Covalent Risks for Charities
Covalent helps charities manage strategic and operational risks more effectively, so that trustees can confidently make a positive statement in the Annual Report
SORP 2000 placed the reporting of risk management on the agenda of many charities for the first time. It introduced a new requirement for trustees to make a statement in their Annual Report confirming that:
“the major risks to which the charity is exposed, as identified by the trustees, have been reviewed and systems have been established to mitigate those risks.” paragraph 31(g)
The Charity Commission guidance advises charities to assess risks by:
“deciding for each the likelihood of it occurring and the severity of the impact of its occurrence on the charity”.
Risks in Covalent are scored on a matrix display using two dimensions - Likelihood of occurrence and Impact - and a total risk rating automatically calculated. The matrix is split into 3 threshold zones (red/amber/green) and the risk positioned based on its rating on both dimensions.
“Specify four basic strategies that can be applied to an identified risk.”
Covalent allows you to select from a drop-down list of optional strategies such as Accept, Transfer (e.g. Insure), Avoid or Mitigate.
Covalent holds key profile information against each Risk, such as Potential Effect; risk Influencing Factors; and Internal Controls in place. These fields cover all the other topics for consideration identified in the Guidance.
Responsibility for each Risk can be assigned at three levels of ownership - Lead officer, Responsible officer and Board Member owner.
“Ensure that the identification, assessment and mitigation of risk is linked to the achievement of the charity's operational objectives.”
Covalent Scorecards enable you to map Risks to specific business objectives, either strategic or operational.
A full audit trail is maintained, logging all system updates/changes and user and date stamping each activity.
Covalent is supplied with a comprehensive library of reports templates covering all the likely reporting requirements that a charity will have.
Covalent RISKS is proven and widely used in all sizes of public sector organisations across the UK.