Weather Events - Improvement Plan
Perth and Kinross Council · 24 April 2024
Back to Scrutiny and Performance Committee — 24 April 2024 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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Report No. 24/123 Weather Events - Improvement Plan Theme Ref. no. Activity Responsible Officer TimescaleComments Notifications and preparedness 1 Report to EI&ED on resource requirements to support year- round resilience. Strategic Lead – Environment & Infrastructure No later than June 2024 Proposals being developed with various options being considered and costed in conjunction with other inter- related actions below. 2 Officers to review and put in place new minimum staffing/standby -levels at command and operational levels to ensure resources are available to successfully co- ordinate and deploy all flood defence measures within timescales set within the to be revised protocols (action 8 refers). Roads Maintenance Partnership Manager By June 2024 As above, various options being considered and costed in conjunction with other inter- related actions. Consideratio n also being given to changing the flood gate closure procedure to provide greater community reassurance, reduce risks and resource requirements. Incident Management, Resourcing and Response 3 Undertake further training in terms of emergency planning across the wider leadership team to ensure Strategic Lead – Strategic Planning, Policy & Resources By March 2024 Arrangements are in place to provide both external and internal training/ awareness sessions as well as accredited online training. Currently liaising with
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resilience to deal with incidents colleagues in Local Resilience Partnership (LRP) regarding further training for Gold and Silver command including Crisis Management training. 4 The Council’s Out of Hours Standby arrangements be reviewed to include exploring the opportunities for expanding the remit of staff from other Council services. Strategic Lead – Environment & Infrastructure By March 2024 Being undertaken in conjunction with other inter-related actions. Internal discussions on-going regarding what resources are available across PKC and how these can better support/ increase any response to an emergency, including flood gate closures. Focus on Parking Services team who already have out of hours standby arrangements. 5 Continue to work with current Community Resilience Groups and build on the success of these models, reflecting that public agencies including the Council are unable to respond to all Strategic Lead – Housing & Communities This is an ongoing action which is monitored within the service. Word of mouth marketing including by elected members has generated a very healthy appetite for creation of new Community Resilience Groups with support available from PKC. A CRG conference is planned for mid 2024 where established and new CRGs can come together to network, share learning and seek further support
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impacts across the authority from PKC, including financial support. New action Appropriate allocation of the approved funding to communities to support resilience in terms of both training and equipment (Scrutiny and Performance Committee action) Service Manager – Community Resilience and Emergency Planning By June 2024 It is anticipated funding will largely be disbursed after the CRG conference as both existing and new groups establish their specific needs at a local level. 6 Review how the logging and sharing of information between partner agencies is undertaken, building upon the conversations which have taken place to date with SSE and SEPA Strategic Lead – Environment & Infrastructure By March 2024 Discussions have taken place with SEPA and agreement reached on new way forward. Revised operational protocols have been agreed which will provide for better communication and data sharing between organisations. SEPA have updated their guidance and provided a copy to PKC. SEPA triggers on the Tummel/Garry scheme require SSE checks by SEPA (page 31 of the guidance refers). Action complete. 7 Undertake a review of the handling of Strategic Lead – Environment By March 2024 We have reviewed the Contact Centre arrangements for both
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calls to the Out of Hours contact centre, as well as a further review of the Council’s out of hours customer contact arrangements & Infrastructure Strategic Lead – Customer & Digital Services Aberdeen City Council (ACC) and Perth & Kinross Council (PKC). We have listened to a sample of calls from ACC during the weekend of 7th/8th October and the standard was as expected of a contact centre advisor – no concerns in the way calls were handled by ACC’s Contact Centre out of hours staff. There remains a limitation to the service that ACC can provide in a severe weather event therefore several proposed actions require to be implemented to reduce the call volumes being made to ACC during instances of severe weather. This will reduce pressure in the system and provide improved capacity for dealing with genuine emergency calls. 8 Review the Perth Flood Scheme Gate Closure Strategic Lead – Environment By June 2024 Various options being considered in conjunction with action 2 above to
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Operational Procedure document with SEPA & Infrastructure increase resilience and community reassurance whilst minimising the need for additional stand-by resources. Consideration of what gates can be left closed/sealed up with limited amenity impact. Modernisatio n of Promontory and Queens Bridge barriers being costed that are lighter and require less specialised knowledge/vehicles to install. New action This review to include a clearer and better tested ‘plan B’ for when something does go wrong with a piece of infrastructure (Scrutiny and Performance Committee action) Strategic Lead – Environment & Infrastructure By June 2024 Plan being developed which creates less reliance on the use of heavy equipment and the use of alternative protection measures. Modern/lightweight contingency barrier ordered – delivery late April. New action Develop a protocol to share vulnerable people lists during emergencies (Scrutiny and Performance Service Manager – Community Resilience and Emergency Planning By June 2024 Officers are liaising with colleagues in SSEN and the NHS regarding the sharing of relevant information. The key issue being data protection and GDPR. It is hoped this can be completed by summer 2024.
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Committee action) Impact and Recovery 9 Review of welfare response protocols and engagement with those directly impacted, including follow up with affected individuals in Perth City and Invergowrie. Head of Environmental & Consumer Services Senior Service Manager Housing By 23 December 2023 A welfare response protocol has been developed and was put in place which worked well during the flooding event at the end of December 2023. Action complete. 10 Establish formal feedback mechanisms from community resilience groups to take on board learning and develop future response arrangements Strategic Lead – Housing & Communities By March 2024 Feedback mechanisms are currently in place although a formal debrief process/ procotol will be produced by officers by the end of summer 2024. New action Representative s from SEPA, SSE and SW to attend a future Scrutiny and Performance Committee (Scrutiny and Performance Committee action) Chief Executive/ Executive Director (Communities) By June 2024 SEPA, SSE and SW to attend September Scrutiny & Performance Committee meeting.