MEMORANDUM 15 June 2006
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To: All Members of Resources ScrutinyCommittee, Cabinet
All Chief Officers
/ From: COUNTY SECRETARY’S
DEPARTMENT
Ask for:
Ext: 25564
My Ref: AS
Your Ref:
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BUSINESS CONTINUITY MANAGEMENT TOPIC GROUP
15 MAY 2006
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS
ATTENDANCE
D E Billing, N K Brook, P T J Channell, A Mitchell (Chairman), D T F Scudder.
Officers
J Boulter - Lead Officer – Head of SERMU, Corporate Services
M Collier - Assistant Director of Environment (Resources)
E Dutton - Assistant Director of Adult Care Services (Older People & Physically Disabled People)
J Hambrook - Health, Safety & Risk Manager, Children, Schools & Families Dept
D Mansfield - Network Manager, Commercial Services & information
J Mottram - Executive Assistant to the Director of Adult Care Services
N Rotherham - Scrutiny Officer
A Service - Group Administrator
P Sharkey - Network Development Analyst, Commercial Services & information
1. ELECTION OF CHAIRMAN
That A Mitchell be elected Chairman of the Topic Group.
2. REMIT OF THE TOPIC GROUP
The Topic Group discussed and noted its remit.
3. NOTES OF THE PRESENTATION SESSION HELD ON 16 MARCH 2006
The Topic Group received the Notes of the presentation session held on 16 March 2006.
4. TOPIC GROUP’S PROPOSED WORK PROGRAMME AND DATES OF MEETINGS
The Topic Group agreed the following provisional work programme subject to review at a later date :-
a) Second meeting – Friday 23 June 2006 at 2 pm
Any emerging issues from presentation on 16 March 2006 and the following :-
· Consider how Herts C C own business could be reshaped during a pandemic
· Consider the timescale of a pandemic and its impact on service delivery decisions
· Consider delivery of key services like social care at a time when the demand for those services might be significantly higher than normal and possibly with less staff
b) Third meeting – Monday 17 July 2006 at 2 pm
· Consider ICT and other contracting challenges
· Internal Audit Review
· Determine date for visit to Hoddesdon offices - IT Back up
c) Fourth meeting – Wednesday 13 September 2006 at 2 pm
d) Fifth meeting - Friday 13 October 2006 at 10 am
· Items arising previously not identified
5. DEPARTMENTAL SERVICE IMPACT ASSESSMENTS AND ACTIONS PLANS
The Topic Group received presentations from the following staff in Adult Care Services, Children, Schools & Families, Environment and Corporate Services Departments outlining the Impact Assessments and Action Plans to deal with disruptions to services brought about by staff absences due to an influenza pandemic.
The service impact analysis undertaken by each Department identified vulnerable services and what level of staff absence would lead to the service failing and which services would fail soonest. The assessment would lead to a colour categorised rating for all services with red being the first services to fail or vital services being impacted, amber being services that fail after a time and green being those significantly impacted after 7 days.
Alongside this is an assessment of the criticality rating of each service (from 1 to 6) leading to a scheme of prioritisation of services with red 1 being the most important priority.
The general content of each Department’s Action Plan was as follows : -
· information on staff location & availability
· means of communication
· guidance provided by the Dept of Health
· service delivery
· IT infrastructure
· financial considerations
· performance issues
· staff deployment
· prevention of spread of infection measures
· cross agency working
· managing demand
· after care provision
· re –establish business as usual
a) Earl Dutton, Assistant Director of Adult Care Services
He advised that the Department in particular served two vulnerable groups of clients who would become the main focus of attention if a pandemic outbreak of influenza occurred. He stated that currently there were 5,300 Hertfordshire residents in residential care in Hertfordshire and 6,300 in day care.
He advised that the Department’s Action Plan had been well received and probably would be utilised by other local authorities.
The impact assessment had identified the following Adult Care Services as being areas of concern receiving “red” assessments : -
· Local Elderly & Physical Disability Teams
· Hospital Social Work Teams
· Community Learning Disability Teams
· In house Learning Disability Teams
· Nursing & Residential Care providers
· Home Care Providers
· Service Access
He advised that the Plan was being regularly considered and updated by the Department’s Management Board to take account of factors which were constantly changing. A list of the Department’s contacts had been put together and was ready for use in the event of an emergency such as a influenza pandemic arising.
In the event of a flu pandemic, he stated that it would be possible to issue blue badges to disabled persons by telephone contact without requiring them to visit the Council’s offices and thus minimising the risk of higher levels of influenza infection. Consideration would also be given to suspend the operation of day centres if flu infection levels significantly escalated.
Discussions have been ongoing with colleagues in health to consider hospital admission arrangements if flu levels escalated. These might include hospitals becoming places to isolate infected persons at with entire wards or even the entire hospital being used for isolation cases. Other steps may be taken to minimise chances of cross infection i.e Meals on wheels services with reduced personal contact.
Deputies succession planning plus a number of other staff deployment initiatives had increased the number of staff that could be called on in the event of a flu pandemic to carry on the Council’s services.
In response to a question on the ability to transfer support staff to cover services that experienced high staff absences, Earl Dutton advised that personal services such as home care would need Criminal Records Bureau [CRB] checks to be undertaken. Each CRB check would cost £40 and could take upto 2 months to be completed.
In exceptional circumstances key jobs maybe filled whilst CRB checks were being undertaken.
Having regard to the advice given at the Presentation session on 16 March 2006 that an influenza pandemic was likely to occur in two waves with the second wave being more severe than the first, it was wondered what action would be taken to react. He stated that as previously advised the Action Plan was being constantly updated and as and when lessons were being learnt from the first wave, the Action Plan would be updated and strategies accordingly adapted.
In response to a question whether discussions had been held with other authorities / agencies concerning planning for a pandemic / sharing resources etc, John Boulter advised that some discussion had taken place and there might be possibilities to bring in expertise. Cambridgeshire had been looked at for such possibilities and officials from the Government Office for the Eastern Region had been contacted to see whether a regional approach could be of merit. He thought that resources covering child protection might be particularly hard hit.
The reliance on telephones and IT for communication was particularly noted and the ability of British Telecom to maintain and repair faults was a critical factor.
In response to a question as to what the biggest worry to the Adult Care Services Department [What keeps you awake at night] would be, Earl Dutton stated it would be the infrastructure of elderly persons and care homes plus vulnerable people who lived on their own.
It was noted that these areas of work with traditionally high staff turnover and getting additional resources would be challenging especially when they had family commitments to consider. Once vaccines became available residential care workers would be one of the priority groups to receive them.
b) Jenny Hambrook, Health, Safety & Risk Manager, CSF Department
Jenny Hambrook advised that no guidance had been received from the Department of Education & Science on action to be taken in the event of an outbreak of an influenza pandemic perhaps a widespread outbreak may lead to a blanket closure of all schools being enforced. Consequently decisions to close schools would be likely to be done on a school by school basis as the levels of teaching staff declined with the emphasis being on keeping as many schools operating as possible.
John Boulter stated that guidance from the Department of Education & Science had been intimated should be available in early summer of 2006.
The impact assessment had identified the following Children, Schools & Families services as being areas of concern receiving “red” assessments : -
· Referral & Assessment
· Long Term Care
· Some Youth Teams
Jenny Hambrook stated that most of the services provided by Libraries staff had been assessed as being mainly amber or green who whilst having a community role to play were not seen as providing critical services.
It was viewed that based on these factors it might be an option to consider closing Hertfordshire Libraries and redeploying libraries staff to provide County services having a “red” assessment.
It may be a possibility to use mobile libraries to pass on community information / provide other services to the more remote areas of Hertfordshire and perhaps alter the routeing of the mobile library to achieve this.
She stated that the Departmental Action Plan was being worked on at the current time by Jim Dalton.
In response to a question, she stated that feedback was awaited from Human Resources on the progress of negotiations with Manpower concerning the possibility of securing alternative staff resources to cover for sickness absences.
In response to a question, she stated that it was unlikely that there would
be a great need or demand for protective clothing i.e masks to be worn in schools, but advice would be sought from the Health Protection Agency.
In the event of an outbreak of a flu pandemic, the emergency team established comprising of 4 officers plus nominated deputies would be contactable and take necessary decisions about CSF services provided in line with the CSF Action Plan.
In response to a question, Jenny Hambrook stated that enquiries would be made asking the various contractors engaged to provide CSF services to give details of their staff cover contingency plans that would ensure continued service provision during a pandemic. She felt that circumstances may lead to respite services being suspended during a flu pandemic.
Given that the CSF Action Plan was being written in the absence of any guidance from the Department of Education & Science and the possibility of an influenza pandemic occurring before guidance being issued this fact should be contained within the Action Plan.
In the event of an outbreak of influenza pandemic all non essential travel might be phased down including school trips.
School closures due to significant teacher absence would be determined by the Head Teacher, in their absence, their nominated deputies and / or the Chairman of School Governors.
In response to a question as to where any additional expenditure to ensure that services are maintained during significant levels of staff absence due to flu, Mike Collier stated that no Emergency Fund existed but that contingency funds and reserves within the budget would be used to fund some if not all the additional expenditure.
In response to a question as to what the biggest worry to the Children, Schools & Families Department [What keeps you awake at night] would be, Jenny Hambrook stated it would be keeping childrens’ residential homes and child protection services operating.
c) Mike Collier, Assistant Director of Environment (Resources)
The impact assessment had identified the following Environment Department services as being areas of concern receiving “red” assessments : -
· Welfare of animals & public safety at Aldenham Country Park
· County Transport Schemes – management plus drivers
· Passenger Transport Unit
· School Crossing Patrols
· Emergency repairs to roads in Hertfordshire
In response to a question about the resourcing of school crossing patrol duties, Mike Collier stated that CRB checks would need to be undertaken of all staff doing these duties which had a considerable cost and time implication associated with this.
In response to a question he stated that the Department’s contact list was mainly in place and should be completed by the end of May 2006.
In response to a question as to what the biggest worry to the Environment Department [What keeps you awake at night] would be, Mike Collier stated it would be if they had not co- ordinated transport for ACS or CSF clients and somebody was left at home when they should have been taken to a care centre or school or were left at a care centre or school with no transport to get them home.
d) Dave Mansfield, Network Manager and Phil Sharkey, Network Development Analyst, Commercial Services & information
The impact assessment had identified the following Corporate Services Information Technology services as being areas of concern receiving “red” assessments : -
· IT staff involved with managing foster parents payments
· ICT staff dealing with infrastructure – Database Administrators – ORACLE, IRIS Child Protection database
· Commercial Services & Information – Gateway operations
Dave Mansfield stated one of the biggest concerns involved Database administrators who covered the Oracle system and in particular the IRIS Child Protection database. Currently there were only 3 administrators capable of undertaking this specialist work. There was the possibility of one other member of staff that could be redeployed to undertake this work if the need arose.
It was noted that there was no full back up alternative system i.e paper records for the child protection system so there was strong reliance on the IRIS Child Protection database.
Dave Mansfield stated that the IRIS system did require maintenance work being undertaken on a regular basis to enable the system to be fully functional
and the loss of two staff suffering from flu could cause operational problems
to the IRIS system.