Children and Young People's Service (CYPS - Lambeth Council

Appendix E - Risk Management
The financial impact of the recent economic crisis has serious implications for the future of public finances, including local government finance.
Although there is uncertainty over the exact timing and scale of reductions in local government funding, there is a consensus that the impact will be
significant in the medium term. As a result, the department will have to successfully balance risk, cost and value across all service areas in an
environment of increasing risk and uncertainty. Risk management will be integral in achieving this balance by:
Contributing to a robust, smart and cost effective risk and control framework at all levels driving conformance and performance
Focusing on objectives to drive greater value
Focusing on the risks most likely to affect services
Further embedding risk management into processes, anticipating, identifying, reporting, monitoring and mitigating risks at strategic and
operational levels so they can be successfully controlled, avoided, transferred, mitigated
Enable the department to undertake innovative approaches (which inherently carry risk) by providing tools to identify and mitigate emerging
risks
The most important current strategic risk is managing an increasing pressure on revenue budgets while delivering demand led services. Strategic
risks to delivering departmental priorities, such as recruitment and retention of social workers or reducing teenage pregnancy are listed in the table
below. The table also details the service improvement activities and/ or control measures that aim to mitigate these risks. These risks are reviewed
and updated by DLT at regular intervals. A more detailed departmental risk register is updated on an ongoing basis with emerging risks, and reviewed
monthly by DLT. The table below details the action needed to be taken to mitigate risks in CYPS.
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