Agenda item

This report continues the cycle of regular updates that the Emergency Planning team provide for the Audit and Standards Advisory Committee. The report provides the Committee with an update on the work and priorities of the team since the last update in February 2024.

Darren Armstrong (Deputy Director for Assurance and Resilience) introduced a report, which he advised provided an update on the priorities and work being undertaken by the Emergency Planning Team since the last update provided to the Committee in February 2024 as well as focussing on the programme of continuous improvement being delivered across the service.

He then introduced Melissa Brackley (Emergency Planning and Resilience Manager) who provided the Committee with a summary of key progress and work undertaken, with the following issues noted:

·             The continued progress being made in relation to delivery of the recommendations made as part of the external review of the Council’s Emergency Planning and Resilience arrangements in October 2023 with a particular focus on the increased capacity of the Emergency Planning and Resilience (EPR) Team and provision of training and exercise opportunities for those with response roles. Areas of improvement had also been influenced by the Resilience Standards for London, incidents and public inquiry recommendations.

·             In terms of the detailed external service review recommendations the Committee were advised that nine of the 22 recommendations had now been implemented including five out of the six rated as high priority and 11 remaining in progress.  Members noted that two of the recommended actions were no longer being taken forward in terms of the delivery of on call arrangements, which were already broadly in line with the London standardised approach, and recruitment of an additional Business Continuity Manager which had been addressed through the increased capacity already provided within the team.  Members attention was drawn to the summary Action Plan included as Appendix 1 to the report with the recommendations being progressed alongside actions identified as part of a self-assessment completed against the Resilience Standards for London.

·             The review of internal plans and procedures being undertaken in response to the revised London Humanitarian Assistance Framework and feedback from  Humanitarian Assistance Lead Officers (HALO) with training also arranged for staff from the Council and local partner agencies likely to be involved in supporting a Humanitarian Assistance Centre or Community Assistance Centre in the event of an incident.  Once the review of internal plans and training programme had been completed the team would also be looking to run a Humanitarian Assistance exercise.

·             The outline provided in section 3.5 of the report on the training and exercises delivered by the Emergency Planning and Resilience Service. This had not only involved the Strategic (Gold) and Tactical (Silver) teams but also a planned multi agency exercise and two cyber-attack exercises in partnership with the Shared Technology Service across housing services and children and young people and community health and wellbeing with a focus on business continuity arrangements.  In addition, the team had been working with the housing service to explore the Council’s response to a large-scale evacuation involving a Council owned housing block with a focus on not only the initial but also longer-term response.  Members were advised that in order to ensure training was refreshed regularly and exercises planned in alignment with plan reviews, the EP&R team were also developing an annual Training and Exercise Programme, as detailed within Appendix 2 of the report.

·             The update on incidents logged since the previous report to the Committee, as detailed in section 3.6 of the report.  These had included a range of local incidents relating to flooding, evacuations of the Civic Centre and a fire in a housing block which had all been subject to review in terms of the response and support provided (including relevant partners and key stakeholders) along with any follow up learning or training requirements identified as a result along with national incidents relating to a global cyber issue and focus on community relations in response to events following the Southport attack in July 24.  In addition, the Committee were advised that the final report from the Grenfell Tower Fire Enquiry had also been published in September 24 which had included ten recommendations related to Local Authority emergency planning and response arrangements.  Each of the recommendations had been allocated to a Local Authority Resilience Board or Professional Network to consider in terms of identifying any actions necessary to support the way in which London Boroughs collectively addressed them, where necessary with the London Resilience Forum also considering those issue on which it was felt collective action would be required from the wider London Resilience Partnership. The EP&R team had already identified improvements in some of the areas identified (including the need to recognise the importance of resilience and emergency planning as core responsibilities for staff involved in delivering any response) and would continue to consider the outcomes, while awaiting feedback from the resilience boards.

The Chair thanked Melissa Brackley for her update and then invited the Committee to raise any comments/questions, which are summarised below:

·             Referring to a recent incident involving a gas leak in the Kilburn area, members were keen to ensure that the arrangements for buildings identified as community assistance centres were as up to date as possible and subject to ongoing review given the issues experienced with access to the building during that incident due to building works.  In response, the Committee were assured that this issue had now been addressed with work ongoing to ensure the list of buildings identified for use as part of any emergency or community assistance response were as up to date as possible.

·             In highlighting the increasing number of incidents being experienced linked to climate change and more extreme weather the Committee highlighted what they felt to be the benefits in seeking a more proactive approach towards the way these impacts were being addressed with a focus on the preventative measures available in addition to any emergency response provided and learning as a result.  In recognising the range of issues involved, members were advised that the main focus in terms of wider delivery of the Council’s approach towards tackling climate change was through the Councils Climate Emergency Strategy rather than EPR service.  Members were reminded that the impacts highlighted (along with measures being developed to plan for and address the impact of climate change) had also been included on the Council’s Strategic Risk Register with members advised of the opportunity to consider these in more detail as part of the next scheduled update on the Risk Register in October 24.

·             In response to a query, the Committee were provided with further details on the recent evacuations of the Civic Centre which it was noted had prompted further consideration in relation to co-ordination of decision making and potential business continuity implications with further training being planned as a result on the Council’s command and control arrangements to ensure roles and responsibilities in terms of the decision making structure were clearly understood.

·             Members were keen to ensure that local councillors were also included within the EPR training programme being developed, recognising the value of their role as local community leaders and extent of local knowledge possessed, which it was felt could also be utilised as a resource.  In response, the Committee were advised this had already been recognised with a package of training involving elected members also in the process of being developed. alongside the potential for their involvement in upcoming exercises.

·             As a final issue clarification was sought on the arrangements to cover weekend rotas for staff on duty.  In response, officers assured members of the arrangements in place in ensure the necessary staff were available to respond to incidents out of hours in the same way they would be within normal working hours.

As no further issues were raise the Chair thanked officers for the report and the Committee RESOLVED to note the Emergency Planning and Resilience Update along with the work and priorities being delivered through the Emergency Planning Team.