Kensington & Chelsea to commission independent review of culture in response to Grenfell Inquiry phase two report
The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea is to commission an independent, external review of the culture within the council that will examine questions of discrimination and how residents are treated.
The review will have a particular focus on those in council housing and temporary accommodation and others who need the council’s support.
The Royal Borough will also extend an existing ban on contractors implicated in the Grenfell Inquiry, and set up a new corporate resident procurement panel “to give residents a genuine voice in selecting and managing contracts, with training provided”.
These actions are contained in the local authority’s response to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s phase two report.
Kensington & Chelsea said it had already accepted the findings of the phase two report, which included that the council’s Building Control department failed to perform its statutory function of ensuring that the design of the Grenfell Tower refurbishment complied with building regulations.
The phase two report also highlighted significant failings in the way the council responded in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, in leadership and governance and a breakdown in its relationship with residents, the Royal Borough noted.
Further measures set out in the council’s response, which comes 12 weeks after the phase two report was published, include:
- holding an end-to-end review of the complaints process
- establishing an independent advisory panel of bereaved family members, survivors and residents alongside independent experts in social housing, safety, customer service and organisational change
- supporting 100% of staff in building control to complete professional accreditation and training
- training staff to regard resilience and emergency response as part of their core responsibilities and including specific resilience responsibilities in all senior officer job descriptions.
The council said it had implemented the phase 1 recommendations from the Inquiry report.
In the conclusion to its response, Kensington & Chelsea said: “The publication of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry's Phase 2 report represents a defining moment not just for this council, but for local government and social housing providers across the country.
“The findings should make every local authority and social landlord examine their own practices, culture and assumptions with renewed scrutiny and heightened moral purpose. The basic failures identified by the Inquiry - in safety, in resident engagement, in professional standards and in emergency preparedness - could exist in any organisation that has not consciously worked to prevent them
“We therefore urge our colleagues across local government to go beyond minimum compliance, treating the Inquiry's recommendations not as a ceiling but as a floor for the changes needed in how we manage safety, empower residents, and uphold professional standards.”
