Mr Paul Rock, Head of Internal Audit, Anti-Fraud and Risk said the report presented was the regular quarterly report to the Committee, which provided an update on the Corporate Risk Register. Mr Rock said the report provided an update against the Risk plan, which was challenging due to resources. However, there had been an improvement in risk management across the Council, with each Directorate being more focussed on their Directorate level risks and associated mitigation actions.

Mr Rock said Ms Denise Radley, the Corporate Director for Health, Adults and Community Directorate plus her management team, were present for any questions in relation to the Directorate’s risk register.

Ms Denise Radley, then addressed the Committee and said her Directorate consisted of four divisions: Public Health, Social Care, Integrated Commissioning with the NHS and Community Safety. She said this also included civil contingencies.

Ms Radley said the Directorate had large operational services, with adult social care and community safety being the biggest area of responsibility plus a wide range of services being commissioned jointly such as care homes, domiciliary care, substance misuse etc. She said an integral part of their provision was underpinned by themes of safeguarding, mental health and protecting vulnerable people. Ms Radley said there was significant risks associated with providing services in these areas and therefore the prevention of risk was paramount. 

Ms Radley referred to the Directorate risk register commencing on page 91 of the agenda and referenced risk ASD0015, risk of death or serious harm to a vulnerable adult. She said a multi-agency approach was used to identify risks, with the Adult Safeguarding Board providing oversight across all partner agencies. Ms Radley referenced risk ASD0028 and said there was ongoing pressures within adult social care relating to budgets which had been made more complex due to Covid-19. She said the emergency funding provided by government had assisted the financial position short-term, however there was an improvement programme to assist the Directorate to get to a more sustainable budget position.

Ms Radley said her senior Directors were present to answer questions relating to their areas of expertise.

In response to comments and questions from members the following was noted:

• In reference to page 76, Corporate risk register and how the changes to work practices relating to the budget have been incorporated within the Directorate, Ms Radley stated there had been a lot of work done to improve the knowledge and skills of budget managers. She said excellent quality training and briefings had been provided by finance colleagues and they worked closely with the Finance Business partner to ensure managers were engaged in the process and had oversight for their area of responsibility. Ms Radley added the budget realignment work within the Directorate was still ongoing however the finance improvement work was having a positive impact on budgets and accountability.
• In reference to page 82, Corporate risk register and the use of surveillance cameras, Ms Ann Corbett, Director of Community Safety, provided the Committee with background on how video  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4