Councillor Ann McLachlan introduced a report by the Strategic Director - Transformation and Resources that confirmed the process behind the annual update to the Corporate Risk Management Policy.  The report set out the factors that had influenced its development, described the main proposed changes from the current document and confirmed a series of actions needed for its implementation.  It was noted that the Policy had been approved by Audit and Risk Management Committee at its meeting on 18 March 2015.  The Cabinet was now invited to consider and formally adopt the Policy on behalf of the Council. 

The Council, like all organisations, had to deliver its objectives in the face of a complex and increasingly dynamic environment.  The uncertainty created by that environment presented it with both opportunities and threats.  So having a robust and effective framework for addressing risk and uncertainty was vital to the authority’s success.

The Cabinet noted that a key element of the Council’s vision for 2016 was that the organisation would be ‘risk aware, not risk averse’.  This objective made the need for an effective approach to handling risk even more important.

The purpose of a risk management policy was to set out the organisation’s overall attitude to risk and uncertainty, to confirm its commitment to managing risk, to provide a high-level view of the risk management process itself and to set out corporate requirements around how that risk would be handled.  It was a key element of any organisation’s overall risk management framework. 

A fundamental revision of the Council’s policy was carried out in 2013/14 leading to the current document which was adopted by the Cabinet on 13 March 2014.  Governance arrangements for the policy required it to be refreshed annually.

Attached to the report as an appendix was the Council’s revised Risk Management Policy

Councillor Ann McLachlan informed that the Corporate Risk Management Policy was a credit to the Risk and Insurance Officer (Mike Lane) and his Team and reported that the Deputy Risk and Insurance Officer (Simon Hutchinson) had been put forward for the Alarm Risk Award of Professional of the Year.  The Alarm Risk Awards Dinner would be held on 22 June 2015 at Aston University in Birmingham.  Simon had been instrumental in shaping recent government policy.  She congratulated the Team on their achievements.

Councillor Ann McLachlan also informed that it was important that the Cabinet recognised that risk management was a key area of the Council’s corporate governance.

Councillor Phil Davies endorsed the revised Corporate Risk Management Policy and also congratulated the Risk and Insurance Officer and his Team on their excellent work.  He informed that it was important that the Council was a risk aware organisation and that risk management was embedded in everything it did.

RESOLVED:

That the draft Risk Management Policy be formally adopted.