The Head of Financial Services and Acting S151 Officer presented the report of the Chief Executive, which advised that under the terms of the Council’s Constitution, one of the functions of the Audit and Risk Management Committee was to provide independent assurance that the Council’s Risk Management Framework was effective.

The report informed that the Corporate Risk Register formed a key component to the framework and that to ensure that the Council continued to focus on the most critical risks to the delivery of its objectives the Strategic Leadership Team had produced a revised set of corporate risks aligned to the Wirral Plan.

The Head of Financial Services informed the Audit and Risk Management Committee that in the past year the Council and its partners had adopted the Wirral Plan: A 2020 Vision. This set out a refreshed set of priorities and a different approach to the delivery of outcomes and recognised that given such major changes the most significant threats to the delivery of the Plan could differ substantially from those which the Council has faced previously.

The report informed that, as a result, the Strategic Leadership Team and Risk and Insurance Manager had collated and considered information about how various risks might impact on the Council and its partners. Having considered the information and with reference to the Council’s risk scoring matrix and in accordance with its Risk Management Policy scores had been allocated, key officers tasked and actions / controls identified.

The report provided a one page summary for each of the following identified corporate risks, as follows:

1)  Financial Resilience

2)  Organisation Development and Pace of Transformational Change

3)  Partnerships

4)  Devolution

5)  Integration of Health and Social Care

6)  Effect of demographic changes on demand for services

7)  Safeguarding

8)  Governance (including information governance)

9)  Economic Activity

10)  Resources and Infrastructure

Members considered the content and new format summary, and commented favourably on the clear layout and easy to understand format.

A Member requested that in future reports abbreviations and acronyms be kept to a minimum and another questioned the source of some of the planned additional controls. The Head of Financial Services confirmed that Member suggestions would be actioned and that the planned controls had been sourced from management, service officers and previously identified best practice (ARM, Minute No. 55, 15 March 2016 also refers).

Resolved – That

1)  the refreshed set of corporate risks be noted; and

2)  future updates on the Corporate Risk Register be presented to this Committee.