Agenda item

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Commissioning which presented the Corporate Risk Register, Cluster Assurance Maps and Inspections Planner and provided assurance on the Council’s overall system of risk management.

The report recommended:-

that the Committee -

(a)      note the Corporate Risk Register set out in Appendix A and the summary of movements in risk scores set out in the table at section 3.6;

(b)      note the Cluster Assurance Maps provided at Appendix B; and

(c)      note the Inspections Planner provided at Appendix C, note that this is unlikely to include all external scrutiny requirements for 2024 for the reason explained in item 9.5 (Assurance Reporting) on today’s agenda and note that this limits the Councils visibility on the balance of management, internal and external assurance required to manage our risk environment.

In response to a question relating to the increase in the Financial Sustainability score, the Chief Officer – Finance advised that looking at the financial settlement for 2024/25, noting the continued single year financial settlement and the Scottish Government’s medium term financial documents, the future and sustainability of the local government financial landscape would continue to bring challenges.  He further advised that the Council were going through robust financial management processes, working with budget holders and with internal and external audit to ensure that the governance was followed.  He stated that the Council were focusing on their financial resilience framework which would be updated and reported as part of the budget process.

In response to a question relating to target dates set for the end of March 2024 and whether these were achievable, the Interim Chief Officer – Governance (Assurance) advised that the risk owners were working towards the target dates and that she was confident that they would be met.

In response to a question relating to risks associated with Supply Chain, the Strategic Commercial Manager advised that there were some procurement pressures with materials, vehicle parts and food and that the market continued to be monitored with the risk score amended where appropriate.

In response to a question relating to the increase in the risk score for Resettlement and Asylum and whether the demand for services would be stabilising or continuing, the Interim Director of Children's and Family Services advised that within education they were seeing a steadying situation in one area and escalating situations in another which were being managed as best as possible.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)       to instruct the Chief Officer – Early Intervention and Community Empowerment to provide an update by email on the risk associated with the Resettlement and Asylum demand ensuring that the differing groups of people were recorded separately; and

(ii)      to otherwise approve the recommendations contained in the report.