Purpose

This report is to seek approval of the attached service plan. The plan sets out the likely demands on both the ‘food hygiene’ and ‘occupational health and safety’ functions undertaken by Environmental Health in 2023/24. The plan details how the team will use the allocated resources (both financial and staffing) to meet these demands

Decision

Approve the service plan for 2023/24 and continue with the current level of service delivery. This approach will allow the organisation to wait for the outcome of the pending service reviews before making an informed decision about the future configuration of the team.

Alternative options considered

Option 1 - Continue with the current level of service delivery. RECOMMENDED. This approach will allow the organisation to wait for the outcome of the pending service reviews before making an informed decision about the future configuration of the team.
Option 2 - Provide additional staffing and/or financial resource to deliver the service plan. NOT RECOMMENDED. At present, the council is undertaking a council-wide service review, looking at where efficiencies and savings can be made. It would be prudent to establish what efficiencies can be made as part of this review before investing in additional resources.
Option 3 - Reduce the available staffing and/or financial resource. NOT RECOMMENDED. At present, there are pressures on the delivery of services so to reduce this further would risk action being taken by the FSA and/or HSE – see the Risks section below.