Agenda item

The Committee considered a joint report of the Director of Corporate Resources which was to provide an overview of key risk areas and the measures being taken to address them and updates on emerging risks and issues, insurance renewals and Counter Fraud Initiatives.   A copy of the report marked ‘Agenda Item 9’, is filed with these minutes.

Arising from discussion the following points arose:

(i)      Regarding the potential risks of care provider failure if local care home workers refused to get fully vaccinated against Covid-19, assurance was provided that the immediate risk of there being insufficient capacity due to the national regulations coming into force on 11 November 2021, was low.  Members also noted that although recruitment and retention of the workforce continued to be an issue for the overall care market there was currently no evidence to suggest that the local social care market would be severely impacted by the enforcement of these regulations.  A great deal of work had been undertaken by the Adults and Communities Department to encourage the relevant workers to get vaccinated and the Department had also been supporting local care providers to put in place any necessary mitigations. In response to comments raised by a member, officers undertook to provide Committee members with further information to confirm the local situation in respect of vaccination uptake outside of the meeting.

(ii)    An outcome of National Fraud Initiative investigations carried out for Leicestershire for the year 2020/21 was the identification of four cases where pensions were continuing to be paid to deceased persons, the payments of which had been immediately suspended. It was confirmed that the outcome of the further investigation work being carried out by the Council’s Pensions Service would be reported to a future meeting.

(iii)   It was clarified that in terms of how the risk scores in the Corporate Risk Register (CRR) were arrived at, all Council departments were required to follow the risk scoring matrix set out in the Risk Management Policy Framework, which was due to be updated and presented to the Committee at its meeting in January 2022. It was confirmed that if a Department’s assessment of a risk reached a score of 15 or above, the risk would be debated to determine if it should be added to the CRR. In response to comments raised by a member, it was agreed that a reminder of the risk scoring matrix details would be useful to include in the Committee’s next Risk Management Update.

(iv)   Regarding the risk of capital schemes such as HS2 not being progressed as expected, the Director confirmed that although HS2 had featured in an earlier report to the Committee as an emerging risk, currently the risk was not considered to be high enough to go through the full risk management process; the risk around Freeport designation not being achieved had been identified and recorded on the CRR (risk 1.11); and in respect to road and rail improvements a separate risk around local infrastructure (risk 1.12) now featured on the CRR.

RESOLVED:

(a)    That the current status of the strategic risks facing the County Council be approved;

(b)    That the outcomes of the further investigatory work being undertaken by the Council’s Pension Service into four cases where pensions had continued to be paid to deceased persons be reported to a future meeting;

(c)    That further details to confirm the local situation in respect of Covid-19 vaccination uptake for care workers be provided to Committee members outside of the meeting;

(d)    That the Director be requested to include in the next Risk Management Update Report to the Committee, further details on how risk scores within the Council’s Corporate Risk Register are calculated;

(e)    That the updates regarding emerging risks and issues, insurance renewals and Counter Fraud Initiatives be noted.