Kensington and Chelsea Council is taking action to improve its resilience following a review prompted by the Grenfell Tragedy Inquiry. The Leadership Team considered a report outlining the council's response to an external review of its resilience functions at a meeting on Wednesday, 15 October 2025.

The Grenfell Tragedy Inquiry Phase Two report, published on 4 September 2024, highlighted failures and significant gaps in the Council's emergency preparedness and response in the aftermath of the fire. The independent expert was commissioned to review the council's emergency preparedness following the release of the report.

The review, commissioned after the release of the Grenfell Tragedy Inquiry Phase Two report, made 13 recommendations to improve the council's emergency preparedness. The Council response to Resilience Review included an action plan to address these recommendations.

The Resilience Review Action Plan 2025-26 spans from October 2025 to September 2026 and details how the council plans to implement these recommendations. Key milestones include:

  • December 2025: Implementing weekly handover meetings and strengthening the shadowing system.
  • December 2025: Promoting mental health support opportunities to staff.
  • December 2026: Planning a large multi-agency live exercise.
  • October 2026: Exploring additional opportunities for the Community Resilience Officer to collaborate with other departments.
  • December 2026: Exploring rolling out Systemic Practice among appropriate members of the emergency rota staff.
  • March 2027: Convening a meeting of the relevant scrutiny committee joint Chairs to review the Council's resilience risks.

Key recommendations from the review include:

  • Moving the Community Resilience post to the Community Partnerships Team. The Community Resilience Task Force will oversee community resilience initiatives, exploring opportunities for the Community Resilience Officer to collaborate more closely with the Communities Department and other council directorates.
  • Focusing the Strategic Head of Service on strategic resilience issues.
  • Incorporating more scenario-based training exercises.
  • Implementing weekly handover meetings for officers.
  • Establishing a shadowing system for less experienced officers.
  • Mapping staff skills to support emergency response.
  • Ensuring mental health support for emergency responders. The Council's health and wellbeing opportunities are promoted through the weekly email to incoming staff, and Resilience will identify further opportunities to promote these. The Council will invite relevant HR & OD colleagues to a future meeting of the Resilience Network to promote these opportunities.
  • Convening annual scrutiny committee meetings to review resilience risks.
  • Undertaking a large-scale evacuation exercise.
  • Reviewing the Resilience review report in light of information and cyber risks. The Information Assurance Board is scheduled to review the report in light of these risks. The Executive Director with responsibility for Resilience also serves as the Senior Information Risk Owner (SIRO) and chairs the Information Assurance Board (IAB). The IAB's lead officer is an active member of the Contingency Planning Assurance Group (CPAG), ensuring strong alignment between information governance and resilience. The Resilience Review has already been formally considered by CPAG and will shortly be presented to the IAB, where it is expected to generate additional actions and recommendations. Resilience is embedded within the Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF) agenda, and work is accelerating to strengthen the Council's preparedness for potential cyberattacks. A key workstream is focused on prioritising critical services and systems and developing a coordinated, council wide view of dependencies and recovery priorities.
  • Establishing a Community Resilience Task Force.
  • Considering accelerated systemic practice training.
  • Reconsidering the decision to withdraw Secretariat support from the Borough Resilience Forum. The Council will continue to coordinate and support the Borough Resilience Forum, as the decision to withdraw the Secretariat has been rescinded and therefore the Council will continue to provide this function.

The review praised the 'warm welcome, openness and positivity' of those involved and the 'total professionalism and transparency' of the Resilience team.