Issue - meetings

The Executive Member for Environment and Finance & Governance and the Director of Finance submitted a report for the Executive’s consideration. The purpose of the report was to request approval of a Corporate Crisis Policy.

The general principles of the policy were as follows:

·        To ensure a professional, consistent and timely approach to dealing with crisis and its associated support across all of the Council’s functions.

·        Where Data Protection legislation allowed, promote a coordinated approach towards sharing information internally and managing multiple awards connected to crisis across the whole of the Council.

·        To ensure that crisis was managed in accordance with legislative provisions and best practice.

·        To ensure that any steps taken to deal with crisis were in line with the Council’s corporate policies on surveillance and data protection, and to ensure compliance with RIPA and GDPR legislation.

The policy provided a definition of crisis and what was considered a disaster, and had certain criteria which had to be met in order to receive support. The policy also outlined circumstances which were not considered to be a crisis.

Should a resident trigger support under crisis or disaster, the policy provided levels of support based on differing circumstances.

When a payment was triggered, awards would be made through electronic means rather than cash awards, with payment methods outlined in the policy.

Resident and Business Support’s Community Support Team planned to work collaboratively with all services to ensure residents who met the requirements of the policy were signposted appropriately.

ORDERED

1.      That the Corporate Crisis Policy be approved.

2.      That delegated authority be provided to the Section 151 Officer to approve any future modifications to the policy.

REASON

The policy planned to allow Middlesbrough Council to provide a coordinated and fair approach to the definition of crisis and disaster, make support payments where they fit the Council’s definition, and ensure any such payments were in line with expected expenditure to the situation which warranted the need for support.