Council Wins Statewide Risk Management Excellence Award

Published on 12 November 2020

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Snowy Valleys Council has been awarded a Regional Award at the Statewide Risk Management Excellence Awards, recognising its commitment to volunteers and the work undertaken to improve the management of its S355 committees.

Chief Executive Officer Matthew Hyde said the win was testament to the commitment of Council to provide consistency for volunteer management and committee management across the region.

“I am very proud of the recognition of the work led by our Governance and Risk team which has been a great example of a OneSVC collaboration, with participation by teams right across the organisation,” Mr Hyde said.  

Council’s Audit Risk and Improvement Committee requested that an internal audit be undertaken on volunteer and committee management in response to the Office of Local Government encouraging all NSW Councils to review their committee operations to ensure basic governance and accounting standards were being met.

Over the past 18 months Council has consultated with the Office of Local Government, internal and external auditors, Councillors, Statewide Mutual and other local councils, to develop and deploy a OneSVC Volunteer Framework and OneSVC Council Committee Framework.

Mr Hyde said the frameworks provide consistency for volunteer management and committee management across the entire Snowy Valleys region. 

“The OneSVC volunteers and committee project has assisted Council’s continuous improvement culture for reducing risk to both Council and the wider community,” he said.

The project addressed areas of risk for Council and the community including corporate governance and compliance, environmental and public health, financial, human resources, information technology, reputation, service delivery, stakeholders, and work health and safety.

“The development of the new frameworks has resulted in a collaborative approach between the Governance and Risk team, nominated committee staff delegates and our volunteers and committee members, Mr Hyde said. 

During July, August and September Council undertook individual Health Checks with 20 Council committees.  Information gathered is being used to inform the draft Council Committee Framework before a second round of public exhibition. 

“Overall, feedback so far has been constructive and will result in a process that meets Council’s legislative requirements whilst achieving a successful outcome for the community,” said Mr Hyde.

The Statewide Mutual Risk Management Excellence Awards (RMEAs) acknowledge excellence by NSW councils in implementing risk management programs using the process and principles outlined in AS ISO 31000:2018 Risk Management Guidelines.

Awarded since 1995, the award is open to all NSW Member Councils and exists to promote:

  • recognition of risk management as a management structure;
  • awareness of risk management issues;
  • innovation in risk reduction; and
  • recognition of that innovation.

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