Agenda item

In 2017 there were two major incidents in and around Hammersmith & Fulham that required the authority to implement its emergency planning procedures - the fire at Grenfell Tower and an explosion on a tube train in Parsons Green.

This report reviews the Council’s response at both strategic and operational levels, identifies action taken to date to improve readiness, and makes recommendations for further improvements.

Peter Smith (Head of Policy and Strategy) introduced the draft report and noted that in 2017 there were two major incidents in and around Hammersmith & Fulham that required the authority to implement its emergency planning procedures – the fire at Grenfell Tower in June and an explosion on a tube train in Parsons Green in September. The report reviewed the Council’s response to those incidents at both strategic and operational levels and considered the views of local businesses and community organisations that participated in a ‘hackathon’ event convened by the Council to examine the views of partners.

The report identified action taken to improve the Council’s readiness and response to major incidents and made recommendations for additional action for further improvements. The Committee was invited to discuss the report’s findings and consider the draft recommendations.

Elizabeth Stevenson (Headteacher of Lady Margaret School), Wayne Leeming (Headteacher of Melcombe Primary School), and Michelle Barrett (Headteacher of Vanessa Nursery) attended to provide the schools’ perspective on the Parsons Green incident and wider emergency planning issues.

Wayne Leeming said Headteachers wanted a central point of contact in case of an emergency to ensure they were getting the right messages quickly and efficiently. During the Parsons Green incident, a number of schools in the area didn’t know what was going on and were hearing conflicting stories from parents. Peter Smith noted that a recommendation in the report addressed that issue. Kim Dero added that the Council had also commissioned a separate piece of work on emergency planning – and that had stressed the importance of a single point of contact. A key lesson from the Grenfell Tower incident was that social media moves a lot faster than local authority communications. At the Hackathon, community organisations and residents said they wanted a faster way to keep in touch and to that end officers were exploring the use of WhatsApp groups etc.

Michelle Barrett reiterated the need for clear communications with schools – noting that many parents would come to the school first for information about an incident.

Elizabeth Stevenson made the following points:

·         It would be useful for school staff to have training on how to manage media messages.

·         The emergency plan should be flexible so it could adapt to changing situations.

·         Schools needed help in the aftermath of an emergency event. Students might need support for weeks after an incident takes place.

Kim Dero agreed that support over the longer term was key. Resilience professionals spoke about the ripple effect – events can have long lasting impacts on people and we shouldn’t underestimate the effects it can have on the community. After Grenfell H&F established a team to reassure people in tower blocks in the borough that they were safe.

Alistair Ayers agreed that any emergency plan needed to be flexible. H&F had an overarching generic plan with more specific event-specific plans beneath that. There were also London-wide plans that sat above those. Officers were refreshing the local plans with the community and planning exercises and training to support that.

Councillor Alan De’Ath suggested holding regular drills between the Council and Headteachers to ensure the communications network was working correctly. Kim Dero agreed and felt this would build confidence. She said that a number of opportunities were being planned for spring and summer.

Nandini Ganesh (Parentsactive representative) asked if there were specific plans in place to support SEND children and young people during emergency situations.

Alistair Ayers said the Council would identify vulnerable people in an emergency. It had been recognised that H&F lacked information on vulnerable children during the Parsons Green incident but that was being resolved going forward.

Matt Jenkins (teacher representative) said it was important that when children transferred schools, the correct information was shared. That should happen through SENCOs but it wasn’t consistent in all schools. Steve Miley said the process was there but perhaps there needed to be stronger recognition of its importance. He would ask officers to follow up on this with schools.

The Chair said that children’s need for play was vitally important to their wellbeing and development and noted that the local Play Associations have people who can provide sessions at short notice who could be used for displaced families. The Chair also felt emergency response training should be a part of the induction for all councillors following the next election in May.

The Chair noted that the schools close to Grenfell Tower were asked to close the day after the tragedy but they opened anyway because staff recognised the importance of stability in children’s lives. She asked officers to think about how to keep this continuity if there was an emergency in the borough. Michelle Barrett added that children should be housed as closely as possible so they can continue to attend their school.

The Chair thanked the headteachers for their contributions.

RESOLVED

That the Committee discussed the findings and recommendations of the report and made suggestions (above) for the Council to consider in its response.