The LGA recognises concerns that there are clear limitations in using voluntary approaches to do what the NEP-F has the ability to mandate, in terms of prioritising access for key workers; and agree that when there is disruption to fuel supply (whether caused by a shortage of fuel or any other factor), there will be benefits to national coordination and better information sharing from government. It is also important to recognise that voluntary approaches to managing fuel distribution can only work if fuel is reaching petrol stations, which may not be the case during periods of disruption.
However, within that context, the information below sets out examples of local approaches to business continuity and key issues for both councils/LRFs and the social care sector to be mindful of at the pre-NEP-F planning stage. This includes in relation to voluntary arrangements with filling stations, as well as other business continuity measures such as fuel sharing arrangements/mutual aid, use of private fuel suppliers and vehicle sharing.
The NEP-F proposes the following business continuity measures:
- Full profiling of fuel requirements and sources of fuel for your organisation.
- Planning a reduction of service and how non-critical work can be stopped safely.
- Establishing a priority of journeys and plan for best use of vehicles, restricting the use of company/pool vehicles for the most critical services
- Encourage working from home (where possible and practical to do so).
- Rearranging work hours for employees (such as lengthening working days but reducing the number of days worked).
- Encourage the use of car sharing or promoting use of public transport by employees.
- Repurpose usage of company vehicles to pick up employees. Maximise fuel efficiency by planning movement of people from and to places (eg combining pickups and drop offs, distributing vehicles to wider areas).
- Ensure all company vehicles have maximum passenger capacity being utilised.
- Schedule company vehicle refuelling times to avoid queuing and logistics of enabling this, eg overnight.
- Prepare communal travel by hiring taxis, bus or minibus.
- Consider procuring a wide variety of fleet vehicles (petrol, diesel, hybrid, etc).
- Prepare staff to stayover in alternative facilities or in hotels if feasible.
Voluntary measures can help in a period of disruption
Anecdotal evidence from areas that experienced some of the worst disruption in 2021 indicates that where forecourts introduced maximum purchase schemes, this helped to manage stocks better than those that had not done so and provided some stability. However, other areas reported that maximum purchase schemes prompted drivers to visit more than one filling station, increasing queues and disruption. But whether they had a positive or negative impact overall, areas reported a patchwork of different approaches to purchase limits and identifying priority workers, as well as a need in several areas to clarify the importance of frontline care workers alongside health and emergency services personnel.
With some petrol stations having introduced their own prioritisation measures or sale limits, there may be benefits in councils/LRFs seeking to put some structure around the approaches being taken, while recognising the need to manage any competition risks through doing so. The case studies later in this document provide examples of where local areas have done this.
Where voluntary measures are being implemented (coordinated across the LRF or not), it will be helpful insofar as possible to collate and share information about the different schemes being applied at different forecourts, so social care staff are clear on where they may be able to access fuel. Feedback from providers is that the different priority access schemes being applied, and not knowing where to go to access fuel, was a major factor in disruption of service.
Communication – particularly with certain workers and businesses – is key
During the disruption, councils and in some cases LRFs received numerous emails and calls from health and social care providers asking how staff could be identified as key workers able to access fuel. With the Covid pandemic having highlighted the role of key workers, it appears that this created expectations of priority access to fuel, encouraged by the fact that some forecourts did indeed introduce priority access schemes. There were complaints from social care providers that some councils or LRFs were unwilling or unable to help them when they sought help about access to fuel. As this document sets out, there are limited tools that councils and LRFs have to respond, emphasising the need for prior business continuity planning by all businesses and statutory agencies.
While local areas can consider the scope to introduce priority access through voluntary schemes, it is important that communications with providers and staff build understanding and manage expectations about what can be done. With no legal powers available unless the national plan is activated, the limitations on mandating priority access need to be understood and communicated carefully.
Communications with businesses should highlight the different frontline roles that should be prioritised if voluntary schemes are going to be introduced (including care staff as well as healthcare staff and blue light services). These messages should be shared with key businesses and workers both proactively and reactively: this document can be used to support that process.
Council business continuity measures
Councils in areas impacted by disruption to fuel supplies reported a number of business continuity measures, operating internally and via mutual aid with partners, that helped maintain service delivery. These included:
- Identifying priority staff needing to be mobile and prioritising pool car use by those staff.
- Distributing pool cars at more varied locations to people could make their way to them and access bunkered fuel.
- Implementing local fuel sharing arrangements across different councils.
- Using voluntary sector partners to support with transport and accessing fuel.
- Exploring the options for accessing fuel via non-retail sites regulated by trading standards teams.
Case study: Norfolk Resilience Forum: pre-NEP-F filling stations approach
Norfolk Resilience Forum (NRF) has a similar approach in place. Its local fuel plan recommends early activation of a fuel information cell to share key information, and sets out that individual organisation business continuity plans should pre-identify priority staff eligible to receive fuel under the plan’s arrangements. These staff are broadly based on the critical services list in the NEP-F, but tailored to Norfolk, and includes social care. The county has recognised a need to review and update this list following changes to working patterns during COVID.
The local plan is based on the assumption that the NEP-F is unlikely to be activated, but that there would be a benefit in voluntarily operating a plan to keep fuel available for anyone displaying a critical service marker. Around 20 filling stations have been identified as part of the work to develop this plan but the NRF used the fuel disruption in 2021 (which did not impact the county significantly) to encourage other filling stations to sign up and remind businesses of the breadth of the critical service list.
During the disruption in 2021, the Norfolk Care Association and Norfolk and Suffolk Care Support worked with Norfolk County Council’s social care team to get communication and information to registered managers of local care providers. This included information about where fuel was reported to be available as well as a ‘pass letter’ setting out the work being undertaken by care sector staff, to encourage forecourts to facilitate access to fuel for these individuals if informal prioritisation schemes were in place.