Issue - meetings

To provide an update to the committee on the progress of the Council’s identified strategic risks (report of the Executive Director, Strategy and Governance enclosed).

Consideration was given to the report of the Executive Director Strategy and Governance which provided an update to the Committee on the progress of the Council’s identified strategic risks.

The Committee noted the following:

Although the number of risks had remained static in each category, there had been some positive movement within the categories and that for the third consecutive month, there had been no risks identifies as high.  Of the 17 strategic risks, 15 were medium and 2 were low.

Of those considered a medium risk, there had been a positive movement for the following: 

·         The risk relating to the Council’s implementation of the GDPR regulations had reduced as a result of the successful completion of the Privacy Notices and development of the Asset Registers.  In addition, a project plan to monitor performance had been completed and ‘reasonable assurance’ had been received following an internal audit;

·         There had been a further reduction in the risk relating to staff recruitment and retention – Quarter 4 had continued the low turnover trend seen in Q3 with only 4 staff leaving the Council in the quarter.  In addition, staff recruitment continued to improve across all areas of the Council.  Retention also continued its positive trend and all posts were being recruited to within the target times set;

·         The risk relating to the failure to deliver the local plan had reduced to the lowest risk level as the Local Plan Inspectors’ report was received on 29 January, and subject to modifications, was found to be sound.  The Local Plan was subsequently adopted at a meeting of the South East Lincolnshire Local Plan Joint Committee on 8 March;

·         Another risk which had reduced in impact was of a critical breach of ICT security.  The service had assessed the risk based on the current cyber security threats for all local government organisations and PSPSP IT were constantly ensuring that the most current anti-virus and malware software was in place, in addition to ongoing user education and support.

The remaining risks, although reviewed, remained static from Quarter 3.  These included – the Council’s medium term financial plan, including the uncertainty surrounding the future of the Government’s Settlement Funding; the impact of business rate appeals and county council budget reductions; the risk relating to the impact on the Council of the Homelessness Reduction Act; contracts monitoring risk remained the same as the last quarter; the risk around PSPS failure to deliver core services remained stable; and the risk surrounding the failure to effectively implement the corporate business continuity plans remained the same.

Members were advised that a new administration team would be reviewing KPIs and carrying out reviews of strategic risks.  More information on this would be shared with the Committee at as part of the Q1 2019/20 report.

Following consideration of the report, the following issues were raised:

·         Staff recruitment and retention – members commented that the low number of leavers was a good news story. 

·         Impact of business rates appeals – had this been resolved,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3