ALARM realises that in order to maintain its position as the primary voice for public service risk management in the UK it must engage with its increasing and diverse membership and put plans in place that ensure it can deliver its key objectives. These are:
- identifying and addressing needs of members
- promoting professionalism and best practice in risk management
- working in partnership with other agencies in the promotion of public service risk management
- ensuring a sustainable and viable organisation.
Meeting the needs of the membership has never been more challenging. There is an increase in numbers and representation throughout the public services, more demands for sector specialisms and varying levels of risk maturity across all the sectors represented by ALARM. The association's conference in Manchester on 25-28 June reflects some of these needs in the breadth and detail of the 50 plus workshops, lectures and interactive sessions on offer. However, a risk manager cannot live by conference alone, and ALARM is seeking to put into place a plan that meets members' increasing needs in terms of guidance, road shows and special interest groups.
The education programme will be supported by the registered risk practitioner initiative, the unique continuous professional development scheme open to risk practitioners from all sectors of the profession. ALARM is also actively seeking partners to develop and deliver an enhanced education portfolio which will provide education opportunities and products.
The real challenge
While these measures will hopefully ensure the continued prominence of the organisation, the real challenge is ensuring the prominence of the topic of risk management and meeting the demands of the professionals responsible for delivering it within their own organisations.
Following the Turnbull and Cadbury reports, private sector organisations readily embraced the culture of risk management, right up to the top table, often positioning a corporate risk manager in the upper hierarchy of the organisation. Sadly, this is not so true of the public sector. Drivers such as the comprehensive performance assessment (CPA), the external validation of management arrangements in public sector organisations, and developments within the accounting world, such as the statement of internal control, with its focus on how organisations are managing risk, have helped to raise the prominence of risk management as part of developing sound governance frameworks and good practice standards. But risk practitioners were seldom promoted through the ranks and positioned to influence the organisation to establish the holy grail of enterprise risk management (ERM).
Indeed, not only did organisations fail to restructure, but they found themselves chasing different issues, with the initial test of robust risk management for the purposes of CPA being to some extent superficially focused on involvement of senior managers and elected officials (the public service version of a board of directors or governors), without considering the sustainability and development of risk management arrangements. Those organisations achieving 'excellent' for risk management first time around then had to find unique ways of demonstrating that risk management added value to front line services, and the communities they served, in recognition that for such organisations they were effectively the shareholders. This needed an even greater leap of faith in the development of risk management strategies, along with the revised premise that opportunities should also be considered, and that the public sector then entered into the realms of speculative risk.
This started a unique and cultural shift for the public sector. And those practising risk management have seen their portfolio of responsibilities expand beyond the traditional remit of operational risk management, often without the authority to ensure buy-in and ownership of the issues.
ALARM is determined that it will support its members in the required transition and is therefore consulting with its members over their professional development needs and longer-term service requirements, as part of a three year plan that will fundamentally shape the organisation and how it operates, and ensure that members are well placed to take a position of prominence in their organisations.
- Peter Andrews is chairman of ALARM, the National Forum for Risk Management in the Public Sector, Tel: 01395 519083, E-mail: admin@alarm-uk.com, www.alarm-uk.com
This year's ALARM conference takes place at Manchester University, 26-28 June 2006.
