To hear a progress report including:

·         Health and Safety Update

·         Monitoring Officer Resources

·         PSN Compliance

·         Business Continuity Plans

·         Vision and Purpose for the Organisation

Nikki Craig, Head of HR, Corporate Projects and IT, introduced the item. She explained that the Panel had requested updates on progress from the Annual Governance Statement from last year, with this update providing information on a number of different areas. The areas included Health and Safety, Monitoring Officer Resources, PSN Compliance, Vision and Purpose for the Organisation and Business Continuity Plans.

·         Health and Safety – Council buildings across the borough had been tested to ensure they met the required standards. School fire checks for compartmentalisation had been started although due to Covid had been paused but it was hoped this would be completed by the summer.

·         Vision and Purpose – RBWM had recently refreshed its values after a series of workshops held with all employees and Members. The draft values had been presented and feedback was sought on them, with an aim to have the final values ready in the summer.

·         Monitoring Officer Resources – RBWM had been able to double the time available from two to four days a week, which would allow the Monitoring Officer more time to carry out their work.

·         Business Continuity Plans – the council was part of a joint emergency planning team which was hosted by West Berkshire Council. All services were looked at as part of the plans and there had been a significant step up due to the current crisis. The plans would be refreshed during the recovery phase.

·         PSN Compliance – As this involved sensitive information, this part of the Progress Report would discussed in the Part II meeting.

The Chairman asked if the Health and Safety side of things was becoming more aligned with the current situation, especially as risk assessments would be required for offices whereby recent staffing levels were not as usual. Nikki Craig confirmed that the appropriate checks were being carried out including legionella and fire alarm tests.

Cllr Werner asked how long it would be before appropriate resources were in place to support the Monitoring Officer in her role.

Duncan Sharkey explained that this was something that had been flagged up last year and as a response the council now had two deputy monitoring officers. The level of resource available would not stop the challenge, and said that the Monitoring Officer had sufficient resources.

Cllr Werner further said that every eventuality could not be prepared for and questioned how useful the business continuity plans were.

Duncan Sharkey explained that RBWM had business continuity plans which were focussed on a loss of capacity in a certain area, and that emergency planning had considered the impact of a virus and these had been useful in recent months. However, the uniqueness of Covid was different to what was expected and it was therefore hard to plan for every virus eventuality. David Scott said that continuity plans were designed to be generic so that they cover as many possibilities as possible, the response from RBWM showed that the plans had been developed well.

Nikki Craig said that the success and timing of the Modern Workplace Project phase 1 had been particularly important and RBWM would be in a completely different position without it. The Panel thanked the IT team and everyone involved with the project for the good job that they had done so far.

Cllr L Jones asked if there had been any other issues identified since the last Annual Governance Statement.

Duncan Sharkey said that work was always happening to update the Annual Governance Statement, with the next one due to the come to the Panel at the next meeting.

Cllr Sharpe asked what RBWM had learnt from the current situation and whether the council were in a good position to deal with future emergencies.

Nikki Craig said that they had utilised the joint emergency planning team and that the Business Continuity Plans had been able to step up services effectively during the crisis.