Issue - meetings

Report ES17059

As a result of recent Audit reports, service reviews by the Director of Environment and an external audit by the Food Standards Agency the report recommended the allocation of additional resources for Environment and Community Services (ECS) to ensure key front line services had the appropriate and sustainable level of staff to:

·  fulfil the corporate requirements for contract monitoring and business support; and

·  deliver the expected standards of service in key areas.

Without the additional resources there was a high risk of further non-compliance with contract monitoring arrangements, a lack of progress with regard to Public Protection commissioning work, incomplete and weak business continuity arrangements and possible intervention by the Food Standards Agency (FSA) with regard to the management of the Food Safety Team.

Members agreed that the safety of residents had to be a priority, and supported the proposals. There were comments that the balance of the proposals was too much towards office based and administrative staff, but the exact requirements had been carefully considered to ensure that the Council’s statutory requirements were met. 

RESOLVED that

(1)  Three additional posts be agreed to deliver a dedicated Performance Monitoring and Business Support function to the Environment and Community Services Department.

(2)  Additional temporary resource for 2.5 years be agreed in the Public Protection and Community Safety division to support the commissioning programme.

(3)  Additional Food Safety Officers be agreed to clear the outstanding back log of inspections and provide a sustainable resource to meet current demand.

(4)  A temporary Business Continuity Officer post be agreed for 2 years to support the Emergency Planning Manager deliver a robust corporate plan for enabling services to be provided in the event of an emergency.

(5)  The additional costs in 2017/18 and future years set out in paragraph 6.1 of the report be approved - £238k in 2017/18, £467k in 2018/19, £306k for 2019/20 and £217k from 2020/21 onwards; the costs will be funded from the Council’s 2017/18 Central Contingency Sum.