This Council Plan is still in draft and has not yet been officially approved. Following further feedback and changes, the final version of the Council Plan will be adopted and published here in December.
Managing and mitigating potential risk is critical to the success of any organisation.
As the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated, unforeseen circumstances require quick action and the ability to adapt.
There are major risks that could result in events or circumstances that might threaten Dorset Council’s business model, future performance in achieving the ambitions set out in this Council Plan, solvency or liquidity and reputation.
Here are the principal risks we constantly plan for so we are ready to act should they happen:
- Commercial – Commercial risks are those that could result in Dorset Council losing a commercial partnership or failure of a supply chain.
- Data and information management – Risks of this nature are centred around failures to prevent unauthorised or inappropriate access, as well as failures to enable legitimate use of our data, systems, and assets.
- Finance – Dorset Council’s financial stability is driven by increased budgetary pressures in an increasingly challenging financial environment.
- Legal – These are risks concerned with non-compliance of regulations, laws or statutory obligations that may result in penalties, fines or other legal consequences.
- Operations - Operational risks are associated with the uncertainties that Dorset Council faces during its day-to-day activities delivering services.
- People – The council is faced with a challenging environment in recruiting and retaining the necessary people to deliver our objectives.
- Project / programme – Project and Programme risks are centred around projects not aligning with strategic priorities for the organisation as well as projects being unable to deliver the intended benefits, on time and within budget.
- Property – Dorset Council has a large portfolio of properties and as such associated risks ranging from property defects to ineffective or inefficient safety management protocols.
- Reputation – Reputational risks are those that could be uncovered through adverse events in the form of ethical infringements, failure to meet objectives or lack of innovation.
- Security – Dorset Council’s security risks include unauthorised and / or in appropriate use of our systems and assets including cyber security, digital and physical access to our assets.
- Technology - Technology risks are such risks that arise from technology not delivering services as expected because of deficient systems or processes.