Agenda item
Emergency Preparedness Task Group Report
Following the tragic fire at Grenfell Tower, a joint Task Group was formed between members of the Audit Advisory Committee and each of the scrutiny committees, to assess Brent’s emergency preparedness. The report sets out the Task Group’s findings and recommendations.
Minutes:
Councillor Nerva introduced the report which summarised the work of the Emergency Planning Task and Finish Group. He commended that the paper was a valuable and informative piece of work which provided a challenge to Elected Members in respect to their role in emergency preparedness and incident response. Councillor Nerva noted the importance of the report being presented to Full Council so other Members could familiarise themselves with it and stressed that it would be essential for emergency planning to be included in the Member Induction training, following the Local Election in May 2018. Carolyn Downs (the Council’s Chief Executive) directed the Committee’s attention to the recommendations of the Task and Finish Group (page 25 to the Agenda pack) and said that action had been taken on each of the nine points. She informed Members that there had been a few emergencies to respond to over the Christmas period and noted that the Silver rota, which had been re-established previously, worked particularly well.
Members enquired about the Council’s interaction with key stakeholders in the Borough such as Wembley Stadium, the Football Association (FA), places of worship, etc. Questions were focused on joint working, availability of alternative incident control rooms, and provision of refuge. Ms Downs said that in the event of an incident, the Stadium would be the main congregation point. However, the borough had a list of places that could be used if the Stadium was affected or could not be used. Ms Downs informed Members that she had monthly meetings with the Wembley Park partners and a two-hour table top discussion of potential scenarios would take place on 30 January 2018. In relation to availability of control rooms, Members heard that Quintain had their own room so did the FA, while the Police had the ability to institute one depending on the scale and the location of the incident. Furthermore, meetings with places of worship to discuss their preparedness to respond to an incident would be organised and the issue would be raised at the meeting on 30 January 2018.
Councillor McLennan (the Council’s Deputy Leader), who was in attendance, asked about joint planning with the National Health Service (NHS). Ms Downs said that Council had been in regular contact with the London Ambulance Service and its main collaboration with the NHS would be related to the use of the mortuary at Northwick Park Hospital which was considered to be a semi-regional one and could be used by other boroughs as well.
In response to a question that related to the monitoring of the implementation of the nine recommendations, Ms Downs said that it would fall within the remit of the Audit Advisory Committee. This view was shared by the Independent Member who said that it would be essential progress updates against actions plans to be provided to the Committee. It was agreed that the topic would be revised in six months time.
RESOLVED that:
(i) The contents of the Emergency Preparedness Cover Report, be noted;
(ii) The Committee’s appreciation of the work of the Task and Finish Group be formally recorded; and
(iii) Emergency Preparedness be added to the Committee’s Forward Plan to be reviewed in six moth’s time.
Supporting documents:
- 07. Emergency Preparedness Cover Report, item 7. PDF 81 KB
- 07a. Emergency Preparedness - A Task Group Report, item 7. PDF 129 KB
- 07b. Incident types and command structure, item 7. PDF 130 KB
- 07c. Draft Emergency Planning 2020 Review v0.7, item 7. PDF 907 KB
- 07d. A Cllrs Guide to Civil Emergencies, item 7. PDF 522 KB