Mike Lane, Senior Risk and Insurance Officer introduced a report of the Chief Executive that informed on how the Council was working to improve its arrangements for managing risk as part of a broader programme of enhancements to corporate governance. The report provided a progress update in relation to those actions and indicated others to be taken in the coming months. An earlier report to the Audit and Risk Management (ARM) Committee on 23 July 2018 (minute 8 refers) set out a number of early actions aimed at supporting improvements.

The Senior Risk and Insurance Officer updated Members on a series of internal discussions that had been held with the Strategic Leadership Team facilitated by Zurich (Insurers) and the establishment of a Task and Finish Group to oversee and drive improvements to the Risk Management Framework. Planned actions included:

• A training session for members of Overview and Scrutiny Committees on risk management principles and practices was scheduled to take place on 2 October 2018.

• Arrangements in progress for a workshop for a sub-group of the ARM Committee to provide Members with an opportunity to contribute directly to improvements to the Council’s standards and procedures for managing risk.

• The risk management component of the Leadership Training Programme for senior officers was being developed with the support of the Organisational Development team.

• An initial discussion had taken place in connection with a risk management element of a wider training programme for managers in 2019.

Resolved – That

(1)  the report be noted; and

(2)  regular progress reports on improvement actions be presented to future meetings of the committee.