Agenda item

Presentation by Executive Director (Transformation) on the strategic risks facing the Council and his service and the internal controls and governance in place to manage/mitigate those risks to demonstrate how risk management is embedded within services. (Verbal presentation).

The Chairman welcomed Mr Rob Dickson, Executive Director, to the meeting.  Mr Dickson was in attendance to give a presentation on the strategic risks affecting his service and the internal controls and governance in place to manage and mitigate those risks.   Mr Dickson began by advising that the risks within his service were largely delivered by service responsibility and included: negative media coverage and poor public perception; failure to manage and appropriately resource major programmes/projects; ineffective change management to modernise the organisation; opportunities as a consequence of Brexit; being unprepared for major incidents; and, incidents during externally organised events.  Risks were identified through Corporate Management Team (CMT) or through Service Managers.   This involved continuous quarterly reviews driven within the project and service, for which the Programme Board or Service Manager carried responsibility.  

6.2       Mr Dickson then gave examples of the scope and complexity of Risk Registers within his service.  In relation to the Council’s Digital Transformation programme, he explained that this encompassed multiple projects, each holding their own risk register with the complexity and breadth of impact having a multiplying effect on risk.  The Programme Board managed these risks in terms of resources.     With regard to Events, he advised that the Council supported approximately 50 events annually.  An annual assessment was carried out for each event which considered the inherent risk, the organisers’ competence and impact on the wider public.  The Safety Advisory Group (SAG) met twice a year to consider each event and ensured a consistent approach for different events throughout the Scottish Borders.  Mr Dickson then gave examples, referring to the Border Union Agricultural Show, he explained that the event’s organisers had responsibility for the event and managed risk, the Council only being concerned with the event’s impact on local roads.  In contrast, Melrose Sevens was more significant in terms of risk management for the Council, with the impact on businesses and the town, which was addressed in an entirely different way.    To conclude his presentation, Mr Dickson emphasised the continuous nature of the risk management process and that application of the Corporate Framework and processes was most effective in managing risk within his service.  

6.3       In response to questions, Mr Dickson advised that there had been a range of actions introduced to ensure that employees were aware of changes being implemented under the Transformation Programme.   CMT met three times a year with Senior Managers, which allowed interaction, this focused on performance and gave an understanding of pace in terms of the programme.  Electronic updates were also circulated to staff, advising of progress and any delays.  There were also mechanisms in place for staff to highlight problems to managers.  He referred to the new election software system and that polling staff had been encouraged to report any difficulties in order that any issues could be resolved quickly.   The introduction of Business World had also been a major change for employees, initial issues had been resolved and staff were more confident in the system and were driving progress.  Mr Dickson also clarified that during his secondment, other managers would assume responsibility for managing the Risk Registers in his ownership.  And, that the Brexit Monitoring Group, would be reporting to the Executive Committee prior to the summer 2018.  With regard to Members having access to Risk Registers in order that they could be assured that risks were being managed correctly, Mr Haseeb confirmed that this would be good practice.  Ms Stacey added that the Corporate Risk Officer was undertaking benchmarking with other Councils to understand their reporting format and a report would be brought to the May 2018 meeting which would include expectations in terms of the Committee’s responsibility.   The Chairman thanked Mr Dickson for his attendance and his clear, succinct presentation.

DECISION

NOTED the presentation.