Agenda item

Presentation by Service Director Customer & Communitieson the strategic risks facing the Services and the internal controls and governance in place to manage / mitigate those risks to demonstrate how risk management is embedded within Services. (Verbal presentation).

5.         RISK MANAGEMENT IN SERVICES

5.1       The Service Director, Customer and Communities, Mrs Jenni Craig, joined the meeting and gave a presentation to the Committee on the strategic risks facing the various services within Customer and Communities and also the corporate risks she managed on behalf of the Council’s Corporate Management Team.  These corporate risks included short-term savings, the Community Planning Partnership, and Stakeholder Engagement, and Mrs Craig explained the internal controls and governance in place to manage and mitigate those risks.  Details were then given of the Risk registers for each service within Customer & Communities, which were developed and were owned by Service Managers, within each service, with a note of their last review (backlog due to Covid-19 impact).  Risks were regularly reviewed by the Services Management Team and when necessary, were escalated to Corporate Management Team (CMT).

5.2       Members then asked a number of questions with regard to risks and their mitigations.  Business continuity plans were in place for all key services and some of these would be about disaster recovery around IT systems, with either alternative systems in place or manual, paper systems.  These plans were regularly refreshed and were due for a further refresh around Covid.  Reference was made to the Audit Scotland report on the Overview of Local Government in Scotland 2020, which was due to be considered later at the meeting, and the increasing role of planners who should be taking a more pro-active role in community planning for place-centred design.  Mrs Craig undertook to bring that aspect  for consideration as part of the FF24 review of the Community Engagement Team, Community Learning & Development, and community capacity development.  With regard to resources, Mrs Craig explained that there had been concerns around the capacity of one of the teams but this was being addressed through development of staff and recruitment.  When a risk was identified in one area, resource could be moved from another area, which was all part of corporate working.  It was necessary to keep an eye on corporate skills or knowledge skills to ensure there was sufficient resource.  In terms of succession planning, a great deal of work had gone into people planning over the last few years and that continued.  The people plan aligned with the financial plan and the business plan, and managers worked on these alongside the HR and Finance Business Partners to identify trends e.g. aging workforce, change of skills, level of customer expectation, etc. and try to adapt and pre-empt where possible. 

5.3       In response to a question about Citizen Space, Mrs Craig explained that Citizen Space was a digital tool used for consultation and feedback.  It had been used following the fire in Peebles and also to get feedback from customers, parents, users of services, and users of Covid services.  It was user friendly and could be used in a wide context.  While there was capacity for wider use, care had to be taken around scheduling, as analysis of responses took some time.  In terms of service management at the moment during Covid, Mrs Craig advised that the Council had stood up a Response & Recovery Board which met twice per week.  Assessments had been made of every Council service including a RAG status update for emerging risks and these were considered regularly by the Board.  In response to questions about how the Council was engaging with the 25-35% of people not connecting digitally,  Mrs Craig explained that this was one area that needed further consideration as services changed and the digital offering also changed.  There was a need to look at the future model and how to deliver to those people who could not or chose not to engage digitally.  National work was also underway on that and the Council was supporting some people who did not have access to digital services.  Mrs Stacey confirmed that an officer was currently reviewing corporate risks and these would be prioritised.  Information was being captured throughout the Covid-19 emergency for future use and the Corporate Risk Officer post was also out for recruitment so it was hoped to have enhanced resources soon.    

DECISION

NOTED the presentation on Customer & Communities risk management and that  further information on Citizen Space would be issued to Elected Members.