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 surveillance systems are used. She referred to a government review which took place in March 2020 and said like most local authorities they were deemed to be non-compliant with the regulations. Ms Corbett said her service had conducted a self-assessment and had undertaken a data mapping exercise to identify the types of surveillance used. She said an improvement plan had been devised with a whole series of recommendations and as such this was on the corporate risk register. She said significant work was required to comply with the protection of freedoms act and GDPR. A risk-based approach was being used to address this.
• In reference to page 85, Corporate risk register and the impact the NHS had on social care, Ms Radley said one of the biggest areas of impact was hospital discharge. She said this was an ongoing issue and pressure, as the discharge pathways meant people were being discharged more quickly. She said there were associated costs with care packages as well as a significant financial risk in terms of discharge and long-term effects of Covid-19. 
• In reference to the budget, Ms Radley said whilst the short-term funding would see the Directorate through until the end of March, the long-term risk was the budget being at risk of a £2-3M shortfall. Ms Radley said this was the national picture with adult social care budgets being stretched. There had been debate relating to social care funding, but the local authority was looking at options available to it, such as making saving when re-procuring the home care contract to improving front door services. She said modelling in relation to demography had been considered however the underlying pressure on the budget and the financial risks associated with it meant the medium to long term financial plan was to look for savings where possible.
• In reference to ‘existing control measures’ in the report, Mr Rock explained different managers used the report differently. He said he was comfortable with this as the important thing was to recognise the risk and put in place mitigations.
• In reference to page 96, risk ASD0022 and failure to meet our duties under the Civil Contingencies Act, the Chair asked if the target risk was achievable. Ms Corbett responded stating a considerable amount of work had been done since 2016 and money had been invested to ensure London was prepared to manage a major incident. She said regular training exercises were undertaken as well as peer reviews.
• Mr Tomsett said in relation to the risk ASDCH001, failure of commissioned provider they worked closely with the commissioned providers. He said they had a good understanding of the day-to-day delivery of services and financial situations of providers. He said the picture had improved over the last 18 months.

The Audit Committee RESOLVED to:

1.    Note the corporate risks, and where applicable request risk owner(s) with risks requiring further scrutiny to provide a detailed update on the treatment and mitigation of their risk including impact on the corporate objectives at the next Committee meeting (or separately before the meeting if urgent).

2.    Note the Health, Adults & Community Directorate risks and where applicable request risk owner(s) with risks requiring further scrutiny to provide a detailed update on the treatment and mitigation of their risk including impact on the directorate’s objectives at the next Committee meeting (or separately before the meeting if urgent).

3.    Note the progress made against the Annual Action Plan for Risk Management.