Delivering Housing Adaptations Conference

Plenary three: Is your risk management a battleship or a submarine?

Speaker: Carolyn HalpinGroup Risk and Insurance ManagerFabrick Housing Group

Chair: Sheila BoyceHead of Risk ManagementMetropolitan Housing Partnership

Carolyn HalpinGroup Risk and Insurance ManagerFabrick Housing Group

• What drives your risk management efforts and activity?– Regulatory requirement

– Culture issues

– Empowerment

• The driver may dictate your approach

Regulatory RequirementThe guidance provided by the regulatory framework states:

“Governance arrangements shall ensure there is an effective risk management framework”

• It is the measure of effectiveness that forms part of the judgement

• Subjective and will vary dependent on the organisation

Culture issues

• Is your organisation risk averse or risk taking?

• Do you see risk management as a means to prevent risk taking?; or

• As a means to become less risk averse?

• Do your staff actively avoid activity they perceive as risky? i.e. new development; alternative services; different ways of working

Empowerment

• Does your organisation genuinely want to empower staff and residents

Definition: to give someone official authority or the freedom to do something

• An effective risk management framework allows for the empowerment of individuals and identification of appropriate controls

Consider a coaching spectrum

Battleship approach

Most heavily armed and armoured warship designed to meet the most powerful ships in battle. Used to protect as well as fight.

Risk Management driven by standards / processes / dictat

Enforced and seen as a necessary evil

Another corporate process, difficult to see the value

What might suchan approach look like

A corporate risk register / risk map

A risk management policy / strategy

Report to Board on risk management activity

Consideration of risk management issues in committee reports

And what does that achieve?

It is a good first step

It sits within the “telling” end of a coaching spectrum

The challenge is to demonstrate it is effective…… the regulatory requirement

And there is nothing wrong with that!

Such steps would go some way to meeting regulatory requirements if effectiveness can be established

And initially may be the launch platform for risk management as a corporate necessity

But what about a submarine?

• Vessel capable of operating under or on the water surface…

• Used to protect, deter and defend…. Keep safe….

• Out of sight but can be called upon when needed, a steady presence

Back to the coaching spectrum

A submarine approach…

• On top of the water, obvious, protecting, defending , deterring

• Dealing with a the risk culture

• Giving advice….

• Providing a framework

Dealing with culture change• To manage a culture issue, risk taking or risk

avoiding, you will need to consider– That an understanding of your risk management

framework is shared with decision makers and operational staff

– Establish a consistent means to measure risk

– Ensure that those references in committee reports are relevant and informative

What might that look like?• Understanding - training by another name,

ensuring it relates to the organisations risk management framework and is at an appropriate level

• Consistent means to measure risk; the risk ready reckoner with all references to risk scores being comparable

• Committee reports reference risks to the appropriate risk register and comments on the residual risk

What will that achieve?• A common “risk “ language

• Transparency … risk takers must redress risks, risk averse may understand risks better

• The start of ownership of risk management arrangements and framework……

• Establish the risk tolerance of the organisation

And a deeper approach-submariner

• Dealing with empowerment of individuals..

• Proactively using a family of risk registers to consider strategic, operational and individual project risks and managing risk actions

• Ensuring risk management is applicable and appropriate to all - top down bottom up

• Widening the understanding of risk management throughout the organisation

What could that look like?• Having a suite of risk registers at strategic and

service level

• Developing risk registers for individual projects and to support board reports

• Finding a means to report “risk events” and use that information to inform the suite of risk registers

• Considering where operational risk meets strategic risk management

And what are the issues?• Managing the risk actions that are identified-

and ensuring adequate risk reporting to the appropriate forum

• Growing the confidence in the risk management framework… identifying added value

• Maintaining the momentum

• Finding appropriate means to connect operational issues and strategic plans

What can be achieved?• A risk management continuum that responds

to both internal and external risks

• A greater understanding of how to manage risks….which is the premise of risk management

• The confidence of staff to develop their own appropriate and proportionate approach to managing risk….risk enabled employees

• A submarine submerged……

• and the end of a coaching spectrum– Offering advice

– Asking questions

– Helping another to solve a problem

Risk management is a journey not a destination

You dictate the route that journey will take

A closing thought

Delivering Housing Adaptations Conference

Plenary three: Is your risk management a battleship or a submarine?

Speaker: Carolyn HalpinGroup Risk and Insurance ManagerFabrick Housing Group

Chair: Sheila BoyceHead of Risk ManagementMetropolitan Housing Partnership