Managing programme risks

Rebecca Collings

Risks are a fact of programme delivery. No complex project or programme is without a long list of situations which, if they materialised, could cause negative impact to delivery and/or benefits. Risks can have wide-ranging causes, including political, economic, social, technical and operational. In a post-Brexit world which is still very much affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, risk management is absolutely essential to successful project delivery to help manage uncertainty and change. 

In practice, risk management is the process of identifying, assessing and putting in place measures to control threats to project success.  

Risk registers should be at the heart of your approach to risk management. A risk register provides a framework for you to identify and gain a shared understanding of the risks and what should be done. The register should be a simple template which allows you to document risks, assess the likelihood of them happening as well as the potential impacts should they materialise. A straightforward colour-coding of red, amber or green (known as a RAG rating) is given to each risk, so that the most significant risks can be easily identified and understood.   

Importantly, the risk register should also enable you to agree and document the actions (known as mitigations) which you can put in place to minimise or remove the risk. Each risk should have a risk owner. This person may not be responsible for delivering every mitigation, but they are responsible for making sure that relevant actions are taken.  

There are some key considerations which may be useful to you when managing risks for the Towns Fund: 

Different risks at different levels – individual projects will have their own unique risks, e.g. the ability for that project to achieve planning permission. We recommend that each project manager keeps their own risk register and oversees the management of the project’s risks.  

Across the Towns Fund programme (i.e., all of the projects) there are likely to be common risks, for example cost inflation or lack of skilled labour. Sometimes a risk for a single project may be so significantly detrimental that it should also be included in the programme-level risk register (e.g., a major project cannot be delivered on the original site, so it can yield related projects obsolete in their current location). Your Programme Management Office or Programme Manager should be responsible for maintaining a programme-level register and, where appropriate, including any significant project-level risks. Project and programme managers will need to apply their judgement as to when a risk should be included in the register. The process of considering likelihood and impacts can help you to ensure that the key risks are being captured. 

Review risks regularly – we recommend that the risk register is reviewed at least once a month. Good practice is to do this via a meeting, where each risk is discussed, RAG ratings adapted where appropriate and to confirm that mitigating activity has been happening. If mitigations are not being delivered, this can be spotted and corrected. This is also an opportunity to ensure you identify and document any new, emerging risks.  

Expose the top risks early – you will need to decide which risks are going to be reported to either the Town Deal Board and / or escalated within the local authority as Accountable Body (or others within your Governance framework). The Town Deal Board developed the Investment Plan to plan the projects and their intended benefits, so they should be sighted on the critical risks and their mitigations.   

Early visibility of key risks, and assurance that mitigating actions are being put in place, is advised. Be wary of ‘watermelon’ reporting – this is where a project (or programme) looks green, but as soon as you dig deeper it is clear that it is fraught with red risks and issues! 

A mature programme approach puts risk management at the forefront, to allow you to have greater control and certainty of successful delivery. It is imperative that you keep an eye on the risks to make sure that the benefits you have striven to capture are delivered for your town. 

To help you to manage risks for the Towns Fund, we have developed a simple risk register, with accompanying instructions, for you to use.  We can support you to develop your own risk register. If you would like further assistance, please let your Town Coordinator know.