Agenda item

The report of the Director of Strategy and Resources provides the Corporate Governance & Audit Committee with assurances relating to the adequacy of the risk and resilience controls currently in place in the council; that they are up to date, fit for purpose, embedded and routinely applied.

The report of the Director of Strategy and Resources provided the Committee with assurances relating to the adequacy of the risk and resilience controls currently in place in the Council.

The Committee were informed of the following points:

·  Risk and resilience cover three inter-related areas of Risk Management, Emergency Planning and Business Continuity Management. This is at Corporate, Directorate and operational level.

·  The service works with a wide range of stakeholders and attends a number of boards and team meetings to discuss risk and resilience matters.

·  There has been an increased demand in risk training given the new challenges and new risks.

·  Following a recent exercise to compare the strategic risks on Core Cities risk registers, key contacts from the local authorities will be meeting regularly to discuss risk management including best practice, emerging risks and lessons learned which will be useful going forward.

·  Following a recent Internal Audit review of our risk management arrangements, we will be documenting lessons learned from the Internal and external sources in relation to risk. This will enable us to provide more evidence  that any lessons learned are being considered.

·  In relation to Appendix 2 it was noted that this is the same as last year with the level of engagement positive and fully embedded.

·  Resilience emergency planning is publicly available and on the Council’s website.

·  X formerly known as Twitter is used to communicate on a number of issues including adverse weather conditions, incidents, awareness campaigns and pollution alerts.

·  The service has a link to the National Power Grid to be alerted of power outages.

·  An induction session had been provided to Members in May 2023, and the service had delivered sessions in Autumn and there was also one scheduled for January 2024. Training had also been delivered to the Community Committee Chairs Forum. Members were also advised of training sessions which included role play for emergency evacuation and setting up of reception centres. It was noted that the Council had received a Gold Paw Print Award for this.

·  An event had taken place to re-launch the Business Continuity Network which had focused on Martyn’s Law which had been part of the King’s Speech at Parliament. This event is to be a bi-annual event going forward.

·  Audit had highlighted weaknesses in business continuity awareness and training. Therefore, the service is assessing business continuity plans and will be addressing any weaknesses through training and awareness courses, to ensure robust planning and to meet legislative duty.

Responding to questions from the Members the Committee were provided with the following information:

·  It was acknowledged that the risk map has a large focus on financial issues which included staffing. The risk map is reviewed by Corporate Leadership Team on a regular basis. It was recognised that the Council can not be risk averse as there is a need to take some risks, but they need to be regularly reviewed and managed.

·  The Committee were advised that work was ongoing with IDS to address risk appetite and tolerance levels on IT issues including cyber risk. It was noted that training was required in this area.

·  It was acknowledged that financial risks effect all parts of the Council, but the Council has a robust Financial Strategy and where areas of risk are identified they are reviewed, and RAG rated. Transformation teams support implementation of any actions that are required.

·  Members requested information on risk trends for future meetings.

·  It was noted that on resilience day exercises a code word is built into the exercise which would send an alert that a real incident had occurred and stop the exercise.

·  It was noted that in December the service is due to meet with colleagues in IDS to draw up a plan should a major incident occur.

·  Members were advised that new updates were required for continuity plans. Next year members of the community were to come together with the service to draw up robust local area plans.

RESOLVED - To receive the annual report on the Council’s risk and resilience arrangements and note the assurances in support of their next Annual Governance Statement.