Meeting documents

Cabinet
Tuesday, 18 April 2006

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ITEM CA3 - ANNEX 1

CABINET - 21 MARCH 2006

Minutes of the Meeting commencing at 2.00 pm and finishing at 4.00 pm

Item 15: Scrutiny Review of Emergency Planning

Minute 62/06

 

Review Recommendation

Cabinet Response

R1

Identify suitable ways to use appropriate performance information to enable the authority to demonstrate what it is achieving in terms of risk mitigation.

Agreed: DCS and CEPO to action

R2

Require that future Emergency Planning risk assessments clearly evidence the changes that have been made as a result of the regular review process they undergo.

Agreed: CEPO to action

R3

Investigate the need to extend its funding for the Business Continuity Manager post beyond March 2007.

Agreed: DCS to report in context of 2007/08 budget

R4

Place emergency planning responsibilities on personnel records and ensure when officers with such responsibilities leave the employ of the Council it is highlighted to both EPU and a relevant contact in the Directorate.

Not agreed: the roles are predominantly voluntary and therefore do not form part of the individual’s responsibilities. The bureaucracy of adding the information to the records of employees would not add any value

R5

Improve the audit trail for changes to plans and activities arising from post incident debrief and exercise review.

Agreed: CEPO to action

R6

Conduct at least one in every four FASTBALL exercises outside of office hours.

Agreed: CEPO to action

R7

Look at the feasibility of using fire officers’ visits to schools to broaden out the fire safety messages they given by incorporating an element of emergency planning education.

Agreed: DCS and CEPO to action

R8

Create a virtual library of exercise evaluation reports and post incident debriefs to improve the sharing of lessons learnt, and to improve the audit trail.

Agreed: CEPO to action

R9

Continue to request GOSE to provide greater clarity as to the added value it expects to provide to local authority emergency planning arrangements and how it plans to demonstrate value for money.

Agreed: DCS to action

R10

Bring the EPU into County Hall, as soon as possible, to raise the profile of the service and ensure it is fully integrated with mainstream Council working.

Not agreed, due to operational constraints: the EPU would be placed into the hot zone if the incident occurred in Oxford. DCS is however asked to examine the benefits and disadvantages of locating the EPU at the Fire & Rescue Headquarters site subject to the constraints of available capital funding.

Note: DCS: Director for Community Safety & Chief Fire Officer; CEPO = County Emergency Planning Officer; EPU = Emergency Planning Unit; GOSE = Government Office for the South East

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