The Role of Responders, Relevant Legislation and Preparedness

The Role of Responders, Relevant
Legislation and Preparedness
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
LO1 Examine the role of emergency responders and relevant legislation......................................4
LO2 the importance of planning and response for emergency incidents........................................8
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................12
Reference List................................................................................................................................13
Appendices....................................................................................................................................16
Appendix 1: Risk Rating...........................................................................................................16
Appendix 2: Major Incidents.....................................................................................................16
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Introduction
Natural disasters and calamities like floods, earthquakes, landslides, disease outbreaks and so
forth are a setback to a country’s regular operations. Every country needs to set up a disaster
management plan and recruit some public agencies, which would provide services to the
community during this period. I work as a manager at the St. John Ambulance service, which
assists the disaster, hit population in the time of crises. Our organization works to provide regular
transport services to the region where the calamity has occurred to the areas, which are out of the
danger zone. The report consists of a detailed analysis of the risk management planning and
management strategies used by the public service bodies during the crises. The acts and
legislation put forward by the government for such services are to be analysed. Their chief duties
and responsibilities need to be assessed. The interagency service provisions are to be observed
and documented through the report.
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LO1 Examine the role of emergency responders and relevant legislation
P1 The legislation that stipulates how the public services must deal with emergency
incidents
The public service organizations in the UK act rapidly in case of an emergency or a disaster. The
legislation that provides a guideline on how they would be working in such cases is:
Civil Contingencies Act, 2004, was established in the UK, to provide a proper guideline for
planning and responding in cases of emergencies at the local or national level. Under this act,
several agencies working during emergencies or disaster situations are brought together. Such
agencies operate according to the guidelines of this act to provide relief to the victims of the
calamity. The act has provided a proper working definition for emergencies. It shows how a
country’s population should be equipped to act during a time of crisis. This way the several
independent agencies operating during a disaster or emergency can be brought together. These
agencies are then made to work collectively in proper coordination with each other to help the
victims gain relief fast.
The act comprises of three main parts: Part 1 of the Civil Contingencies Act obligates certain
emergency organizations to prepare for a natural calamity or a disaster situation. This mandates
the organization to assess, plan and execute their services during an emergency. Part 2 of the Act
gives emergency power to the government agencies to use them temporarily in such situations.
The CCA 2004 guidelines include some cases in which the ‘emergency powers’ can be applied
by the government on being permitted by the Queen. Part 3 of it puts forward some additional
legislation, which supports the previous two parts (Swain et al., 2016).
The organizations mentioned in the act, for abiding by the legislation, are the Category 1 and 2
responders. The responders include an emergency officer, rescue officer, civil protection officer
or a risk assessment manager. There are regular quality control check officers to help regulate the
proper functioning of each of these positions. In addition, ambulance services, local healthcare
services, and environmental agencies form a part of these responders.
The Cabinet Office has the main duty to assign these activities to each agency, contact them in
the time of disaster or emergency and to maintain the finances of these agencies.
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P2 Public services who have a statutory responsibility in planning and responding to
emergency incidents
Several public service agencies and organizations work alongside the government bodies to help
deal with the crises. These public service bodies are included within the category 1 responders
under the Civil Contingencies Act, 2014. They play the critical role of assessing the situation,
planning and responding to the disasters (Chmutina et al., 2016). The category 1 responders
include Police, and Civic bodies, which take the primary action. Next, the ambulance services
are provided to the injured, while rescue services work to rescue the rest of the victims who are
still stuck in the locality. The local healthcare service providers are contacted to help them with
their emergency and urgent care treatment facilities. The Maritime Coastguard agencies are
contacted in case of any disaster that takes place in the coastal areas or the beaches. They lead a
rescue operation to rescue the ones at sea. The Environment agency could help in case of any
natural calamity.
Category 2 responders such as the utility provider would provide proper food and resources for
the victims and the ailing. Telecommunication services need to be made strong in the locality.
24x7 Helplines and support service are set up to provide information to the family members of
the victims and others staying in distant areas. Ambulance services or transport providers are
recruited next to help move the injured to the hospitals. This would help in the mobility of the
rescue team and the disaster management team too. The Highway agencies need to be contacted
to ensure that there is no delay during the travel.
Interagency workers become active during such crises and help the victims through a
coordinated and collective approach. The local police services, healthcare agencies, NGOs, and
disaster management services work together with the military and the armed forces to produce
the best of their services. This would ensure fast recovery of the injured and better management
of the emergency. It also helps these agencies prepare themselves better for the future and act
rapidly. The Somerset Floods of December 2013-14 showed how these agencies worked in
tandem with each other to bring out the best outcomes. A report by the Environmental Agency
showed how there were about 100 million cubic meters of water cover in a 65 square kilometer
area (GOV.UK. 2019). This required an active help and support from the flood relief
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organizations in the UK, and the environmental agencies to deal with the situation (Ntontis et al.,
2018).
Influenza
Flooding
Aviation Accident
local accident
pollution
Storms and Gales
Radioactive incidents
Building Collapse
forest fire
zoonotic diseases
industrial action
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Likelihood
Impact Score
Figure 1: Risk Rating (Wiltshire.police.UK, 2019)
(Source: created by the learner)
Refer to the appendices
M1 The circumstances and process for military support
Military support is essentially required in the emergency preparedness and rescue services.
Disaster conditions in remote areas call for the military help to rescue the victims from these
areas and relocate them to better and healthy localities. This Military aid is provided to the
government departments and the civil authorities to carry on the rescue mission. Evacuating the
vulnerable people, building proper flood defenses, providing airplane or helicopter support
during the winter floods of 2015-2016 were some of the military services. The military also
assists the Civil Power of the country or the locality. This is considered a contingency response
and not just a standard response. The discipline and training that they go through for their
services are extremely important in planning and responding to the crises. This way they help the
other voluntary organizations in their disaster management planning (Bowley et al., 2018).
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