Emergencies happen somewhere in the country almost every minute of every day. The emergency services deal with them quickly and efficiently. These incidents could be:
- Road accidents
- Fires
- Medical emergencies
Due to the (relatively) small scale of these incidents, the council doesn't activate its emergency plans. But it may be called upon to support the emergency services as part of its day-to-day routine. For example, a building control officer may visit a building that has been on fire to give advice on its safety.
Sometimes a more disastrous event happens. These large emergencies are often called major incidents. They can affect large numbers of people or the environment.
In the event of a major incident organisations such as the Emergency Services, Environment Agency, Health Agencies and Local Authorities work together to try and mitigate the impact of the emergency.
The multi agency definition of a major incident is:
Any event (happening with or without warning) causing or threatening death or injury, damage to property or the environment or disruption to the community, which because of the scale of its effects cannot be dealt with as part of its day-to-day activities.
More information about Emergency Planning in general can be found on the Preparing for Emergencies website.
How we respond to emergencies
When an incident occurs the emergency services go to the scene. The first service to arrive decides what other services are needed. They contact their control and ask for them to attend.
If the incident is small the staff on scene deal with it. This level of management is known as 'operational'. Each agency at the scene has full command of its own resources. These arrangements are adequate for most minor emergencies.
More serious incidents (sometimes called major incidents) need a lot more people and equipment. To make sure they go to the most important areas first, somebody must decide how best to use them. This level of management is sometimes called the tactical level.
The Police co-ordinate all activities of responders at and around the scene. An incident control point is set up close to the scene. This gives the tactical commanders a central point to manage the incident. The emergency services usually use mobile control vehicles for their incident control points.
It is usually at this point that the emergency services ask for help from the council. The council has specially trained tactical-level managers called Control Centre Managers. They are supported by a Forward Liaison Officer who joins the emergency services commanders at the scene.
When the emergency services need help from the Council they pass their requests to the Forward Liaison Officer. The Forward Liaison Officer refers this to the Control Centre Manager who then co-ordinates the requests.
The council has an emergency plan to help it respond quickly and efficiently to large emergency incidents. When the plan is activated officers from each council directorate form an emergency control team, led by the Control Centre Manager.
This team is responsible from the council's response to an emergency. The council provides services such as emergency accommodation, emergency transport and emergency feeding to people that have been evacuated because of the emergency.
How we plan for emergencies
East Riding of Yorkshire Council has an Emergency Planning Working Group that meets regularly to progress and develop the council's emergency management arrangements. The Group is made up of representatives from each council directorate and feeds into a number of multi agency emergency planning meetings.
The Local Resilience Forum makes policy. The policies are turned into action by various sub groups.
The council's Chief Executive and Emergency Planning Manager are on the Local Resilience Forum. The organisations listed below also attend:
More information on the work of this group, the hazards in the area that might cause an emergency and the practiced steps you can take to protect yourself and your family can be found at the Humber Emergency Planning Service website.
How you can prepare your business for an emergency
Did you know that 80% of businesses affected by a major incident close within 18 months? Or that 1 in 5 businesses suffer a major disruption every year? Are you confident that yours could cope? Your business could fail because of something that isn't your fault and that you can't control.
You don't even need to be directly involved. There are some really simple steps that you could take to increase the chances of your business surviving a disruption. Some don't even need to cost you anything and won't take up very much of your time. Why not visit Humber Emergency Planning Service website to find out more, or ring 01452 393095 for a free information pack. Plan to keep your business in business.
Contact
If you have any queries regarding emergency planning please contact Alan Bravey, emergency planning officer, on 01482 393051 or via e-mail at alan.bravey@eastriding.gov.uk.
To contact East Riding of Yorkshire Council in the event of an emergency please call 01482 887700.
