To consider the report.

Steve Mappley, Insurance and Risk Manager, said that as risk management had been deemed as limited assurance by SWAP, officers would look to do something about it. The plan outlined what would be done and who would be doing it. The work would continue over the next six months or so and would hopefully encourage greater ownership of the process. The evidence base would be improved and a performance and risk management board had been created which would help ensure improvement.

Andrew Vallance added that the council would be completing a strategic risk refresher session in due course.

Councillor Bond noticed that some of the timescales for actions listed in the plan were quite short, he was concerned that extra training sessions could be an added burden on officers. However, it was important that the work was completed. It was good to see that a new board had been created to oversee the process.

Steve Mappley said that a lot of the material existed already which was the reason for the shorter timescales.

Adele Taylor said it was about being able to evidence risk and improve performance.

Councillor Knowles said that ownership was going in the right direction, risk could be debated but risk assessments could improve the democratic process and provide facts rather than opinions.

Steve Mappley said risk needed to find the right level before it became overwhelming, this would affect the level of detail on the risk assessment. High, medium or low risk could be vague and some reports could contain greater detail of the risk.

Councillor Story asked which items were of greatest concern for the Insurance and Risk Manager.

Steve Mappley said that after Directors and Heads of Service, the risk register was less well known. It would be ideal for most officers to have a basic understanding of what was on the risk register and why was it was there. It could be something that was included as part of 1-1 appraisals. There was a relaunch of the risk management strategy planned which went through all tiers of staff, it currently did not get to all tiers of staff.

Adele Taylor said that risk was discussed at all team management meetings and it was considered at 1-1 meetings. This was about bringing risk to the fore and reminding staff of what they are doing and why they are doing it, which is why it needed to be refreshed. The council’s organisational value ‘empowered to improve’ was linked to the need for knowledge of risk to be improved.

Emma Duncan, Monitoring Officer and Director of Law and Governance, said that risk was referenced on every report. She had discussed, with the Head of Governance, the potential of having a link through to the corporate risk register. Any large project should have its own risk register and risk registers should be included in service plans. High risks could be moved up the register which was routinely reviewed by Executive Directors and the risk management board.

The Vice Chairman asked if corporate risks would be reviewed on a regular basis.

Adele Taylor confirmed that they were reviewed by management teams regularly, usually on a monthly basis. There was a difference between corporate, strategic and operational risks and officers needed to make sure that they were in the correct category.

Emma Duncan said that governance risk was considered at each statutory officers group meeting and also formed part of the annual governance statement action plan.

Councillor Hilton, Cabinet Member for Asset Management & Commercialisation, Finance, and Ascot, said that he had been trained as an elected Member on risk by the Insurance and Risk Manager. The risk register included all of the strategic risks and the Berkshire Pension Fund Committee had created a risk register which was detailed, it would be interesting to see how often it was updated. Councillor Hilton said that he discussed risk with officers across a number of different service areas.

Adele Taylor said that officers were thinking about induction training for Members in May next year after the election, this would include training on risk management.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Audit and Governance Committee noted the report.