Governance and risk management

The authority has a moral and statutory duty to take all reasonable actions to safeguard its employees, assets and the public and ensure that it is not financially or operationally disrupted.

It will meet this duty by ensuring that its local code of corporate governance and risk management policy statement play an integral part in the governance of the authority at a strategic and operational level.

We are currently updating our Local Code of Corporate Governance but it will be available here once it is updated.

Risk Management

We are committed to identifying and managing risks affecting the organisation. We recognise that it is not always possible to completely eliminate risk and that a level of risk may always exist. However, we recognise our responsibility to manage risks effectively and we support a structured and focussed approach to managing risks by the approval of a Risk Management Policy.

By doing this, we aim to:

• Better achieve our corporate objectives and priorities
• Manage our resources effectively
• Improve the quality of our business decisions
• Anticipate and respond to change (for example, political, social, environmental, legislative, technical and their associated risks) in a proactive and systematic way
• Prevent loss or injury to Staff, Councillors, members of the public and other visitors
• Provide greater protection of our assets and guard against impropriety or poor value for money 
• Enhance corporate governance
• Reduce complaints against us 
• Protect our reputation and enhance community confidence
• Reduce the cost of insurance, incidence of claim and improve our ability to defend claims

To achieve these aims, we will:

• Raise awareness of the need for effective risk management, by all those connected with service delivery, through advice and training; and provide opportunities for shared learning
• Maintain risk management systems and processes which reflect best practice
• Determine our appetite or tolerance to risk
• Allocate resources to identified priority areas
• Establish clear roles, responsibilities and reporting lines for risk management within the Council
• Incorporate risk management into the business planning process and embed risk management within the culture of the organisation
• Incorporate risk management into reviews of services
• Incorporate risk management into all substantive service developments and projects
• Monitor risk management arrangements on an on-going basis and take appropriate measures
   
• Read our Risk Management Strategy