As part of a mission to make Ipswich City Council an exemplar local government for other councils to follow, 18 transformation projects have been identified as key areas for reform. Today, we look at the Risk Management Framework and how it applies to council moving forward.
At the core of modern approaches to successful risk management is the need to define and understand an organisation’s “risk appetite”; how much risk the council is willing to take in its operations.
Interim Administrator Greg Chemello said council should have no appetite for any risk when it came to the safety of the Ipswich community or city council staff.
“Council should ensure that its workforce is provided with the equipment, procedures and skills needed to undertake their work for the Ipswich community safely,” he said.
At the opposite end of the spectrum, council should have a reasonable appetite for risk when it comes to the supporting of event grants to community groups.
“We should always be prepared for some of these events to be successful and others not so successful, so our risk appetite would be higher in this area than it would be when assessing potential safety risks.”
The purpose of the risk management project is to develop a better practice and consistent whole-of-council approach to Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) in order to proactively identify, manage and respond to issues that represent risks to the achievement of council’s strategic objectives.
“Identifying and mitigating major foreseeable risks is essential to ensuring good management practices,” Mr Chemello said.
“This applies in local government equally if not more so than in business.
“Good risk management isn’t about aiming to avoid risk at all costs, even for local governments; that would be impractical.
“However, I understand that the Ipswich community expects its council to be aware of all the likely risks associated with the delivery of its services and infrastructure to the community and have in place well thought through measures to counter any impacts from these risks.”
Project Leader Greg Thomas, council’s acting Strategic Client Office Manager, said the risk management project was critical to increase the operational effectiveness and efficiency of council through a framework of transparent, compliance driven and informed decision making processes.
“While council already has an ERM framework in place, this project is about identifying any improvement opportunities and gaps in the existing framework and its integration within council and implementing measures to ensure council’s management of risk is considered leading practice,” he said.
The risk management project team consists of senior officers from various council departments who meet regularly to progress the project plan.
Mr Thomas said the benefits and outcomes that will result from the successful delivery of this project include:
- Leading practice and legislatively compliant risk management framework
- A well-defined and consistent approach to risk management throughout council that results in risk informed decision-making
- Appropriately identified and managed strategic and operational risks, treatment plans and controls
- Contemporary, transparent, efficient and effective risk management processes that increase staff confidence, utilisation and reliance on the ERM framework
- Embedment of a risk aware culture throughout the organisation with improved risk management maturity and practices
- Cyclical and disciplined risk management monitoring and reporting
- Integration of risk management processes into strategic and operational decision-making
- The assignment of appropriate risk management ownership and accountability at officer level
- Improved identification of risks for consideration and to inform decision-making
He said the project was important to council, and ultimately the community, as it would put in place a risk awareness culture and risk management practice throughout council’s decision-making.
“It will lead to and ensure improved maturity within the organisation going forward,” he said.
