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Agenda item

Corporate Risk Register (Quarter 2)

Minutes:

The Council’s Corporate Risk Register monitors those risks that may prevent the Council from achieving its Corporate Plan or delivering services to its communities and service users in Newport.

The Chair reiterated to the Committee that it was not their role to query the scoring of the risks but the process around the risks.

The report was presented to the Committee by the Strategic Director – Transformation & Corporate Centre.

 

 

Main Points:

The Strategic Director stated that looking back to July to September 2021 there were a few significant potential risks the organisation were dealing with at that time. One of these was the post EU transition period and Brexit and implications associated with that, as well as the Delta variant risk due to the start of the new school term. 

·       Within the service plans there were 46 specific risks across its eight service areas with some changes, with a closed risk associated with the strategic development plan as a result of corporate committee arrangements. There was a new risk associated with the replacement Local Development Plan.

·       For the Corporate Risk Register there were 18 risks, with Covid escalating and deescalating in relation to infection rates etc.

·       Pressure on community services also depended on the risks associated with Covid and how that was managed.

·       Increased risk with Brexit and the HGV drivers shortage which carried on into Quarter 3.

·       Reduction in safeguarding was a risk due to the organisations self-assessment that was undertaken.

Questions:

Councillor Hourahine enquired about the risk against Brexit and whether it was a blunt tool to define where the risks actually were as there was a difficulty in recruiting for care workers for care homes and it was noted that recruitment was sought in the community.

The Strategic Corporate Director explained that outside of this period, but due to the Omicron variant and the pressures on social care, there was a range of interventions to manage this ongoing risk. This was not to do with Brexit but within each service plan there were risks and workforce planning where there had been a lot of work in the organisation on this. This looked at the current workforce and future workforce retention, training, and activities, and in each service plan there was a section as to how those problems were tackled.

Councillor Giles stated that ALN and SEN issues along with school budgets were ongoing but were not as serious as once thought which was impressive. Councillor Giles gave thanks to the Authority and all the schools for their hard work. Councillor Giles requested an update on schools and ALN and SEN issues and commented on the post covid picture and what this would look like as some financial issues of schools were somewhat alleviated.

The Strategic Corporate Director stated that the schools finance cost pressures were an ongoing issue, and this was a huge piece of work led by Finance colleagues and Education who were working with schools to alleviate budget pressures which was very successful so far. This was a huge effort from officers and schools. In relation to the SEN and ALN challenges this was around the new legislation with new requirements and operational challenges.

The overall budget position for schools was interesting due to increasing pressures in schools and Welsh Government had provided a hardship fund in place to support this. The biggest impact has been through collaboration between Finance colleagues and Education. 

Councillor Giles asked as to whether there were concerns regarding the loss of the additional payment this year and what would happen as a result of this.

The Head of Finance stated that the ending of the hardship fund on the 31 March 2022 was a concern but was mitigated by the settlements being good for local governments. Work was ongoing with Cabinet and the Leader to put together a risk mitigation plan to manage the inevitable cost that was in the system as well as loss of income as normality won’t return on 1st April. It would need to be sufficient and robust and maybe next year there may be some permanent changes, but it was too early to say at present.

The Chair noted that on page 32 of the pack in relation to Ash Die Back Disease, this showed 20 as an inherent risk score. The Chair stated that they did not want to query the score but with so many trees cut down should there be a change of direction in the score.

The Performance & Risk Business Partner confirmed that the score would be coming down over the next couple of quarters and this would be monitored.

The Chair commented on page 42 and the inherent risk score showed score of 25 but the matrix showed a score of 20 and whether the dot was in the right place.

The Performance & Risk Business Partner confirmed that the score confirmed the direction of travel was coming down. 

Agreed:

The Governance and Audit Committee noted the report.

 

Supporting documents: