Emergency Planning

Legal Duty of Care Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council has a legal duty of care placed upon it under the requirements of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 as a ‘category 1’ responder to support the Emergency Services in emergency situations, to support the local community through an emergency and the return to normality.

What is an Emergency ? Anything that threatens normality

You and your colleagues have noticed a strong smell of gas at work – what would you do ?

How RMBC Responds to an Emergency The Authority has a Senior Executive Officer on call on a rota basis 365 days a year to act as the Strategic Decision Maker for the Council known as the Borough Emergency Co-ordinator (BEC). The Authority has a Senior Executive Officer on call on a rota basis 365 days a year to act as the Strategic Decision Maker for the Council known as the Borough Emergency Co-ordinator (BEC). The Authority has specially trained Officers known as the duty Forward Liaison Officer (FLO) on call on a rota basis 365 days a year who is deployed to incident sites to act as the Councils eyes and ears.

How RMBC Responds to an Emergency In the event of an Emergency the Councils FLO is contacted by the lead ‘Category 1’ responder eg. Police, Ambulance, Fire or the Environment Agency to attend the incident site and liaise with other ‘Category 1’ responders. This is where the decision to utilise RMBCs support is made.

How RMBC Responds to an Emergency If the incident is of a minor nature the FLO will contact relevant Council departments to deal with the incident or call ‘on call’ Officers out of hours. The FLO will then report to the BEC.

How RMBC Responds to an Emergency If the incident is on a Major scale the Borough Emergency Plan will be activated at the discretion of the BEC. Recent incidents where the Borough Emergency Plan has been fully activated include: Flooding of 2000 and 2007, Gas cylinder incident 2006

How RMBC Responds to an Emergency Each Directorate has a role to play in the Emergency Plan the Directorates are: Environment and Development Services Neighbourhood and Adult Services Corporate Finance Chief Executives RBT Rotherham 2010 Children and Young People’s Services Each Directorate has it’s own Emergency Plan

Control and Co-ordination Once the Emergency Plan is activated the Borough Emergency Operations Room (BEOR) is opened and each Directorate is instructed to open and staff their individual control rooms.

Borough Emergency Operations Room (BEOR) The BEOR is the main control centre for the Authority. Each Directorate deploys a Senior Officer known as an Emergency Liaison Officer (ELO) to the BEOR to act as the Strategic Lead for their Directorate. All strategic decisions regarding RMBCs response to an Emergency are made within the BEOR.

CYPS control Room The CYPS Control Room is staffed by a Control Room Manager and Control Room Officers. When tasks are delegated to CYPS from the ELO / BEOR the CYPS Control Room team co- ordinate the Directorates response. All communications are logged and financial spend is monitored and documented.

How does CYPS Support the Authority in an Emergency Provision of buildings Provision of staff to support NAS with the care and welfare of people in an emergency in Evacuation Centres Catering for Evacuation Centres and frontline staff at the scene of an incident. Specialist staff eg. psychologists, social workers, teachers, early years and Youth Service. Provision of information for Government departments.

Schools Emergency Planning All schools are required to have their own Emergency Plan to enable them to manage emergencies effectively. This includes having contact details of key people and services within the plan.

Discussion – Personal experiences Has your school / service been involved in or affected by an emergency. Learning points from the emergency.

Reference RMBC Borough Emergency Plans. CYPS Emergency Plan. Individual school Emergency Plans.