CONTINGENCY PLANNING ANNUAL REPORT 2018

1. Introduction

1.1. Following the Grenfell Tower tragedy, the Council has prioritised its arrangements for Contingency Planning.

1.2. The Contingency Planning Team (Contingency Planning Manager, Business Continuity Officer, Emergency Planning Officer) sits within the Community Safety Team under the Chief Community Safety Officer, Stuart Priestley. The team moved to the new Environment and Communities Department, Executive Director Sue Harris, in May 2018, having previously been in the former Policy and Partnerships Unit in Corporate Services.

1.3. Local authorities are designated Category 1 Responders under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, along with all emergency services and a number of government agencies. The Council is statutorily required to undertake the following duties:  Identify risk  Develop emergency plans  Cooperate with other local responders to enhance coordination and efficiency  Have business continuity management arrangements in place  Have arrangements in place to be able to warn and inform the public in the event of an emergency  Share information with other Category 1 and 2 Responders  Provide advice and assistance to local business and voluntary organisations regarding business continuity management

1.4. The Local Authorities Panel (LAP) of the London Resilience Forum (LRF) provides a pan-London local authority approach to core standards for major emergency and business continuity planning. The Chief Executives London Committee (CELC) and the London Council’s Leaders Committee have received and agreed a number of proposals for enhancing the emergency response capabilities and capacities at both borough, sub-regional and pan- London levels. These include a review of the current Minimum Standards for London, a new Concept of Operations for Emergency Response and

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Recovery (CONOPS) which sets out a range of requirements to be observed by all 33 London local authorities, and a range of new, standardised, procedures and training for a number emergency response roles.

2. Review of Contingency Planning Service

2.1. A review of the Council’s contingency planning service was carried out by an external consultant following the Grenfell Tower fire. The results of that review were reported to the Executive Management Team on 13 September 2017 and its recommendations accepted. The review was reported to the Executive and Corporate Services Scrutiny Committee at its meeting on 18 January 2018. Reports will be made to future meetings of the Committee as a part of ongoing scrutiny of the Council’s preparedness for major incidents and business continuity disruptions.

2.2. Annual Report The review recommended that the Contingency Planning Assurance Group report annually to the Leadership Team, the report to include:

 Contingency planning progress across the Authority  Overview of emergency response staffing levels  Overview of training and exercising programmes and uptake/numbers trained  Planning for events

This is the first annual report.

2.3. Contingency Planning Assurance Group In response to the external service review, a new strategic-level Contingency Planning Assurance Group, chaired by the Executive Director of Environment and Communities, has been established. Membership includes director-level representatives of all departments and a number of specific roles that are core to the Council’s resilience planning, such as IT, property, audit and risk management, and communications. This group will receive assurance and compliance reports across the full range of major emergency and business continuity planning, training and exercising activities and will report twice- yearly to the Executive Management Team.

2.4. New Emergency Management Rotas The review recommended that formal call-out rotas at a senior management level be established for the emergency management roles of Council Silver (Tactical Commander), Resilience Adviser, and Department Single Points of Contact. These rotas have been in place since September 2017, and training has been given.

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2.5. The review also recommended that these roles be supported by clear plans within departments for responding to an emergency event and to enable departments to discharge their role. Major Incident Aide Memoires are available for Executive Directors; these have been updated to reflect the senior management and departmental restructuring that has taken place this year. Departments have Continuity Planning documents specific to their area, and a template for new Department Emergency Plans has will be rolled-out for completion by the end of November.

2.6. The overarching Contingency Management Plan has been updated and is available on the Authority’s website.

3. Contingency Planning Progress Across the Authority

3.1. The Contingency Planning Team has been strengthened this year and works closely with colleagues across the authority and with local and regional partners to provide plans, protocols and procedures that will enable a coordinated response to emergencies in the community and to internal business continuity disruptions. Staff across the authority contribute to major emergency and business continuity plans, and all service teams are now required to have service business continuity plans.

3.2. A new business continuity software package is currently being procured, and we expect to install and roll-out the tool during the autumn. All service teams across all Council departments will complete a Business Impact Analysis that will provide information about their services, and the resources needed to keep core and critical services running during a significant business continuity disruption. Data about office location, priority computer systems and software and staffing needs will be shared with Corporate Property, ISD and HR to assist in their disaster recovery and support plans. We will also review the priority rating of all services, which we use in determining priorities for service support and restoration in disruptions. The new tool will enable service teams to produce new Service Business Continuity Plans, accessible by a secure App to better enable team managers and supervisors to respond swiftly to disruptions.

3.3. The software is being procured individually by RBKC, WCC and LBHF from the same provider. The use of the same providers allows all three councils to access data from any service, regardless of its location, and thus will avoid bi and tri borough services having to complete multiple entries. The system will therefore cope with any future changes of location of services.

3.4. The new business continuity software will also enable a range of compliance and assurance reporting, so that we may ensure that Business Impact Analysis and Service Business Continuity Plans are kept up to date, and so

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that any shortfalls or concerns may be managed promptly. These reports will feature in future Annual Reports.

3.5. Risk assessments and risk management are a key part of contingency planning. A number of corporate risks involving emergencies and business continuity are in the corporate risk register. The Director of Audit, Fraud, Risk and Insurance is working with departments to increase their awareness of emergencies-related risk assessments within their departmental risk registers.

3.6. The Media and Communications Team has produced a new Comms Plan for major incidents. Additional laptops have been purchased and stored in two locations away from the Town Hall, should access to the Town Hall be denied at any time. The Comms Team have undertaken to communicate with the Leadership Team and affected Ward Members in emergencies.

3.7. The bi-borough Children’s Services Department produced a new Business Continuity Plan, with the assistance of an external consultant.

3.8. A key requirement of local authority contingency planning is liaison and partnership working with a wide range of internal and external partners, as expressed in the following chart.

London Resilience Corporate Risk Forum Task and Management and Corporate and Finish Groups Audit Shared Services Procurement and Management Boards Supply Chain LRF Local Authorities Panel Category 1 & 2 partners Central London Responders Sub-Regional Resilience Forum Internal Resilience Health and Wellbeing Board Central London Departments and Partnerships Kensington and SRRF LA Mutual Services Chelsea Borough Aid Group Resilience Forum

Shared Services Partnerships RBKC Contingency Filming & Special External Resilience Events Team Planning Team Partnerships

Partnerships Neighbouring Boroughs Business Continuity Promotion Activities Community South Kensington Resilience Activities London Notting Hill Business Carnival Resilience Forum K&C Chamber of Commerce Safer Special Events Neighbourhood Teams City Living, Project Argus & Annual RideLondon Local Life Cycle Griffin Events Road Race Neighbourhood Watch Groups RHS Chelsea Flower Show

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4. Overview of emergency response staffing levels

4.1. The Contingency Planning Team is fully staffed, the composition of the team having been confirmed in the independent review carried out last year.

4.2. The table below shows the roles other than the core team and the training undertaken to date.

Role Trained Borough Emergency Control Centre Managers 5 Borough Emergency Control Centre Officers 13 Local Authority Liaison Officer 16 Council Silver 12 Department Single Point of Contact (SPOC) 75

5. Overview of further training and exercising programmes

5.1. A series of training events will be offered during the remainder of the 2018/2019 year, including:

 Council Silver  Council Gold  Departmental Single Point of Contact  Borough Emergency Control Centre staff  Emergency Rest Centre Managers  The role of Members in an emergency

5.2. Emergency planning exercises provide an opportunity to test the plans and procedures in place, as well as allow trained staff to practice their roles. The Council took part in the pan-London local authority Exercise Safer City on 14 and 15 March 2018. With a terrorism scenario linked to a rise in the national security threat level, we had live play for the Borough Emergency Control Centre, a range of Council services across the departments, and two Gold (Strategic) Group meetings involving the Chief Executive and Executive Directors. The learning from this exercise was captured and revisions to plans and training implemented.

5.3. The role of Members in an emergency is something that the Executive and Corporate Services Scrutiny Committee were keen to see progressed. The guidance document produced by the Local Government Association; ‘A councillor’s guide to civil emergencies’, has been distributed to all Members together with a fact-sheet about our core response arrangements. Further sessions on emergency preparedness and the role of Members is being included in the Member training being organised by Governance Services.

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6. Planning for events

6.1. The Contingency Planning Team supports the Council’s Events team during the planning for and the Council’s role in Notting Hill Carnival. This includes participation in the multi-agency Operational and Safety Planning Group and the RBKC Officer working Group, production of the multi-agency Event Liaison Team Procedures, assisting in the annual exercise for the event organisers and Event Liaison Team, staff in the Event Liaison Team during the event, enhancing the Council’s major incident procedures for the Carnival/Bank Holiday weekend, and staffing the Borough Emergency Control Centre at peak Carnival times so as to hasten the Council’s response should an emergency have happened, anywhere in the borough, at this very busy time.

6.2. A wide range of Council services participate in the emergency preparedness for the Carnival weekend. All Council services working or providing services to residents over the weekend provided business continuity assurance statements, to provide confirmation that full account had been taken of the potential disruption to staff providing essential and personal services. A number of Borough Emergency Control Centre staff were on standby to come in should a major incident have occurred.

6.3. As recommended in the post-Grenfell review of contingency planning, briefings about the authority’s emergency preparedness arrangements for the Notting Hill Carnival were provided to the Leader in both 2017 and 2018.

7. Incidents in 2018

7.1. There have been a number of incidents in the community and internal business continuity disruptions to Council services over the past twelve months. Those that required the attendance at the scene of a Local Authority Liaison Officer and the support of the Borough Emergency Control Centre or Contingency Planning Team are listed below. All have served to validate the new Major Incident Call-out Arrangements, the rotas, and the comms plans. The response to each incident is reviewed to identify any lessons for improvements that are then fed into our operational procedures.

7.2. Major Emergencies:  07/10 17 Exhibition Road – suspected terrorist attack  06/02/18 Holland Park Gardens – fire in social landlord flats  17/03/18 Lancaster West Estate – faulty boiler, community anxiety  24/05/18 Appleford Road – fire in Housing Management flats  03/07/18 Whitstable House – fire in Housing Management flats  04/07/18 Ovington Square – fire in private flat

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7.3. Business Continuity Disruptions:  20/10/17 Malton Road Hub – Flooding  31/01/18 Kensington Town Hall – Water supply disruption  17/07/18 All Council services – Council network outage

Stuart Priestley Chief Community Safety Officer

[email protected] Further information: David Kerry Contingency Planning Manager Environment and Communities 020 7361 2139 [email protected]

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