Archived decisions

Finance and General Purposes Committee Item 7

19^th June 2008

Strategic Risk Register

Report of the Chief Officer

Contact: Nicki Whitehouse, Deputy Performance Review Team Manager

Telephone: 023 8062 6850

1 Summary

1.1 The Register of strategic risks is presented to Members annually at the September meeting of the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority. In addition to this, the Corporate Management Team, and Service Management Team review the Register at regular intervals. Given the Register's importance to the overall corporate planning process, it was recommended to the Fire Authority in September that a further formal opportunity for Members' input be provided by reporting the Register to the June meeting of the Finance and General Purposes Committee on an annual basis.

2 Recommendations

2.1 That the current version of the Strategic Risk Register be received and noted.

3 Introduction

3.1 The Risk Management Policy and Strategy was first presented to the Authority on 9 February 2005.

3.2 The Strategic Risk Register is reviewed on a quarterly basis by Service Management Team and was last reported to the Authority in September 2007. The Register is also presented to the Corporate Management Team periodically to provide a further opportunity for Member's comment.

3.3 The Risk Management policy and strategy encompasses all business activities, as well as those specifically aimed at preventing, protecting, and responding. The policy and strategy aims to identify any risks that may impact upon the Service meeting its objectives. Continual review of the Register is a key activity in our overall corporate planning process.

4 Risk Management Policy and Strategy

4.1 The aims of the Risk Management Policy and Strategy are to:

· Anticipate and respond to changing external and internal pressures to avoid unwelcome surprises.

· Raise awareness of the need for effective risk management by all those involved in the delivery of our services.

· Manage risk in accordance with best practice, thus helping to ensure the most effective use of our resources.

· Promote and support well thought through risk taking to ensure improvement opportunities are not lost.

· Integrate risk management into the culture of the Authority.

4.2 The approach taken is that Members and senior managers are responsible for identifying and managing any significant strategic risks that could affect the Authority's ability to achieve its corporate aims and objectives. Operational risks are identified and managed within the service delivery and support departments, both as part of their planning processes, and on a day-to-day basis.

4.3 Issues of strategic significance identified at operational levels are escalated to the Service Management Team (SMT) for further assessment. SMT then examine and evaluate the strategies, and controls put in place to mitigate or treat the identified risk to the required level. A current and target risk score is determined, which comprises a score between one to five, and which relates to the perceived likelihood of the event occurring, multiplied by the perceived impact relating to that risk. Risks remain on the Register until they are given a score of ten or less which equates to low or very low risk, and have been reported to the Fire Authority at its September meeting.

5 Current and future work

5.1 Officer training remains ongoing to facilitate the further embedding of the process into day-to-day work. Progress has been made in compiling Risk Registers within the Group Planning process, and for strategic projects.

5.2 The Performance Review Team maintains the Strategic Risk Register, and facilitates its updating. Members of this team are active on the Fire Sector Service Group of ALARM (Association of Local Authority Risk Managers); using this to benchmark our risk management processes against other Fire Services to ensure that we are working towards to current best practice. The Team will update the Risk Management Strategy and report any amendments to the Fire Authority in September 2008.

5.3 The Service Delivery Directorate is developing a Service Delivery Risk Register to aid risk based service delivery planning.

6 Strategic Risk Register

6.1 The Strategic Risk Register is used to maintain information on identified risks considered of strategic risk to the Authority. A copy of the current version is attached to this report as Appendix A.

7 Contribution to corporate aims and objectives

7.1 Whilst all of our corporate aims seek to reduce risk to the communities we serve, it is essential that these, and their related objectives and activities are themselves subject to risk assessment and considered in terms of potential impact.

7.2 We aim to be in the top ten performing fire and rescue services in the country. Sound risk management processes - that are embedded throughout the organisation - are critical to sound decision making. The process (which is an integral part of our strategic planning process and performance management framework) helps to identify new and emerging issues which could impact on existing corporate aims and provide a focus for new ones.

8 Risk Analysis

8.1 It is essential that a Risk Management policy and strategy is in place across the organisation to ensure that there is a consistent and robust approach to the identification, analysis and treatment of strategic risks. This in turn ensures that major threats are considered and managed appropriately with adequate control measures, and equally that opportunities are identified and considered.

9 Resource implications

9.1 The Authority has a corporate membership with the Association of Local Authority Risk Managers (ALARM), and staff involved with the function have attended training courses and seminars in order to develop their knowledge, and keep up to date with best practices. These costs are met from Training and Performance Review departmental budgets.

10 Equality Impact Assessment

10.1 Carrying out equality impact assessments will strengthen our risk management practices by ensuring that the consequences of our proposed policies and actions comply with current legislation and expectations for improving equality and diversity in the workplace and in the delivery of services to the public.

10.2 The proposals within this report are considered compatible with the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Human Rights Act 1998, and the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000.

11 Conclusion

11.1 Risk management is about the management of threats and opportunities. By managing our threats and opportunities effectively, the Service will be in a better position to deliver our objectives, and make the most effective use of our resources.

12 Background information (Section 100D of Local Government Act 1972)

12.1 The following documents disclose the facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of the report:

Risk Management Policy and Strategy is accessible from the Authority's 2agenda, reports and minutes2 web pages /decisions/decisions-docs/050209-fireau-R0202104346

Note: The list excludes: (1) published works; and (2) documents that disclose exempt or confidential information defined in the Act.

Attachments

Appendix A - Strategic Risk Register version 13.1

Secretarial/WP/Corporate/HFRA/FGP HFRA FGP/Risk Register 19 6 08 NW/JMW/27/5/08