Agenda item

To provide members will an overview of the council’s risk management arrangements and presents the Leadership risk register.

Declarations of interest:

None

Witnesses:

David McNulty, Chief Executive of Surrey County Council

Cath Edwards, Risk and Governance Manager, Finance

Nicola O’Connor, Finance Manager (Assets and Accounting)

Key points raised in the discussion:

1.    Members of the Board questioned whether the risk management system could be used as a preventative system by ensuring the risks are effectively anticipated.  The Chief Executive informed the Board that he took full responsibility for the Leadership risk register and each risk was assessed as high, medium or low for both inherent and residual risks. When asked whether the register might be used to prevent risk the Board he pointed out that prevention was not always a useful concept. The nature of these serious meant they might be mitigated through anticipation but risks would not be removed.

2.    Members of the Board questioned the reason for devolution being stated as a high risk factor on the register. The Chief Executive explained to the Board that the 3CS Devolution deal was included as a high risk issue as the council not finalising the devolution deal could result in serious damage to the County due to the significant challenges faced by Local Government and this was an issue beyond the council’s control.

3.    The Board was informed that there was no political input before the report had been presented at Cabinet, as it was drafted by officers. It was stated that the Cabinet attended workshops to identify risks and agree how they might be mitigated. 

4.    Whilst acknowledging the improvement in the risk register, Members stressed concern regarding the risks distinguished and highlighted that there needed to be another way to highlight ongoing risks for example academisation of all schools. The Chief Executive acknowledged this issue but explained that at this point the risks were not entirely clear as it was a white paper but that this issue could end up on the register.

5.    A Member of the Board expressed concern at the risk the lack of social workers within Surrey presented. The Chief Executive explained that this was a service rather than leadership risk. The Board were informed that due to the financial pressures of living in Surrey there was limited affordable housing so workers do not tend to work in the area. Therefore one of the key elements was to retain children’s and adults social workers as best possible.

Stephen Cooksey entered the meeting at 10.20 am.

6.    The Board noted that the number of high priority risks had gone up and the Chief Executive explained his view that honesty on the issues faced by the council was a priority. This view extended to the public understanding the risks and challenges faced by the council. The main focus was to recognise the risk and to make sure there was a planned mitigation put in place not reducing the size of the register.

7.    Responsibilities for the risk register were delegated to senior officers of the Council but the Chief Executive took overall full responsibility for the Leadership risk register.  A Member stressed the importance of the Chairmen of the Scrutiny Boards considering service risk registers, which was agreed by the Board.

Recommendations:

1.    The Board agreed that Scrutiny Board Chairmen should consider scrutiny of their relevant Directorate Leadership Risk Registers as appropriate.