Issue - meetings

To provide an update on the Council’s strategic risks for the period 1 January 2022 to 31 March 2022 (report of the Assistant Director – Corporate enclosed).

Consideration was given to the report of the Assistant Director – Corporate to provide an update on the Council’s strategic risks for the period 1 January 2022 to 31 March 2022.

The Assistant Director – Finance provided the Committee with the following updates:

• Regarding appendix A, an updated narrative for the ‘Local Economy’ risk which reflected current trends would be circulated to the Committee after the meeting. The level of risk had not changed.
  • Members welcomed the updated narrative but suggested that the Local Economy risk would have changed. Members asked the Senior Change and Performance Business Partner to review the risk.

• Members noted the staff retention risk and asked if the existence of the partnership afforded greater internal training opportunities.
  • The Assistant Director – Finance referred to the staff retention  and opportunities update noted in the Action agenda item.

• Members had not yet been offered training as stated in the ‘external communications breakdown’ risk mitigation narrative. When would this take place?
  • Training had been undertaken for senior officers and would be rolled out to members after the 2023 election, for the new municipal year.

• Members referred to the ‘internal communications breakdown’ risk and asked whether the implemented ‘comms calendar’ had resulted in an increase in communications from services.

o   The Assistant Director- Finance presented the Committee with an updated narrative provided by the Assistant Director – Corporate. The purpose of the ‘comms calendar’ was to inform member and officer briefings and was not intended to be a circulated document. Communications engagement was reported to the senior leadership team regularly and monitored at a high level. There were no concerns.

·         Concerns were raised regarding Change4Lincs and members asked how the service could be improved. Was the contract being managed?

o   The Homelessness Reduction and Private Sector Improvement Manager stated that:

§  Change4Lincs was a jointly funded project hosted by South Kesteven District Council and included South Holland District Council, North Kesteven District Council and West Lindsey District Council;

§  the project utilised the Rough Sleeper Initiative (RSI) funding for a range of support such as the Street Outreach team and intensive support;

§  The first two rounds of RSI funding had been limited to 12 months which had led to recruitment challenges;

§  The RSI 5 bid had been successful with an award of £2m through a 3-year funding agreement which offered longer stability for teams and capacity for improvements;

§  Operational meetings had restarted, and a senior officer was in post; and

§  The SHDC Housing Options Team were looking to work collaboratively with Change4Lincs and meetings were being arranged.

o   The Assistant Director – Finance would liaise with the Homelessness Reduction and Private Sector Improvement Manager to understand how the Change4Lincs contract worked and establish whether additional support was required.  Details would be provided in the next Risk Report.

AGREED:

That the information detailed within the report be noted.