61 Virtual Brochure – March 2025 Operational delivery: 59% of the risk registers include strategic risks which relate to the broad theme of operational delivery, which includes non-digital projects and programmes. This represents a substantial increase compared to 2023. Risk descriptors identify increasing concerns about the resources and skills available to deliver transformation programmes and larger change projects, and the ability and agility to realise the intended benefits from these projects within agreed budgets and timescales. While ranked relatively low in terms of intrinsic risk (17th) and medium in terms of mitigated risk (10th overall), the distribution of risks suggests that this may be a growing risk for smaller institutions. Smaller institutions face the same external financial, regulatory and efficiency challenges as other parts of the sector but have proportionally less resource and capacity to deliver major change. UUK’s blueprint raises the possibility of a sector-led transformation fund to provide up front capital for major change and this might help to ameliorate some of the challenges smaller institutions face. More specifically, GuildHE7 has called on the government to take a number of steps to support smaller and specialist institutions. These include reviewing the disproportionate cost of regulation on smaller institutions, protecting and enhancing funding grants, and changing research funding rules to provide greater access and stability. Audit committees should ensure they have sufficient assurance not only on the effective management of large or complex change activities and realisation of intended benefits, but also the effective management of volume of change activities in their totality.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTI5NzM=