Agenda item

The Board considered the Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) Service Plan 2023/2024.

The Head of Regulatory Services introduced the report and in doing so drew Members’ attention to the Recommendations, as detailed on page 57 of the main agenda report.

It was detailed to Members that, the Board signed off on the service plan for WRS each year. The process helped to make Members aware of what the service was proposing for the relevant financial year and provided a sign off which some central government bodies liked to see in relation to service delivery plans e.g., the Food Standards Agency.

Officers reported that the plan followed the same pattern of previous years and Members’ attention was drawn to the Executive Summary on page 26 of the main agenda pack to highlight the main point. Last year’s plan continued to accommodate activities in tackling the global pandemic as well as day-to-day activities. 2023/24 saw all involvement with COVID-19 pandemic related activities formally cease for WRS.

Throughout the pandemic, the service continued to shape its work around the long-standing strategic priorities for local authority regulatory services provided by what is now the Department for Business and Trade (DBaT,) as this provided a framework that allowed WRS to maintain a golden thread back to the priorities of the six partners and to link to the requirements of the various national bodies.

The focus of the 2023/24 plan had shifted somewhat to the tactical priorities identified in the service’s Strategic Assessment. The two-yearly piece of work reviewed the full data and intelligence picture, looked at emerging threats and made a number of recommendations as to the areas that needed to be addressed. The outcomes were:

•     Supporting a safe and vibrant night-time economy

•     Promoting the responsible sale, breeding, and ownership of dogs

•     Promoting safe and clean communities

•     Supporting commercial businesses to operate safely and responsibly

•     Supporting industry to operate safely and responsibly

Officers described the last two as business as usual for a regulatory service, however, the other three were cross cutting in nature and needed to be addressed by various staff within WRS to deliver outcomes.

A range of high-level activities against the 5 tactical priorities were identified within the plan so that Members would be aware of the general focus of the workload. Below this would sit a number of plans, either team based or cross cutting that would be used to drive business activities.

Working with businesses and other partners was a key theme for both generating income but also to ensure that outcomes were delivered that match the priorities of partners and stakeholders. Delivery for other local authorities also remained a key income generation strategy, supported by limited work for the private sector and any specific grant monies that WRS felt were worthwhile pursuing. WRS retained most of its client-base post-pandemic and hoped to be able to identify new ones, although over time that gets harder.  WRS remained hopeful that the strategy would remain fruitful.

WRS would continue to use intelligence to drive the business forward and the embedding of this approach and its associated processes kept WRS at the forefront of this thinking in local regulatory services.

The Risk Register had been updated to reflect the current position in areas like IT provision and development, staffing levels, and reliance on contractual relationships for income. The threat from cyber-attack had become more real in recent years as the devastating consequences had been felt by colleagues in other local authorities elsewhere in the country. WRS would work closely with their ICT host, Wyre Forest DC, to limit the risk of this. The WRS team for many years had been using mobile and flexible work activities which had yielded efficiencies but their reliance on ICT provision to deliver this increased the vulnerability to disruption.

As with previous years, Members were asked to pay particular attention to the provisions for food hygiene delivery in 2023/24. This was to meet one of the recommendations of the auditors from the Food Standards Agency who visited the service in May 2017. The FSA were keen that Members had a better understanding of the demand in this service area when they authorised the plan for 2023/24 and future years.

Members were asked to note the proposed numbers of inspections and similar activities proposed for the new financial year that would be undertaken to discharge the statutory duties of the 6 partners in relation to food control. WRS would keep the board updated on progress as the year went forward.

The Technical Services Manager responded to questions from Members and in doing so, clarified the situation regarding the air quality survey at Horsefair/Coventry Street – Kidderminster as detailed on page 86 of the main agenda pack. Although the initial assessment and equipment were in place, the survey had not been completed as WRS needed to undertake assessments for a minimum of 3 years. Officers further clarified that for a location to be designated as an Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) it needed to be a residential area with air quality concerns. Between the two mentioned areas there was an area which did not met the AQMA criteria, however, due to the very close proximity of the locations it was decided to assess them under the same AQMA.

Members also wished to highlight the positive support WRS provided to businesses to enable them to operate legitimately and safely.

RESOLVEDthat

a)    the Worcestershire Regulatory Services Plan for 2023/2024, as   detailed in the main reports pack, be approved; and

b)    that Members specifically note the level of work to be undertaken by the service this year in relation to the partners’ roles as local food authorities.