PAPER C
FIRE AND PUBLIC SAFETY SELECT COMMITTEE - 21 JANUARY 2005
FUNDING
AND STAFFING OF THE EMERGENCY PLANNING SERVICE
REPORT
OF THE PORTFOLIO HOLDER FOR FIRE, EMERGENCY PLANNING AND CONSUMER PROTECTION
REASON FOR SELECT COMMITTEE CONSIDERATION
To brief members of the new statutory duties and responsibilities that will be placed upon the Authority with the implementation of the Civil Contingencies Act, and subsequent funding and staffing implications.
ACTION REQUIRED BY THE SELECT COMMITTEE
For
members of the Select Committee to note this report, and comment on the options
given.
BACKGROUND
The new Civil Contingencies Act received Royal Assent on 18th November 2004 and is expected to become law in October 2005. In short, this legislation means that civil protection and resilience will be a statutory responsibility for all Local Authorities. A number of new duties will be placed upon the Council, which will require additional resources allocated to them if they are to be fulfilled. It is worthy of note that with effect of the Act’s implementation, emergency planning will feature as one of the key lines of enquiry in future Comprehensive Performance Assessments. The new duties include:
· Business Continuity Planning – This means ensuring that the Council has robust plans and procedures in place to ensure that it has the capacity and resources to be able to continue to provide its critical services to the community following an incident that has affected the Council. These plans and procedures will need to be maintained, tested and reviewed on a regular basis.
· Advice and Assistance to Business and Voluntary Organisations – This will include the provision of business continuity guidance and advice to local businesses and voluntary organisations within the local community.
· Community Risk Assessments – This involves compiling and regularly reviewing a community risk register in partnership with other agencies.
· Warning and Informing the Public – This requires Local Authorities to put communication systems in place to warn and inform the public about major emergencies in advance. Systems will also need to be in place for communicating with the public during major incidents. There will also be a requirement to provide the public with regular information about how to protect themselves, (what measures can be taken during times of flooding, storms, power shortages, heavy snows, terrorism etc).
Other new or enhanced areas or duties, which local Authorities will have to undertake in response to the Act, include:
· Coastal Pollution Response
· Comply with new duties to prevent emergencies
· Improve the resilience and robustness of all existing plans
· Additional training and exercises
· Additional plans for new risks
· Liaise with the new regional planning tier
· Undertake work generated by the Regional Resilience Forum
· Liaise with a plethora of public and private agencies identified by the Government as statutory responders
· Plan for environmental threats
· Respond to the Government’s capabilities programme which includes 10 work stream programmes specifically for local government
· Ensure audit capability
CONSULTATION PROCESS
The following agencies/organisations have been consulted prior to producing this briefing paper: Civil Contingencies Secretariat, Government Office South East, Neighbouring Local Authority Emergency Planning Service Managers, and Service Support Financial Accountant.
FINANCIAL, LEGAL, CRIME AND DISORDER IMPLICATIONS
The financial implications are dependent upon the option chosen – see section 4
1. Current
Funding Arrangements 2004/05
Emergency Planning is currently funded directly by the Cabinet Office by means of a ring fenced Civil Defence Grant that is paid annually to Local Authorities. The Isle of Wight Council’s grant is £72,230. In order to ensure appropriate service and development, the Authority has added £59,354 to this sum, giving an approximate total funding of £131,584. This meets the costs of the existing three staff, plan preparation, training, exercises, equipment, communications, administrative costs etc.
2. New
Funding Arrangements 2005/06
The Civil Protection funding arrangements will be changing from 05/06. Funding will no longer be ring fenced as in the past, but will be paid to Local Authorities as part of the Revenue Support Grant. The Isle of Wight Council will receive a non-ring fenced contribution of £98,219, an increase of £25,989.
3. Risk
It is clear
that more responsibility is being placed on Local Authorities in terms of
assessing for risks, planning and the response to incidents that will or may
impact on the community. In recognition of this fact the Government has made
new money available to meet the new risks and heightened responsibility. However, the money is not ring-fenced and
must compete with all other demands placed on the Council.
Any decision on whether the additional funding is allocated to Emergency Planning must be considered in the context that the Authority will be required to meet its legal obligations to civil contingencies and public safety under the Act. Failure to do so will lead to receipt of a poor related CPA assessment, potential adverse outcome within any post incident scrutiny or civil litigation claim and loss of reputation. Most importantly, not to meet the Civil Contingency Act’s responsibilities, would be a failure by the Authority to provide the communities that it is responsible for with the necessary resilience to adverse challenges.
The Select Committee is asked to note the current position and comment on the following options:
a. Maintain current funding levels (as per section 3.1 - £131,584). If this option is taken or indeed there is a reduction in current levels of funding, the organisation should therefore not expect any development or improvement to the current service, with the possibility that there may even be a reduced service. Also responsibility for corporate Business Continuity Management would have to be undertaken elsewhere within the Authority as the Emergency Planning Service would not have the resource to fulfil this duty.
b. Acknowledge the full depth and breadth of additional work required and increase the staffing level of the Emergency Planning Service by 1.5 FTE. This increase would augment the team to provide sufficient resources to fulfil the new duties under the Civil Contingencies Act, including corporate Business Continuity. In support of this claim, independent research commissioned by the LGA has assessed that in order to afford an effective service, in compliance with the Act, a medium sized Unitary Authority would require 4.9 FTE posts committed to this activity. It is believed that with good financial house keeping the necessary responsibilities could be achieved within the Isle of Wight Authority with 4.5 FTE, a saving of 0.4 FTE. An increase in the current staffing level with all subsequent on going costs i.e. admin support, IT hardware, training, National Insurance etc. can be achieved by:
v
Ensuring that the Emergency Planning Unit is allocated
the full and increased Government civil protection contribution (as illustrated
in section 3.2) of £98,219.
v
In addition, the Council increases its current levels
of additional civil protection funding support (as illustrated in section 3.1)
of £59,354 by £20,000.
APPENDICES ATTACHED
None - Detailed requirements of the Act,
supporting legislation, CPA inspection criteria are available on request.
BACKGROUND
PAPERS USED IN THE PREPERATION OF THIS REPORT