Risk Management Function

The Internal Audit and Risk Management department will develop and strengthen the risk management practices and principles across the Council to ensure that all material risks are identified, measured and properly reported. The department will develop the risk management framework, improvement plan and associated components, and ensure it is implemented consistently and proportionately across the Council.

The department will:

• Work with senior and service managers to effectively implement, embed and improve the culture of risk management across the Council.
• Monitor, maintain and continually improve the Strategic Risk Register and facilitate the development of an effective logging, monitoring and reporting system for all risks for the Council, to facilitate the identification and mitigation of risk, and the exploitation of opportunities.
• Lead on the provision of ongoing technical advice and support to all Directorates, Elected Members and others responsible for risk management activities, including the provision of training.
• Ensure that the Council's approach to risk management is compliant with statutory and audit requirements, as well as industry standards and best practice, and that the Council’s Audit Committee is able to provide assurances on the effectiveness of Council’s risk management arrangements.
• To develop an effective risk management communication strategy, keeping all relevant stakeholders appraised of the current status of the risk management arrangements, including ensuring access to all relevant risk management documents on the Councils intranet website.
• To write Risk Management reports for and if necessary attend meetings such as the Audit Committee, Integrated Assurance Working Group, and SLT on a routine basis and to include an up-to-date Strategic Risk Register.
• Work with other Council teams to embed the risk management arrangement into other Council key business processes and to develop integrated assurance.
• To develop a lessons learnt procedure for adverse risk events.

Risk Management Framework Review

The Risk Management Framework will be subject to ongoing update, including an annual formal review to ensure it continues to be relevant and meet the needs of the Council.

The annual review of this Framework will be informed by the annual review of corporate governance arrangements, the aim being:

• To assess how well the Risk Management Framework has been embedded and complies with our governance framework.
• To identify areas for further improvement.

​​​​​​​The review of this Framework will be overseen by the Senior Leadership Team to ensure that the Framework aligns with the wider governance arrangements in the Council.