Accountabilities and roles
Roles, responsibilities, and reporting lines within the Council are set out below.
Audit and Procurement Committee
The Audit and Procurement Committee will monitor the effective development and operation of risk management and corporate governance within the Council. The Committee will consider the report on the Corporate Risk Register annually.
Cabinet
Cabinet is responsible for maintaining and improving the corporate governance of the city, the preparation and implementation of the One Coventry Plan including its priorities and the effective implementation of the Council’s policies including the Risk Management Policy.
Cabinet Members
Cabinet members provide risk management oversight of service provision in the services aligned with their portfolio. They must be aware of the key risks within their portfolio of services and within any projects or partnerships related to these.
Chief Executive
The Chief Executive Chairs and leads the Strategic Leadership Team and the wider corporate governance agenda of which risk management is part. The Chief Executive will review an annual governance statement and together with the Leader consider and sign it off as appropriate.
Colleagues
All colleagues have responsibility for identifying hazards and risks whilst performing their day-to-day duties and to agree with their manager how these should be controlled.
This may involve:
- Informing their manager if they identify a new risk, or an existing risk that has not been properly assessed
- Assisting in the development and implementation of processes and risk assessments to manage the risk
- Working in accordance with safe procedures and the findings of a risk assessment
- Informing their manager of changes in their personal circumstances that influence their ability to work safely and in line with a risk assessment.
Directorate and Service Management Teams
Management and management teams have responsibility for delivering services. For successful delivery, many factors such as objectives, people, budget etc. must be considered. Risk Management is just one aspect of the overall management task. Risks that threaten the successful delivery of services must be identified through the business planning process. Managers will put in place actions to reduce the risks and promote success. The risks will be monitored and reviewed at appropriate intervals by the service leadership team.
Heads of Service and strategic leads
Implement plans within their services to deliver agreed objectives. They should ensure that risks and the management of those risks have been explicitly considered in the framing of these plans. The risks that could cause them to fail to meet their objectives must be identified, assessed, and mitigated and recorded and reviewed in order that their objectives are successfully achieved.
Internal Audit
Internal Audit is an assurance function that provides an independent opinion on the control environment, including risk management, by evaluating its effectiveness in achieving the Council’s One Coventry priorities. Annually, Internal Audit examines, evaluates, and reports on the adequacy of the risk control environment giving the Council assurance concerning the management of risk and the proper economic and effective use of resources.
Leader of the Council
To lead the Council and the Cabinet in the governance of the city. The Leader of the Council will review an annual governance statement and together with the Chief Executive consider and sign it off as appropriate.
Members
Members collectively are the ultimate policymakers. They will represent their communities and bring their views into the Council decision-making process being advocates of and for their communities. They contribute to the continual improvement of Council services and directly to risk management via membership of the Audit and Procurement Committee.
Insurance Manager
The Insurance Manager will coordinate work on the Corporate Risk Register, collate the Directorate Risk Registers and act as a point of reference and support, including attending service leadership meetings when required.
Monitoring Officer
The Monitoring Officer is appointed under section 5 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 and is required to report to the council where it appears to them the authority has done, or is about to do, anything which would contravene the law, or which would constitute maladministration.
Section 151 Officer
The Section 151 Officer is responsible for the proper administration of the Council’s financial affairs and oversees the production of the Corporate Risk Register prior to its consideration by the Strategic Leadership Team. They must ensure that risks are fully considered and aligned with the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy.
Service Directors
Together with the Chief Executive they are integral to the leadership of the risk management process. They lead on the management of risks arising from corporate initiatives, business transformation, major projects, external environment, and partnership working and assessing the wider implications of risk assessments associated with service provision.
They also embed risk management within their service, to provide assurance to the Chief Executive and Strategic Leadership Team. They have responsibility for the delivery of relevant One Coventry priorities, including service improvements and efficiencies.
They shall ensure that appropriate risk registers are in place and are kept under regular review, including a service risk register and project risk registers, and that risks are managed at the appropriate level, with escalation of risks to Strategic Leadership Team for consideration to be added to the Corporate Risk Register if necessary.
Strategic Leadership Team
The Strategic Leadership Team will set the Council’s risk appetite. They will also scan the horizon for new risks to the Council, provide a view of the medium to long term impacts of Government policy, financing, business transformation and partnership working.
Strategic Leadership Team will oversee an annual Corporate Risk Register and keep it under review throughout the year. They will review risks that are escalated to them by Directors and the effectiveness of actions put in place to mitigate risk at other meetings throughout the year.