Agenda item

Minute No. 18 – ‘Strategic Risk Report Mapping’ – 17 August, 2016

Further to the above Minute, the Committee considered its first ‘Deep Dive’ review of the Adults Health and Wellbeing (AHWb) directorate, in order to provide a more in-depth picture of how it managed strategic risks, as requested by this Committee at its meeting on 17th August 2016.  The report provided details of the grip the directorate had on its 2 specific strategic risks and the variety of ways in whichthe key components of the risks were focussed upon.  The 2 strategic risks identified included:

·       SR01 -  The agreed standards and policies are not adequately understood and implemented by practitioners who work with vulnerable adults increasing the risk of vulnerable people experiencing harm or abuse (current score, impact 5 critical, likelihood 2 unlikely).

·       SR02 - Health and social care services do not change fast enough, impacting on quality, accessibility and affordability of services for people who need them most (current score, impact 5 critical, likelihood 3 possible).

Kim Curry, Director Adults, Health and Wellbeing, was in attendance at the meeting to respond to Members questions and concerns.

In response to a query with regard to the areas that were outstanding following the independent quality assurance review undertaken in September 2016, as highlighted in Paragraph 16 of the report, Members were informed that the areas of progress made so far were on the work that had been undertaken with the Doncaster Safeguarding Adults Board, which was now chaired by an Independent Chair and a Performance Framework had since been put in place.  Members noted that support to the Board was currently being reviewed. It was explained that the area for consideration was particularly in relation to the national agenda for ‘Self neglect and vulnerable people’, which related to homeless people and those people who were often badged as ‘difficult to engage’ and was about how the local authority and its partners could help in such situations.  Whilst this issue was not particularly specific to Doncaster, the Council was looking at how this could be built into the Safeguarding process and there were a number of ways that this was being achieved through the Safer, Stronger approach and the Stronger Families approach.  The Council was also looking at a ‘Community MARAC’ (multi-agency risk assessment conference) approach, where individual organisations meet to talk about vulnerable people. A key issue was finding a way to communicate and engage with this cohort of people.

During discussion, Members noted that whilst the current risk scores were provided for in the report, the target risk scores had not been included. Therefore, it was requested that in future, an extract from the Risk Register be appended to the report for comparative purposes.

In response to a query in relation to re-scoring of risks and the frequency of the Quarterly Review of the Risks identified in the table at Appendix A to the report, assurances were provided that monthly performance Directorate Leadership Team meetings were held to review the risks, review the scores and review the progress being made, not only against the indicators but also against Corporate and departmental risks. The Director Adults, Health and Wellbeing acknowledged that it may be timely to consider whether the risks identified in the report were the right risks.

Further to a question in relation to the reporting of risks and whether the risks could be changed, Members were informed that the risks were reported and discussed at Departmental leadership meetings on a monthly basis and were then fed into the Improvement Board and were also picked up in the Corporate risk register report.  The Improvement Board would not change those risks without having a Corporate discussion at Directors and Executive Board meetings, in order that Elected Members would be involved in those discussions, including the Portfolio Holder.

In relation to the target risk scores identified in the report, Members queried how the current risk scores had changed over the last 12-18 months, whether there was a positive trend that showed that the management of risks was working and whether the measures in place would enable the Council to be able to achieve the target risk levels. Members also queried whether the risk management process included checks on the effectiveness of the process by reducing the risk level.  It was reported that risks relating to the Adults and Wellbeing Transformation Programme and safeguarding adults had significantly reduced over the last year. In terms of safeguarding, the Director Adults, Health and Wellbeing outlined the action undertaken following the Peer Review last year which included, the establishment of a safeguarding hub, changes to performance management, data collection and the performance framework, which had meant that significant improvements had been made in relation to the way that safeguarding and safeguarding risks were being assessed and managed. 

With regard to the TransformationProgramme, it was reported that £1.8m of financial savings had been achieved in terms of commissioning. The Transformation Programme and the leadership of it and the risks were realigned as a consequence of the Council now having a programme that was significantly delivering on its immediate business improvement requirements.  In terms of the management of the risks to the Council, it was reported that the delivery of both of those elements of the Programme had substantially reduced the risk.  Risks were considered on a monthly basis through immediate business improvement, but also during the Transformation Improvement Board as well.

In response to a question from Members regarding whether processes were in place to manage and report risks and whether evidence could be provided to the Committee in this respect, it was reported that risks were discussed through the Transformation leadership work, and each of these 2 programmes of work had a risk register which was discussed at the Board on a monthly basis and was updated after each update. The Director Adults, Health and Wellbeing gave an undertaking to provide Members with this information.

Members asked whether there were opportunities to improve risk management in the Adults, Health and Wellbeing Directorate. Members were informed that the next challenge for the Council was to ensure that risk management was embedded in the Council’s approach right the way through the Council by way of 1 to 1’s and PDR’s up into the programme, so a ‘golden thread’ could be seen throughout the discussions from front line staff, right the way up to strategic discussions. 

RESOLVED that the report on the management of Adults Health and Wellbeing strategic risks, be noted.