Minutes:
The Strategic Health, Safety and Risk Manager presented an update to the committee on Emergency Planning (EP) and Business Continuity (BC).
Key Legislation that covered EP and BC activities came into effect after the 11th Sept 2001 terrorist attack. The legislation outlined the Council’sstatutory duties as a category 1 responder including;
· Risk assessment
· Emergency planning
· Warning and informing the public
· Co-operating with partner agencies
· Sharing information with partner agencies
· Business continuity
· Business continuity promotion
The Council has detailed emergency and business continuity plans in place and these are periodically updated. Service specific business continuity plans were also regularly reviewed.
The Council had a number of emergency structures that would be initiated to effectively manage an emergency or business continuity event. The resource required with be commensurate to the size and scale of the emergency.
The Council continued to have contracted resource and partnership support agreement with Derbyshire County Council (DCC) to deliver key Emergency Planning and Business Continuity functions.
The Council also has dedicated internal resources to support response duties for emergency incidents.
The Council had two senior officers that held emergency planning liaison roles. The Service Director - Corporate and the Strategic Health, Safety and Risk Manager. These two officers worked alongside the DCC Emergency Planning colleagues and the Corporate Leadership Team to respond to an emergency or business continuity event.
The working expectations were outlined within a Service Level Agreement (SLA) between the Council and DCC.
· A new SLA was signed and agreed as of 1st April 2022 covering the next three financial years.
· Consideration of the future health, safety and risk team to help build further resilience for EP/BC resource.
The Committee heard that senior officers of the Council received periodic Emergency Planning and Business Continuity training.
Two examples included:
· The completion of a Resilience Direct training exercise during 2022 by the EPO.
· A winter pressures briefing from DCC - Emergency planning colleagues to the Corporate Leadership Team
The Derbyshire Prepared website (Derbyshireprepared.org.uk)
remained a key source of emergency planning information for officers, Councillors and the wider community.
The Derbyshire Prepared website included flood advice, events planning guidance, business continuity advice and what to do before, during and after an emergency.
Members heard that the Council was investigating opportunities to improve and promote the signposting of the utility companies’ priority services registers for vulnerable customers.
The Covid-19 Emergency Planning/Business Continuity report presented to Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum in November 2020 outlined how the Coronavirus pandemic had presented an unprecedented risk, disruption and required significant changes to Council working practices. Urgent work had been carried out during the pandemic to ensure that the Council had arrangements in place to create and maintain safe working environments.
During March 2022 the Council moved from a distinct response phase to ‘living with covid’ phase in line with and following the end of Government’s restrictions and updated public health guidance. The changes in working arrangements came into effect from 7th March 2022.
It was noted that as of 1st April 2022, certain notifiable absences were no longer reportable absences to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Therefore, for the ongoing financial year only two coronavirus related absences were on record. Since 1st April 2022 all COVID-19 absences were treated in the same manner as other illnesses, by self-certification rules and fit notes.
The Council maintained generic coronavirus arrangements including: a Council wide risk assessment, workplace guidance and FAQs. All these documents were available for staff and others to access via their line managers and the Council’s Aspire intranet.
The national Coronavirus Pandemic public inquiry commenced in 2022. The Council and other local authorities responded to the first request for information in November 2022.
Thanks were noted to the Transformation Programme Manager who was an interim EPLO (Emergency Planning Liaison Officer).
Examples of key EP/BC activities included:
· The Council’s Universal Contact List had periodic updates and new versions were issued to officers.
· Business continuity arrangements were reviewed
· The local Flood plan was reviewed and updated
· Control Of Major Accident Hazards Regulations 2015 (COMAH) sites plan reviews were completed
· The Health, Safety and Risk team had provided safety plan review support work covering counter terrorism preparations for several higher risk premises and other significant projects
· The EPO continued to support and advise Safety Advisory Group (SAG) activities
It was highlighted that the only event which met the formal criteria for a Safety Advisory Group was the Chesterfield Fireworks event at Stand Road Park. In addition, the EPO also liaised with other event organisers for events that occurred within the borough.
The core Council representation at SAGs included the service Environmental Health Officers, Licensing, Building Control and Community Safety.
Emergency planning and Business Continuity incidents of note during 2022/23 included:
· Storms Dudley and Eunice in Feb 2022
· Operation London Bridge
· Heavy rain in October and November although no significant flood impacts were reported to the Council
Discussion
Members suggested ways to improve the awareness of the utility providers’ vulnerable persons register including a ‘Your chesterfield’ article and links on the Council’s website.
The resilience of the Council’s ICT systems was discussed and the plans in place should a cyber- attack occur. The ability of the Council to provide temporary accommodation for residents in the event of an emergency was also considered. It was explained that there were a number of rest centres identified in the Borough for short term respite and beyond this the Homelessness Service would become involved.
The Strategic Health, Safety and Risk Manager outlined the priorities for 2023/24 as;
· Improving team resilience
· Improvement and enhancement of current plans and arrangements
· Working on a number of projects such as public realm works, to highlight Counter terrorism (CT) mitigation and Health and Safety input to try and design out future emergencies from happening.
· Following the introduction of Protect Duty/ Martyn’s Law, undertaking a significant piece of work in terms of security assessments and CT mitigation for public buildings, venues, market areas and parks etc.