Agenda item

This report 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.

At the request of officers and with the agreement of the Chair the agenda order was changed.

The Interim Assistant Chief Executive, People, Digital and Change presented the annual assurance report on corporate risk and resilience.

The Intelligence and Policy Manager presented the corporate risk element of the report providing Members with the following information:

• The arrangements risk management documented in the report were broadly the same as in previous years.
• Corporate  and  directorate risks are reviewed, updated and reported  4 times a year and these go through the Directorate Management Teams then on to Corporate Leadership Team for further review and discussion.
• The team still proactively engage with a range of stakeholders across the Council delivering risk training and risk workshops.
• Arrangements have been enhanced and details of this had been set out in the submitted report. Executive Board Members now receive a copy of the Corporate Risk Register after it has been reviewed and signed off by Corporate Leadership Team. This is in addition to the annual report provided to Executive Board in the Summer.
•  A series of virtual ‘Let’s Talk’ management training sessions had been held, which had proved popular with staff, as it was both interactive and informative without being overly bureaucratic. These will continue to be delivered in 2025.
• ‘Deep Dive’ reviews had been undertaken on some of the corporate risks to ensure that they are still up to date and the people responsible for managing them engage with the controls used to manage those risks.
• Over the last year the Intelligence and Policy Manager has been the Deputy Chair of West Yorkshire Prepared Risk and Capabilities Sub-Group. This allowed opportunities for him to get involved at a higher level in Yorkshire and Humber regional and national risk working groups to look at resilience type risks facing the area.
• The report provided some next steps which have been prioritised by the service for next year. However, in addition to those, with the start of the new Chief Executive in January, they will be meeting with him to ensure he knows of the risks facing the Council and the City, but to also gain his view on what he thinks the risks are and his priorities for the management of the risks.

The Resilience & Emergencies Team Manager presented the Emergency Planning and Business Continuity Management section of the report and highlighted the following points:

• The service continues to operate without many amendments to the working practices and levels of engagement remain positive both within the Council at directorate management level and at the Local Resilience Forum at all the sub-group training and exercises that take place.
• The communication methods under the Duty of Civil Contingencies Act remain the same. At point 29 of the report information of subscribers and followers had been included.
• It had been a busy year with all the training and exercises at the Local Resilience Forum which had focused on heatwave and other associated risks such as water safety and wildfires.
• The service had continued to offer Member training sessions and in May had offered training to the newly elected Members, with further sessions planned for the new year.
• The service had retained the Golden Paw Print Award for the provision of companion animals at rest centres. More details of how the assessment and exercises to meet the criteria for this were presented at point 36 of the report.
• Last year the Committee had been advised that an internal audit had been finalised on the business continuity management process. The service had also undertaken an internal review for the robustness of the plans and the submitted report provided the Committee with the details of that internal review. Highlighting that all services were requested to identify the critical functions of the service and then a risk assessment was undertaken of that function against all possible risks. Services had been positive to this new approach and the business continuity plans now contain more mitigating measures and therefore, are more robust.
• The service has an agreement to have regular meetings with Integrated Digital Service (IDS), due to commence in December. These meetings will ensure that IDS are aware of all the interdependencies identified with ICT. Going forward the service are looking to create a database with all the critical and priority functions to assist IDS.
• Point 56 highlighted the work undertaken and that still to be undertaken.

Cllr Chesterfield provided positive feedback on the training that he had received as a newly elected Member.

Cllr Anderson raised an issue in relation to a query on printers being out of action the previous week it was noted that this will be raised with IDS colleagues and Information and Governance Management will be looking at this and responses will be fed back to Members.

Positive feedback was received in relation to the risk trends presented in the report.

Officers provided clarification and information in relation to High Impact, Low Likelihood risks and the plans in place to respond.

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