Agenda item

This report provides the Committee with information on how the Council prepare for common emergencies and what the Council have in place to prepare for less common emergencies.

The Resilience and Contingencies Manager introduced the report on emergency planning. He highlighted how the Council works with partners and government in relation to emergency events, the training undertaken for both officers and Councillors regarding emergency planning and confirmed that the Council’s emergency planning was internally audited and undertook a peer review in 2024. He noted that the Council would often hold a leadership and guidance role during emergency events and the Council always had a senior officer as a Silver Commander on call, which could always be escalated to Gold Command.

The Committee noted that there were so many potential emergencies the city could face, with a particular highlighting of the power cuts in Spain, they enquired how could the Council prepare for such a wide range of emergencies. Officers confirmed that plans were in place for a wide range of emergencies, even so, they confirmed that every emergency was different. Therefore, it was explained that it was important to focus on planning to deal with the potential outcome of an emergency, rather than ever possible event.

Members discussed individual preparation and enquired about how residents could ensure they are prepared for emergencies. Officers noted that there are outreach events such as York Get Ready Together to promote preparation. The Local Resilience Forum website was also highlighted which included resources such as Household Plan templates. The Committee acknowledged the usefulness of the QR code provided on the Local Resilience Forum templates which provided information to residents about preparedness, they did however, reason concerns for those that might not be able to use a QR code, officers acknowledged that the QR might not be accessible to all residents and highlighted the use of the chatbot function on the site which could respond directly to residents and provide appropriate information.

Members discussed whether more could be done to promote resilience and things such as the Household Plan template. They considered whether copies of the template and links to it could be added to community noticeboards. Members also enquired about whether they could seek grant or sponsorship funding to send information on preparedness to all households. It was noted that the Council was exploring including resilience information in annual council tax letters. Members also enquired about ensuring support was provided to small businesses, noting that larger organisations would like to have their own specific plans. Members also enquired as to whether there was scope to commercialise emergency planning for small businesses.

The Committee enquired about how the Council ensures vulnerable residents are prioritised and supported in emergencies. Officers confirmed that data sets were kept to identify vulnerable individuals, and work was done with adult and children’s social care to ensure support was provided to venerable individuals. Members enquired about whether people could self-identify or identify others they know that are vulnerable, officers confirmed that this was the case, and that people could be identified to the Council by relatives. 

Officers confirmed that in cases of emergencies rest centres could be established, for security reasons it was confirmed that there was not a publishable list for these centres. It was confirmed as part of communications with Councillors things such as the locals of rest centres in their wards would be shared with them as part handling any emergency. On communications it was confirmed that in cases of emergency the Council worked on the principle of having a single version of the truth communicated. Members enquired about military assistance and whether this could be affected by changes to the barracks in Fulford. Officers confirmed that each region had an assigned liaison officer so changes would not affect how emergencies would be dealt with. The Council maintained the ability to request military assistance, this would be sent to the Sectary of State who would decide whether to deploy military personnel.

Councillor training was discussed with the opportunity for future training to be considered by the Council’s Joint Standards Committee to support Members to be prepared and able to support their communities.

Members raised the digital switch over and enquired about what measures could be taken to address the challenges the switch over could present to residents in relation to being prepared for emergencies. Officers noted that the switch over presented a challenge due its wide window for rollout and how it was being done by individual companies rather than one coordinated project. They noted that it was important to continue to warn people to be prepared for the switch over.   

Resolved:

                         i.         Request that the Executive explore how the Council can include more information on resilience in its communications and to seek support for an all-household communication to promote resilience planning;

                        ii.         To request that the Executive explore the scope to commercialise emergency planning for small businesses;

                      iii.         To recirculate the link for Emergency Planning to Committee members;

                      iv.         To request that officers review how temporary Council IDs are assigned.

Reason:     To promote resilience against potential emergency events.