Agenda item

To receive a report by the Corporate Director: Economic and Community Ambition (copy attached) to consider and offer observations on the full business case for a regional emergency planning service prior to its submission to Cabinet with a view to ensuring that the proposed regional service will provide the required level of service for the Council and the County's residents.

                                                                                                           11.20 a.m.

A copy of a report by the Corporate Director: Economic and Community Ambition (CD:ECA), which presented the full business case for a Regional Emergency Planning Service (REPS) and sought observations on the recommendations relating to it, prior to their submission to Cabinet, had been circulated with the papers for the meeting.

Councillor D.I. Smith, the Lead Member with responsibility for the Service, declared a personal and prejudicial interest in this business item and left the meeting prior to the item being discussed.

The CD:ECA explained that work had been undertaken by the 6 North Wales Councils to evaluate the benefits of establishing the REPS.  The report outlined the work undertaken and set out the recommendations of the final business case to establish a Regional Service which would be presented to Cabinet for approval in March, 2013.  A summary of the current arrangements had been set out in Appendix 1.

The Chief Executives of the six Councils had commissioned the development and testing of a business case for a single service, with sub-regional teams, and officer presence within each Authority to ensure local expertise, knowledge and local service continuity.  The Welsh Government - Local Government Compact had included emergency planning as a recommended regional collaborative service and the final business case, Appendix 2 to the report, had been based on a full analysis of the costs and benefits of establishing a REPS.  Adoption of a Regional Service was being recommended with: -

·      a sub-regional structure – two hubs covering 3 Councils each

·      one hub led by a Regional Manager and the other by a Deputy

·      an Emergency Planning Officer in each Local Authority

·      common policies, processes and plans and shared resources in a single management structure.

The responsibilities of the locally placed officer and the sub-regional hub officers had been detailed in the report, and the REPS would be commissioned and overseen by an operational board of commissioning officers.  The business case identified that the new model would provide greater resilience, improved specialisation and consistency, better sharing of best practice, capacity and capability.  It would enhance liaison with other key responders through the Local Resilience Forum and provide more capacity for working with service managers across each Local Authority to strengthen response arrangements.  The proposals suggested overall savings of up to £75,000, at 10% of cost, with possible further savings from reduced duplication.

The Welsh Local Government Association had offered £35k from the Improvement Fund to assist North Wales in the management of transition to a Regional Service, with Flintshire County Council acting as the Lead Authority for the project.

The following responses were provided to questions and issues raised by Members:-

- The CD:ECA explained that the flexibility and levels of communication would be enhanced by the establishment of REPS.  This should improve arrangements from Denbighshire’s perspective, as under the proposed new Service it would have one officer based in the County.  Under current arrangements all officers covering Denbighshire were based in Flintshire.

-  Members were informed that any major incident would be managed on a North Wales basis.  It was confirmed that response and recovery plans were in situate and that Denbighshire services would feature in the process.

- Confirmation was provided by the CD:ECA that the establishment of the REPS would not supersede the recovery plans already in place, but would strengthen the existing arrangements and improve the resilience to apply them.

- The officers explained that the establishment of the REPS would not generate     substantial savings, and confirmed that there would not be a significant reduction in staffing resources.

The basis of the recommendations being presented to Cabinet to establish and join REPS had been outlined in the report, together with, the timeline for the project.  Cabinet would be requested to delegate authority to approve the detailed transition arrangements to the new service and undertake all necessary tasks to establish the new service to the Chief Executive in consultation with the Lead Member.

A summary of the consultation process undertaken and details of any financial implications or possible risks had been included in the report.  In response to a question from Councillor D. Simmons, the CD:ECA agreed to seek clarification regarding the inclusion of the RNLI in the consultation process for the proposed REPS.  Having considered the report and the final business case for the proposed Regional Emergency Planning Service, subject to confirmation that the RNLI had been or would be consulted on the proposals, and with the aim of providing a more resilient service to the residents of Denbighshire the Committee:

RESOLVED – to recommend to Cabinet that:-

(a)it adopts the final business plan to establish a Regional Emergency Planning Service on the basis set out in paragraph 4.13 of the report to Partnerships Scrutiny Committee on 14 March 2013, and

(b)authority to approve the detailed transition arrangements to the new service and undertake all necessary tasks to establish the new service is delegated to the Chief Executive in consultation with the Lead Member.

PART II

EXCLUSION OF PRESS AND PUBLIC

RESOLVED under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the Press and Public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 14 and 15 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.