Agenda item

To consider a report by the Strategic Planning and Performance Team Leader and Strategic Planning and Performance Officer (copy attached) to receive an update on the September review of the Corporate Risk Register.

10.40 a.m. – 11.10 a.m.

The Lead Member for Finance, Performance and Strategic Assets, Councillor Julian Thompson-Hill, introduced the Corporate Risk Register Review, September 2021 (previously circulated).

The Corporate Risk Register was developed and owned by the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) alongside Cabinet. It was formally reviewed twice yearly by Cabinet at Cabinet Briefing.  It had also been presented the previous day at the Governance and Audit Committee.

Councillor Thompson-Hill stated that two new risks had been escalated to the Corporate Risk Register and summarised the Risks within the Register. 

Risks 18 and 35 were to be merged going forward and the likelihood score would be increased from D2 to C2 score.

At this juncture the Strategic Planning and Performance Team Leader expressed his gratitude to Emma Horan, Strategic Planning and Performance Officer for all her work meeting with Risk Owners and SLT to put together the very comprehensive update.

A recent internal audit review regarding risk management had taken place and recommendations from the audit had been put forward.  One of the recommendations had been to include a direction of travel for each of the risks.  There was still an amount of work to be done in that regard which would be taken forward in the next review.

During discussions, the following points were raised:

·         Recruitment and retention of staff – It was confirmed recruitment and retention of staff had become a major issue not just within Denbighshire County Council but across the country.   Covid had had a significant impact on staffing.  A piece of work was currently being undertaken for each Service to have a Workforce Planning Action Plan which would feed into the Denbighshire Action Plan.  There had been issues recruiting in certain Services particularly in Social Care and Domiciliary Care.  The Authority would be looking at the ability to create career grade posts to develop in-house talent.  In some areas it could take time to train employees which would cause issues in the short term.  A report was to be provided early in the New Year.

·         A new Additional Learning Needs (ALN) Reform Act had placed on the Council a number of additional requirements.  There had been delays in receiving detailed guidance which underpinned the new expectations and ways of working which moving forward would require developing policies and procedures.  Unfortunately, there would be no additional funding available for undertaking the new requirements and therefore the Risk rating was accurate. 

·         It was suggested that cyber crime should be highlighted as a risk.  Currently it was not listed separately as a risk but included under whether the Council had the capacity to respond to major events, including disruptions caused by adverse weather events etc.. Action: Iolo McGrgeor will ensure that Cyber Crime is discussed with the risk owner during the February review of the register to give it more prevalence.

·         Risk 44 – Ash Die Back – this risk was rated highly due to not understanding the scale of the problem.  Since it had become a risk, a piece of work had been undertaken to understand better what the council was facing.  It had been downgraded due to officer confidence and knowledge that the risk was coming more within the risk appetite.  However, a B2 risk was still a critical risk.

·         The termination of Civica contract with Denbighshire County Council, was considered a risk.   It was confirmed Civica had taken the decision to withdraw from the type of partnership contract they had with Denbighshire and would be on the Finance Service Risk Register, but was also picked up in Risk 13 of the Register.

·         The loss of European funding would be covered under a separate Brexit Risk Register which was closely monitored by the Corporate Executive Team (CET).  It was expected that the risks within this separate register wouldbe subsumed into the main Corporate Risk Register during the next review in February.

·         Risk 47 relating to the powers to establish regional Corporate Joint Committees was of concern to all local authorities across North Wales.

The Committee –

RESOLVED having considered the amendments to the Corporate Risk Register (appendix 1), including the status of each risk against the Authority’s Risk Appetite Statement (appendix 2) and the assurances provided during the discussion, to receive the Corporate Risk Register review of September 2021.