• The Risk and Assurance Committee reviews the framework and receives regular reports from the Head of Risk and Compliance and the Chief Executive on the effectiveness of controls. • The committee, as well as reviewing risk controls, also considers and reviews the top strategic risks.
Ongoing impact of the pandemic on our risk profile The coronavirus pandemic, and the response to it, continues to have a significant impact on all the charity’s activities and the external environment in which National Star operates. The focus of the risk management strategy throughout the pandemic was on limiting its impact, with the immediate areas of focus being on business continuity and organisational resilience. The charity had a duty of care to its beneficiaries and to its staff. Managing risks relating to the health, safety and wellbeing of the young people and adults we supported, made more challenging because of their vulnerability, medical conditions and disabilities, was of paramount importance. Providing that continuity of care throughout the lockdowns was complicated by staff shortages and staff absence, access to coronavirus tests and interpreting government and public health guidance for our specialist education provision, as well as our high level of adult social care and other services. While the government safeguarded most education and care fees, the charity faced increased costs for infection control and operational costs. To limit the risk of infection, all our sites remained closed to the public and at the Ullenwood campus all commercial lettings ceased and social enterprises closed to the public, though continued to operate as part of learning programmes. The cessation of income generating activities and the inability to hold fundraising activities impacted on the organisation’s immediate and future additional income generation. National Star Foundation Annual Report and Accounts 2020 – 2021
To mitigate the risk of losing valuable staff and to support them during uncertain times, we enhanced our staff sickness policy, reviewed pay for care focused roles and made changes to our pay processes to safeguard roles and recognise the challenges for staff who continued to work directly with learners and residents. All key actions taken by management in this period were focused on keeping the organisation open and safe for the young people and adults depending on its services, as well as supporting staff. Decisions at that time included: ongoing governance review of the charity’s risk and financial position; the cessation of commercial activities and review of public access of all sites; the review of education and therapy delivery to enable services to continue as much as possible either in person or virtually; moving all non– learner or resident–facing operational and administrative services to remote working and developing new ways of working from online learning to virtual recruitment of staff and future learners.
Our risk profile going forward While several of the risks relating to the management of the initial crisis have been addressed, a number of other risks have increased as the long–term effect of the pandemic has become more evident. These include potential risks relating to: • The impact of the pandemic and the commencement of the EU Settlement Scheme on staff recruitment and retention, especially for care–related roles. • The impact on our income of the wider macroeconomic crisis in the short–term and, more importantly, in the long–term as local authorities and the government begin to pay back the huge deficit created during the pandemic. • The impact of pandemic restrictions on the availability and timing of placements for future learners, due to periods of uncertainty and restrictions. • The impact on our capital development programme and maintaining the quality of facilities, due to the impact on fundraising and other income generation activities, again affected by the wider macroeconomic crisis.
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Strategic Report What we achieved How we achieved it
• A comprehensive risk management framework consisting of five sections: key controls, internal assurance sources, external assurance sources, current residual risk level and target risk level. The risks are regularly reviewed by the Senior Management Team, other risk ‘owners’ and the Head of Risk and Compliance, and documented in a risk register.
Plans for the future
The processes in place regarding risk management include the following:
During the pandemic, National Star’s principal objective has been to remain open to support its beneficiaries and their families while protecting the staff. From the beginning of the academic year in September 2020, National Star was operating with almost 100% of its residential learners and a high percentage of day learners. This became a challenge when there were increased levels of staff absence, due to coronavirus, and as we limited staff movement between clusters of residents or learners to limit risk of infection.
Strategic Report
The Board of Directors and Trustees are responsible for overseeing the risk management process. This process involves a consistent approach to identifying, assessing and mitigating the risks facing our charity to ensure they do not exceed the level of risk we are willing to accept. It is designed to manage, rather than eliminate, the risks to our charitable objectives and to provide reasonable assurance against material risks.
National Star receives some 80% of its total income from fees for services, with the remaining 20% of income generated by fundraising and other programmes or income generation activities. As National Star receives public sector funding, it could only access the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme for a small number of staff affected by the cessation of our income generation activities.
Independent auditors’ report
National Star’s Board of Trustees is responsible for ensuring that effective and adequate risk management and internal control systems are in place to identify and manage the key risks to the charity.
Financial statements
Principal risks and uncertainties
Introduction
Strategic Report
