Risk Management

Defining risk management

Risk management can be defined as:

"The process, structure and culture put in place to manage potential effects which could impact on the achievements of the organisation’s objectives and strategies."

Defining risk

A risk, for the purposes of risk management, is defined as:

"The threat that an event or action will adversely affect an organisation’s ability to achieve its objectives and to execute its strategies successfully."

An important point to note is that risk management is not a negative process which only concerns itself with preventing certain events occurring. In fact, risk management is as much about taking risks as it is about avoiding them. By having an effective risk management culture in place, opportunities can be taken advantage of, and innovation can flourish.

What risk management isn't

There are a number of myths and misunderstandings surrounding risk management. Now that we have determined what it is, it might be useful to clarify just what it isn’t, as well:

  • risk management is not just a Health and Safety issue
  • risk management is not a new responsibility
  • risk management is not just for finance and insurance to worry about
  • risk management is not another layer of unnecessary bureaucracy
  • risk management is not just a matter of a yearly review
  • risk management is not about ticking a box for compliance purposes

ORM Strategy (document listed on the right of this page).

This document sets out a different approach to managing the risks of the Council. By recognising the opportunities, we wish to take advantage of, we can identify and manage the risks which will stop us achieving these benefits.

Risk Registers

Schools Generic Risk Register

The risk register is for you to save and manipulate appropriately for your school. The list of potential actions are in red and if you have any of these in place already you can cut and paste these into the "current controls" column. If you feel the remaining actions are ones that you would consider putting in place then please leave them where they are but add in a date when you would propose putting these additional controls in place.

If any of the risks, or actions, are not applicable to your school then please delete them. On the other hand if you have other risks to your school which are not included in the list please add these to the risk register.

Please refer to your Schools Handbook for Risk & BC Team for further information and guidance.

Community Risk Register

The government provide guidance to the population on current threats and risks. The local multi agency Community Risk Register can be found here: 



To see a full copy of the School's Handbook, please see 'publications'

To see the Hirers Liability Insurance Information please see 'Third Party Hirers' Liability Insurance'
(also refer to our 'Insurance' pages)