to this question and advise the Member accordingly outside of the meeting.

RESOLVED:                     That Members considered the changes to the Corporate Risk Assessment that have been made during 2015, and receives a further report in January 2016, concerning the 2016-17 Corporate Risk Assessment and review of the Risk Management Policy.