Agenda item

The Committee received a report of the Corporate Director of Resources that supported the Council’s Risk Management Strategy and highlighted the strategic risks faced by the Council and provided an insight into the work carried out by the Corporate Risk Management Group between January and May 2023 (for copy see file of minutes).

P Darby Corporate Director of Resources presented the report to Committee, which had been identified as best practice.  He noted that this was the first of three reports presented to committee for review annually.   He outlined that two new risks had been included: Martyns Law, which was pending UK wide legislation and which placed more responsibility on a council to carry out risk assessments on open spaces for the threat of terrorism; and the impact of the Health and Social Care Reforms. He updated members on the A690 slippage, the increase in the budget for Looked after Children, the lack of children’s social workers and on the emergency care services winter pressures.

Two emerging risks were highlighted: radon gas management and the reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) that had been found in four schools in County Durham.  Further risks linked to the Refuse and Recycling Service and the collection of food waste were flagged. Energy prices had been removed as these had been mitigated and incorporated into the budget.

P Darby replied to Councillor Watson on the increase in the budget for Looked After Children that there was no specific grant funding available to offset this and therefore the costs had fallen on the Council taxpayers.  He explained that budgets were under pressure but the council had a statutory obligation to look after exploited, neglected, abused or vulnerable children.  He noted that the budget had increased because the numbers in care were higher but also because the complexity of the children requiring care had increased, with some children requiring three to four members of staff to look after them due to their challenging behaviour. 

Councillor Watson was concerned that there were issues in recruiting children’s social workers.  He queried why there were difficulties.

P Darby explained that there was a looked after children sufficiency strategy in place to ensure there was sufficient provision in place to meet the needs of children in care but to also ensure the councils achieved Value for Money (VFM). The recruitment of children’s social workers was a national supply and demand issue with newly qualified social workers not meeting demand and a number of workers exiting the market. There was also a lack of in county specialist provision and difficulties in recruiting foster carers etc. which was also driving up costs. Several children therefore needed to be placed out of county.   There were simply not enough social workers and the recruitment market was extremely challenging. 

Mr Rudd stated that as the Audit Committee had control over the work and budget for the Council he requested that the relevant officer could be invited to the committee to provide an update on Looked After Children and the counter measures for that service. 

P Darby agreed to ask the Head of Childrens Social Care to attend the Committee to provide an update on the Council’s strategy, control and safeguarding in relation to Looked After Children.

P Darby responded to Councillor Watson that where there was a safeguarding concern the council had a statutory duty to address this and that social care worker caseloads was something that was looked at closely. The aim was that Social Workers were allocated a caseload of 20-25 cases to deal with at any one time, with less experienced social workers having a lower caseload.

Councillor Ormerod asked if Foster Carers could undertake the role on a part time basis to provide more flexibility and if they were allowed to join the pension scheme.

P Darby clarified that Fosters Carers were unable to join the pension fund as this arrangement was made via an allowance and not via an employee and employer relationship.  He did not think that Foster Carers were allowed to be part time but this was something that would be better addressed by the Head of Childrens Social Care.   Foster Carers were entitled to respite care to give them a break. He added that there had been a 12% increase in Foster Carers allowances after the budget was set that had created a circa £600,000 overspend that would need to be accounted for in the budget next year. 

Councillor Fenwick asked if all the schools that had been affected by RAAC had been found temporary provision to ensure the continuity of children’s education.  She also queried if there was funding available until monies came from Government to pay for repairs.

P Darby noted that we were waiting clarification from DfE regarding funding and whether the schools who had RAAC could be repaired or if they required new builds.  He added that the four schools that had issues were all academies and were not the responsibility of DCC to establish the costs for repair but that DCC were responsible for the education of children and were working with the leadership teams at each of these schools.  He advised that DCC had worked with the schools to establish temporary accommodation to ensure lessons continued.

K Lough noted that work had been undertaken with the North East case work team and the school trusts already for claiming money as costs had already been incurred.  In the short term there was a three month lead in for demountable classrooms and in the long term plans there was a requirement to see if the buildings could be fixed or if they would need to be rebuilt.

Mr Rudd asked about the A690 and how much risk the council had placed on the slippage, whether repairs would be carried out in the next twelve months and how much disruption would be caused by repairs.

P Darby confirmed that there was £15 million in the capital budget to repair the road.  This was agreed at council in February. Work was underway to design / plan how the repairs would be carried out including any that was needed to land that was owned by National Rail. The Council would look for a programme that would cause the least disruption.  The road was monitored on a regular basis and had not deteriorated so did not cause any heightened risk at this stage.

Resolved:

That the report provided assurance that strategic risks were being effectively managed within the risk management framework across the council.