Decision details

To seek approval to enter into an agreement with Nottinghamshire County Council for the provision of Emergency Planning Support to the Council.

THAT the Leader of the Council:
1)Agrees to enter into an arrangement with Nottinghamshire County Council for the provision of Emergency Planning Support to the Council as set out in this report.
2)Delegates the authority for ongoing oversight and management of the arrangement to the Director of Corporate Resources.

10.1To ensure the Council’s emergency planning functions can be resourced in an effective way.
10.2To avoid overburdening the Executive with the operational aspects of this partnership.

3.1The Council could recruit an in house emergency planning officer, or the HoS could absorb the work. The HoS does not have the capacity or sufficient expertise in this area to take on this work. Work currently underway to review the HSEPO role, has identified that one FTE covering health and safety and emergency planning and occupational health is not likely to be sufficient moving forward. It is not considered to be the right approach at this time to simply replace that role. NCC are essentially providing the equivalent of an in house officer but with a team of emergency planning experts working alongside that officer at NCC. This provides a much greater level of resilience for the function than one in house officer.
3.2The Council could look to enter into an arrangement with another authority for the provision of emergency planning support, however, given that three other districts are also looking to enter into arrangements with NCC for the same service, locally, there are unlikely to be authorities at district level who could assist.