Agenda item - Strategic Risk Management Action Plan Focus: SR2 Financial Outlook; and SR18 Effective Use of Technology

Report of the Executive Director for Finance & Resources (copy

attached).

19.1      The Committee considered the report of the Executive Director of Finance and Resources, in relation to the Strategic Risk Management Action Plans (MAPs) for Strategic Risk 2 Financial Outlook and Strategic Risk 18 Effective Use of Technology. The Committee had a role to monitor the effectiveness of risk management and internal control by oversight of the Strategic Risk Register and a Risk Management Action Plan (MAP) for each risk which was owned by a member of the Executive Leadership Team. The Committee had agreed to focus on two strategic risks at each meeting so that over the course of a year all the strategic risk MAPs received attention.

19.2      Mr Horne said that ensuring the future of service provision was a key part of the risk management strategy and asked what the Committee could do to make certain the services were delivered adequately. The Executive Director of Finance & Resources advised that the Committee should monitor the quality of the service provided. The scale of the challenges ahead were not yet fully understood. The Authority would look at which services needed to be provided and ensure that there was a sustainable budget to provide them. Mr Horne asked if a further report could be brought to the Committee in November. The Chair said the Authority would not know until December what the level of Council Tax would be. Central Government could allow Council Tax levels to rise above the 2% threshold, but that would not be known until later in the year. The Executive Director of Finance & Resources said that the Institute of Fiscal Studies believed that even if there were a change in Central Government next year there would not be any change to local government funding and so savings level s requirements would be likely to continue.

19.3      Councillor Janio noted that the Corporate Accounts showed 250 members of staff were paid over £50k pa, and suggested that whilst salaries were so high, the Government would continue to cut the Authority’s budget. Officers advised that for certain skill sets, such as IT provision, the Authority currently paid well below the market rate.

19.4      With regard to the Effective Use of Technology the Executive Director of Finance and Resources said that additional funding had been identified to bring the Council’s IT up to standard, and there had been a substantial investment this year. There were demands from all areas of the Authority for better and more efficient use of technology.

19.5      Councillor Summers said that the public asked why so much was invested in IT. Officers said the Authority was always looking to improve efficiency, for example enabling members of staff to access the Council’s database remotely would allow those who worked predominantly away from the office to spend more time on their role and less time travelling to and from the office and simple things such as ensuring computers ran quickly would save a large amount of lost time.

19.6      Councillor Summers asked whether looking at efficiency was a means to mitigate the cuts or whether the Authority was always looking to improve efficiency. Officers said that the Authority was always looking at ways in which customer service and efficiency could be improved.

19.7      Councillor Simson said that efficiency was the key word. IT had not kept up with technology and the Authority should be looking long term on how to embrace changes which in turn would provide a better service and improved efficiency. It would need a big investment, but there was a demand from the public to deal with issues electronically.

19.8      Councillor Janio asked that officers look at improving IT service by service and not to take the approach which had been taken by some organisations, that one solution would suit everyone. Officers assured Councillor Janio that that would not be the case.

19.9      The Chair referred to Citrix, which was used by many officers to access the Council’s system remotely, and said that it wasn’t reliable. Officers accepted that and said that Citrix had been used for a number of years and was now coming to the end of its life. Further investment in this software was needed. People’s expectations had changed and as well as reliable software, IT support was now needed out of traditional office hours

19.10   RESOLVED: That the report be noted.