To receive and consider the report of the Head of Finance.
Minutes:
Documents Considered:
· Report of the Head of Finance
Issues Discussed:
· There are 15 risks on the Strategic Risk Register which are included in the report together with details of progress to give assurance that the mitigating actions are being undertaken and monitored.
· 2 risks have been escalated or changed during Q4:
· the impact of the Russian invasion and other market pressures due to price variations and inflation and cost rises.
· Social Services – insufficient capacity to respond to the long term demands in Adults and Childrens Services.
· The Council has an individual Covid-19 risk register. Some of these risks are being embedded in individual service risk registers as risks can be managed at a more operational level.
· Questions:
Question |
Response |
Some of these risks are linked and interlinked e.g. Council unable to recruit and retain commissioned workforce and HTR shortage of lorry and bus drivers – these seem to overlap one another. How do services and the Committee make sure that the Council is not double counting so there is an accurate reflection of the situation. |
The Senior Leadership Team (SLT) review the risk registers collectively and challenge the detail in the risks. SLT has agreed that there needs to be a further review of the risk register as we move into the new financial year, where things are scored and are they appropriate when considered collectively. A working group has been established to look at this. |
Who scores the risk initially and where does the score get challenged. |
Whoever identifies the risk first and is the risk owner would do the initial scoring and then add the mitigation actions which provides the second score. This is challenged by SLT on a quarterly basis and then any queries or comments are returned to risk holders to review and update the register. There is also challenge at a service level and in discussions with the relevant Cabinet Member as well. |
Insufficient capacity to deal with long term demands in Childrens and Adults Services. This goes back to the question about what are risks and what are issues. If we know the projection for the long term demand we should be planning for it which is an immediate issue. There may be risks in how we implement the plan. Is this an issue that we are not confronting. Knowing the long term demand should be part of the business planning process. |
The service is looking at those plans going forward. There has been a pressure for services in recruiting staff to fill the posts that they have, made worse by Covid. The service has looked at ways to make posts in Powys more attractive, looked at all forms of agency support which can be brought in, and changed operating models on how caseloads are managed. Demographic modelling is undertaken for the future and each service has an integrated business plan for the next 5 years. The output of those plans is fed into the corporate plan and the corporate budget development. In social care as well preventative measures have been implemented such as early intervention which can stem some of the demand, but availability of the workforce is a national issue. Hopefully the committee is assured that there is planning around the risk. |
Is there something the Committee or Council should be considering when there is a change in administration. Something over and above the quarterly cycle?
Section in relation to housing – surprised not to see not just the issue of maintaining standards and statutory obligations of existing housing stock, but also the affordability and availability of housing to attract staff to the county, is a key issue. Also, the dual issue of the escalation of building costs and the blight caused by the phosphates situation, which makes development impossible in many areas. Why is this not included as a risk at a time of critical housing pressure. |
It is important to distinguish between the different types of corporate document within the Council currently. Some elements outlined will be included in the new corporate plan which is being developed by the new Cabinet. The Risk Register is a factual document which should be reviewed regularly but should not change significantly due to a change of administration, although some of the mitigation may change with a change in administration.
Has been some significant changes to risk over the past twelve months such as the impact of Brexit is better understood, change in the economy, the war in Ukraine and the long term impact of Covid. Phosphates does have impact on house building and if not included currently will need to be included in forthcoming review.
The Council does not have a corporate issues log and whether issues such as childrens’ services should be captured in a high level corporate issues log. If one were developed then pressures on Social Services, phosphates, costs of living might be included.
Phosphates is currently in the service risk register. Whether this needs to be escalated to the strategic risk register can be reviewed in the quarterly review. |
It appears that there is a high propensity to have Social Care in the top right corner of the heat map even after mitigation is considered. Would it be useful to have a presentation from the Director to understand the mitigations. |
That is a good suggestion but the Committee also needs to be mindful of work undertaken by the Health and Care Scrutiny Committee. It might be useful for the Committee to observe briefings to be provided to the Health and Care Scrutiny committee initially so that the Committee compliments the work of the Scrutiny Committee. |
There are lots of services which could have low level risks but their cumulative impact could be a high risk to the Council. Are there individual service risk registers? |
In understanding risk it is about having an understanding across the organisation and the potential cumulative impact of a number of low level risks when taken collectively which might mean a high level of risk for the council corporately which needs to be reflected in the strategic risk register. |
· The Cabinet Member for Finance indicated that in relation to projecting demands on Children’s Services, although the country was moving slowly out of Covid, the expectation was that the demands on Children’s Services would continue to rise which showed how difficult it was to predict demand in social care.
· The Committee was reminded that its role was to seek assurances about the governance of risk and mitigation by Directors and Heads of Service, and not to duplicate the work of Scrutiny Committees.
· The Committee might consider assurance mapping as part of its role which could be assisted by SWAP.
Outcomes:
Action |
Action By / Completion Date |
Risk Management Framework to be circulated to the Committee for information |
WR / BI |
Consideration of a deep-dive into Social Care. |
LH / JT / WR |
County Councillor G Ratcliffe left the meeting 11.13 a.m.
Supporting documents: