Agenda item

– Stuart Beaumont, Head of Community Safety and Emergency Planning, was in attendance for this item)

(1)     The Committee received a report from the Cabinet Member and Corporate Director seeking endorsement of, or comments on, the proposed decision of the Cabinet Member to undertake all necessary arrangements to create and implement an integrated emergency planning team involving personnel from KCC, Kent Police and Kent Fire & Rescue Services.

(2)     The Cabinet Member introduced the paper.  He spoke about the benefits of the proposal in both financial and efficiency terms and maintained that the integration and co-location of the team would create a stronger resilience.  Co-location was key as proved by Margate Task Force.

(3)     The Chairman stated that Kent Fire & Rescue Authority would also consider the decision to integrate this week.

(4)     Mr Beaumont spoke to the item.  He reported the following information for the Committee:

(i)        KCC, Kent Fire & Rescue Service and Kent Police each had statutory responsibilities related to planning for and responding to civil emergencies.  He stated that in recent months these plans had been tested, both on the Sheppey and the Queen Elizabeth II Bridges.

(ii)       He stressed that although the integration project was expected to deliver savings the primary motivation was to improve the service delivered.

(iii)      Should the decision be agreed an integrated team would be established in April 2014. 

(5)     In response to questions and comments, the following information was put to the Committee:

(i)            That the first year of the project would be spent on setting up the new team.  There were over 30 different organisations that had statutory responsibilities for emergency planning.  There would be a review of the team during the last quarter of the first year to ensure it was fit for purpose and optimally efficient.

(ii)           That in year one staff would be seconded from their current employer.  After that, and considered as part of the review, staff may be transferred to the new team.

(iii)          Unions and staff had been consulted and both had been supportive of the proposals.

(iv)          Kent Fire & Rescue Authority were offering Godlands as a physical base for the team.

(v)           It was likely that the Team Manager would be a KCC officer as it was envisaged that there would be ten KCC staff and three or four from both the Police and Fire & Rescue teams.  Overall management would be shared between the three key organisations.

(vi)          Integrating the teams would provide a reduction in revenue costs and also reduce duplication of process for all three parties.

(vii)      That the Coastguard and Ambulance services were not currently included in the proposal for an integrated service.  This was a deliberate attempt to ensure that the process was as simple as possible.  Both organisations were statutory partners on the Kent Resilience Forum (KRF) and at a recent meeting of the Forum the proposed model of integration had been unanimously accepted.  Further integration would be considered in year two of the project.

(viii)      That the current service was run as a shared service with a pooled budget and the Kent Resilience Forum providing the statutory governance.  Further detailed work would be conducted in relation to service level agreements between organisations. 

(ix)         Finally, he reported that the contributions made by various organisations to the KRF pooled budget had the potential to reduce should savings be realised, thus alleviating pressures on Forum partners in the coming years.

(6)     It was RESOLVED that the proposed decision of the Cabinet Member to undertake all necessary arrangements to create and implement an integrated emergency planning team involving personnel from KCC, Kent Police and Kent Fire & Rescue Services be endorsed.