Cabinet will give consideration to this Topic Group report at the request of the Overview and Scrutiny Board, pursuant to Executive Procedure Rules paragraph 6(e).

Cabinet agreed to refer this matter to Full Council.

Cabinet were grateful to the care and work put into the Topic Group report and were very pleased to consider it.

At its meeting on 13 October 2020, Overview & Scrutiny Board commissioned a number of Topic Groups to review the impact of the COVID pandemic and the Council’s response to it.

The terms of review for this Topic Group was the Council’s response to the COVID pandemic; specifically, the emergency planning arrangements andCommunication strategy.

Overview & Scrutiny Board recognised that the scope of the pandemic was such that commissioning a single Topic Group to assess its impact and the preparedness of the Council in responding to it was unrealistic. It therefore established three separate Topic Groups charged with exploring specific areas of interest.

The focus for this Topic Group concerned the Council’s emergency planning arrangements and the operation of its Command Structure. It therefore concentrated on the following key areas.

1.    Review the Council’s influenza-pandemic plan and develop an understanding of the Council’s Command structure. Challenge andreview planning assumptions contained within the plan (was the response proportionate to the risk);

2.    Understand and explore the relationship between the Command structure and the Borough Resilience Forum:

a.    With reference to the Community Resilience Development Framework, was there sufficient support for individuals identified at being of greatest risk? How are we doing it and what worked well/not so well (lessons learnt)

b.    Promotion of the pandemic plans/Command responses into Member organisations from the business and voluntary sector. How was it communicated and were there any areas for improvement?

c.    Was the Resilience Plan tested pre-Covid? If so, what were the improvements gleaned from it?

3.    Communication roles between Command, the Resilience Forum and elected Members. How the council communicated government guidance on responding to the pandemic and impacts on service provision.

The findings and recommendations were discussed and welcomed.

Cabinet AGREED to refer this matter to Full Council where all members could review and consider the recommendations.