Risk, responsibility and regulation

As Europe's youngest and one of its most dynamic capital cities, Cardiff was an appropriate venue for a risk management conference. This clearly came across in the enthusiasm of the delegates at the ALARM event and in the conference theme itself – risk, responsibility and regulation. As risk management in the public sector matures, we see more and more examples of public services embracing the opportunities provided by good risk management and will, hopefully, see fewer sensationalist stories about the 'nanny state'.

Keynote speaker, Lynne Berry, led the Better Regulation Commission group, which produced the report from which the conference took its title. ‘Risk, responsibility and regulation – whose risk is it anyway?’ stated that now is the time to take a step back from the knee-jerk approach to the mitigation of risk through heavy-handed legislation. Berry told delegates that, “zero risk is unattainable and undesirable” and that, “in pursuing the elimination of risk, we create the danger of damaging the civic and economic relationships that are valued in British society”. Berry's call for ‘sensible risk management’ strategies was one that delegates welcomed.

That risk management is a subtle balancing act was also underlined by ALARM's other keynote speaker, Lord David Hunt of the Wirral. Lord Hunt has extensive experience in advising the British insurance industry and government on risk management and, in particular, mitigating the risk of fraud. His speech emphasised the negative effect of the myth of the compensation culture and the subsequent temptation for some individuals to fabricate claims. However, he praised recent initiatives by local authorities and insurers to mitigate the risk of fraud.

ALARM's counter-fraud special interest group, led by ALARM director, Tracy Barnett, launched its own anti-fraud guidance at the conference. Managing the risk of fraud: the ALARM standard for risk advisors, is the result of extensive work by ALARM and partners, including the Audit Commission, SAS UK and Zurich Municipal. ACPO estimates that fraud cost public services £7.1bn in 2005/6 alone, making this a timely look at best practice in preventing fraudulent activity. The ALARM fraud standard is available to download from www.alarm-uk.org.

Delegates at this year's conference enjoyed over 50 hours of workshops and talks and, for the first time, five streamed tracks on the second day. These targeted sessions focused on topics of interest to police, fire services, housing associations, local authorities and government agencies. The breadth and depth of sessions on offer reflected ALARM's growing and diverse membership, which now extends across the spectrum of public services.

The conference again attracted a range of high quality and interesting speakers. Attendees commented on the quality of the learning and networking opportunities in interviews conducted for ALARM by ITN. A film crew from ITN captured the event for ALARM TV News, a mixture of exclusive interviews and conference highlights, produced for ALARM by Nice TV which features in the DVD accompanying this issue of StrategicRISK.

Nice TV Chairman, Martyn Lewis, hosted the Conference plenary session – an Any Questions discussion panel. The veteran broadcaster chaired an international panel of risk practitioners: Julia Graham of DLA Piper UK; Kevin Knight of RMIA; Sarah Perry of PRIMA; and Geoff Taylor of Nike, the immediate past chair of AIRMIC. The questions from delegates reflected the big issues that risk managers are currently dealing with, such as facing up to climate change, local responses to global issues, risk pooling and the relevance of international risk management standards.

Award winners

“Risk management is a subtle balancing act

The ALARM annual awards celebrated risk management excellence closer to home. A capacity audience at the Holland House Hotel saw Sunderland City Council, Wirral Council and the London Borough of Croydon receive accolades. Awards host, Peter Andrews, the immediate past chair of ALARM, praised the finalists for pushing back the frontiers of risk management.

Sunderland City Council picked up awards in the people risk and operational risk categories. The people risk award, sponsored by Capita BEST, was given in recognition of Sunderland's achievement in successfully targeting services to young offenders and young people at risk of offending, thereby improving outcomes for these young people and reducing offending rates.

Sunderland's operational risk award, sponsored by St Paul Travelers, marked the council's success in going beyond traditional risk management categories to meet the challenge of the national 'Every Child Matters' agenda. Under this programme, Sunderland has seen its schools increasingly become the focus of non-traditional educational and childcare activities.

Wirral Council took the Zurich Municipal-sponsored asset risk award for its management of claims using risk-based methodology. This initiative saw Wirral dramatically increase the quality of its claims handling, saving the council £2.66m. The London Borough of Croydon was the winner of the strategic risk award, again sponsored by Zurich Municipal. Its ambitious 15-month programme of embedding risk management in corporate governance resulted in real-time access to risk registers across the council, from departmental to cabinet level, and an increased recognition of the vital contribution of risk management to performance.

The final award, risk manager of the year, was awarded to Jan Collins of Swindon Borough Council. Collins is well known to ALARM members as a board director and editor of its members' journal, ALARM Matters. It was for her work at Swindon, however, that she received recognition. Without a dedicated team, Collins has made risk management a key part of Swindon's improvement of its leadership function, its operational, financial and strategic performance and its service delivery.

Peter Andrews described the ALARM awards winners as 'inspiring', a term that could be applied to the conference as a whole.

Dr Lynn Drennan is chief executive, ALARM, Email: admin@alarm-uk.org, www.alarm-uk.org