Agenda item

Angela Andres, Chief Executive and Town Clerk, on behalf of Jaclyn Gibson, Chief Finance Officer, presented Performance Scrutiny Committee:

a)    with a status report of the revised Strategic Risk Register as at the end of the third quarter 2019/20.

b)    Highlighted the 10 risks contained in the register as follows:

-       Failure to engage & influence effectively the Council’s strategic partners, council staff and all stakeholders to deliver against e.g. Councils Vision 2020/25.

-       Failure to deliver a sustainable Medium Term Financial Strategy (that supports delivery of Vision 2020).

-       Failure to deliver the Towards Financial Sustainability Programme whilst ensuring the resilience of the Council.

-       Failure to ensure compliance with statutory duties/functions and appropriate governance arrangements were in place.

-       Failure to protect the local authority’s vision 2020/25 due to changing structures and relationships in local government and impact on size, scale and scope of the Council.

-       Unable to meet the emerging changes required in the Council’s culture, behaviour and skills to support the delivery of the Council’s Vision 2020/25 and the transformational journey to one Council approach.

-       Insufficient levels of resilience and capacity exist in order to deliver key strategic projects & services within the Council.

-       Decline in the economic prosperity within the City Centre.

-       Failure to mitigate against the implications for the Council following the outcome of Brexit.

c)    Explained that a number of control actions had now been progressed or completed and the key movements were outlined as follows:

-       Risk 1 - Failure to engage & influence effectively the Council’s strategic partners, council staff and all stakeholders to deliver against e.g. Council’s Vision 2020/2025. The Council’s draft Vision 2025 had been developed, with a new 5^th strategic priority, and had been subject to both internal and external consultation.  The final document would be presented to Council for approval on 3^rd March 2020.

-       Risk 2 - Failure to deliver a sustainable Medium Term Financial Strategy (that supported delivery of Vision 2020 (Council plan). The draft MTFS had been prepared, based on revised financial planning assumptions (and with a new savings target) and was subject to public consultation and Member scrutiny during February. The MTFS was to be approved in March 2020.

-       Risk 6 - Unable to meet the emerging changes required in the Council’s culture, behavior and skills to support the delivery of the council’s future Vision and the transformational journey to one Council approach. A Staff Charter, ”The Lincoln Way”,  had been developed with staff consultation being started in February 2020.

-       Risk 7 – Insufficient levels of resilience and capacity exist in order to deliver key strategic projects and services. As part of the development of Vision 2025, timelines for existing legacy projects had been undertaken along with the scheduling of new projects to allow capacity to be delivered.

d)    Highlighted that there was one risk that had the likelihood and impact increased and was as follows:

-       Risk 5 – had been increased from Amber: Probable/Major to Red: Almost Certain/Major.

e)    Invited members’ comments and questions.

Question: Members asked whether the Reshaping Local Government group that had been set up was internal?

Response: Yes, conversations took place at Chief Executive level and would be filtered down to Officer level in March. Discussions were at an early stage.

RESOLVED that the strategic risks and control actions as at the end of the third quarter 2019/20 be noted.