Managing our risks

Our Best City Ambition aims to tackle poverty and inequality and improve quality of life for everyone who calls Leeds home. Central to this, focus is placed on improving outcomes across the 3 Pillars of Health and Wellbeing, Inclusive Growth and Zero-Carbon. A risk is something that, if it occurred, could impact on our Best City Ambition and its outcomes.

Our
Best City Ambition aims to tackle poverty and inequality and improve quality of life for everyone who calls Leeds home. Central to this, focus is placed on improving outcomes across the 3 Pillars of Health and Wellbeing, Inclusive Growth and Zero-Carbon. A risk is something that, if it occurred, could impact on our Best City Ambition and its outcomes.

Risk is present in everything we do to improve outcomes and deliver services. Local authorities, our communities and partners experience a wide range of significant risks that can be internal or external facing.

Internal risks relate to the council and cover areas such as finance, staff and business continuity.

External risks are those that could affect the city – its people, communities, businesses and infrastructure – where we have a role, often in partnership, to mitigate them.

It is essential that we understand, manage and communicate the range of risks that could threaten the city and the vital services provided by the council, so that we are better placed to prevent them from happening and to reduce the impact now and in the longer-term on communities, individuals, services, organisations and infrastructure.

We update the corporate risk register each quarter and then publish the Corporate Risk Map – a diagram that shows the various risks and their ratings based on a combined assessment of their probability (how likely the risk is to occur) and potential impact.

Read the corporate risk map

corporate risk map

Click to enlarge image.

Corporate risk map
Very high risks Probability Impact
Medium-term financial strategy 4 (probable) 5 (highly significant)
Community cohesion 4 (probable) 4 (major)
Major cyber incident 4 (probable) 4 (major)
Escalating poverty 4 (probable) 4 (major)
Care market sustainability/viability 4 (probable) 4 (major)
Economic growth lag, increasing inequalities 4 (probable) 4 (major)
Workforce planning 4 (probable) 4 (major)
Infectious diseases 4 (probable) 4 (major)
Safeguarding children failure 3 (possible) 5 (highly significant)
Safeguarding adults failure 3 (possible) 5 (highly significant)
Major flooding 3 (possible) 5 (highly significant)
Major incident in Leeds 3 (possible) 5 (highly significant)
Climate change 3 (possible) 5 (highly significant)
High risks Probability Impact
Major disruption to council services 3 (possible) 4 (major)
Inspections: poor outcomes 3 (possible) 4 (major)
Insufficient school places 3 (possible) 4 (major)
Health and Safety failure 3 (possible) 4 (major)
Transport issues: Keeping the city moving 4 (probable) 3 (moderate)
Major ICT failure 3 (possible) 3 (moderate)
Information Management and Governance 3 (possible) 3 (moderate)
Third Sector Organisation sustainability 3 (possible) 3 (moderate)
Medium risks Probability Impact
Insufficient housing growth 2 (unlikely) 3 (moderate)
In-year budget 3 (possible) 2 (minor)

We also produce a more detailed annual corporate risk report that provides assurance on how we and our partners are managing the key corporate risks.

Read the Annual Corporate Risk Report (agenda item 9).

West Yorkshire Prepared

West Yorkshire Prepared is the region's multi-agency partnership, which works to identify, plan and prepare for major civil emergencies, to ensure the region is better prepared to cope with potential risks and able to recover following a major incident.

Looking back to spring 2022,
West Yorkshire Prepared's annual report provides details on what has been a very busy year – with numerous training exercises taking place preparing partners for incidents requiring a multi-agency response, as well as responding to a number of real incidents, such as the heatwaves of last summer and the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.