The Chairman to provide a verbal update on the Grenfell fire response.
Minutes:
4.1 The Chairman provided a verbal update on the City Council and its health partners’ response to the recent Grenfell fire in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC). She advised that staff from Adult Social Services. Children’s Services and Housing had been amongst those who were involved in the London-wide response to the Grenfell fire. The Board heard that families and individuals from Grenfell Tower and Grenfell Walk and other bereaved families had each been allocated a key worker to provide support to them to access services. Council staff had undertaken housing needs assessments and offering accommodation to residents and Barbara Brownlee (Director of Housing and Regeneration) was coordinating the housing activities for the London-wide response. The Tri-borough Schools Services was assisting the most significantly affected schools and educational psychologists from this service were being used. City Council staff had been deployed at Westway Assistance Centre which had initially been used as a rest centre for survivors and was now a community assistance centre. The Chairman also informed Members that Tri-borough Public Health had collated information on those affected by the fire to provide a comprehensive picture of the total impact of the fire and to help provide data to the response coordinators who also received updates in respect of a Humanitarian Assistance Guidance Pack. She advised that response activities were now in the process of being transferred back to the control of RBKC.
4.2 Turning to the response of the City Council’s health partners, the Chairman advised that NHS Central London and NHS West London Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) had joined together to provide a community based response to the fire. The providers leading this response were Central London Community Healthcare (CLCH) and the Central and North West London (CNWL) NHS Foundation Trust, along with the London Central and West Unscheduled Care Collaborative that was run by a group of GPs. The Chairman thanked health partners for their response to the fire.
4.3 Dr Joanne Medhurst added that health visitors had also been providing support to those affected by the fire.
4.4 During discussion, Jackie Rosenberg stated that the voluntary sector was also playing an important role in the response to the fire, and a voluntary work force was in place. The fallout from the fire would mean that there would be some trauma inflicted on the community. Jackie Rosenberg stated that at a meeting with 17 charity leaders, it had become apparent that they did not know precisely what the Council’s procedures are in respect of emergency planning and she would raise this issue with the Cabinet Member for Environment, Sports and Community. However, the outpouring of support from citizens over the fire had been encouraging and there were lessons to be learnt to ensure there was sufficient organisation and support in place when such incidents arose.
4.5 Another Member highlighted the impressive response of the emergency services workers to the fire and he emphasised that the courage and bravery of these workers should be noted.
4.6 Members agreed to the Chairman’s suggestion that the Board consider what lessons could be learnt from fire.