Civil Contingencies

Thursday 22nd March 2012, One Wimpole Street - London, 09:00 - 15:50

Civil Contingencies and Local Resilience: Ensuring Emergency Preparednes

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Exhibitor

Overview

Preparing for and building capacity to effectively respond to emergencies is crucial for all organisations. Coastal flooding, flu pandemics and attacks on the transport system are all attacks that the UK is gearing up to protect itself from.

The Strategic National Framework on Community Resilience was released in March 2011, and focused on the need for communities to develop and maintain a strong, responsive stance to improve their resilience to disasters. It firmly set the government’s role as one of a supporter of community resilience, not a prescriber of what successful community resilience should look like, putting the onus on local communities to ensure they are adequately prepared for disasters.

In the Strategic Defence and Security Review published October 2010, civil emergencies were listed as a top four risk priority. The top three civil emergency risks were pinpointed as terrorist attack using unconventional materials, severe influenza pandemic, and major coastal flooding. The flood preparedness of the UK was tested in Exercise Watermark, with the final report published in September 2011, and offered a number of recommendations for the UK government on how to improve flood resilience, including the need for local resilience forums to share best practice.

The prolonged cold weather of winter 2010 had a critical effect on the transport system, delaying trains, closing schools, roads and airports, and costing over £600 million a day. In Keeping The Country Running: Natural Hazards and Infrastructure, released October 2011, the government highlighted the pertinent need to protect UK infrastructure from natural hazards, and encouraged industry and government to work together to improve the resilience of critical infrastructure.

Cyber-attacks have also been highlighted as an emerging threat; in the UK Cyber Security Strategy, November 2011, the government gave details of allocation of a £650 million budget to tackle this growing issue.

Agenda

This essential forum will examine the current threats and government priorities for improving UK resilience. It will also provide valuable insights into what needs to be done at the community level to ensure emergency preparedness, and provide delegates with the opportunity to learn from best practice resilience case studies.

09:00	Coffee and Registration
09:45	Chair's Welcome and Address Professor Denis Fischbascher-Smith, Professor of Risk and Resilience, University of Glasgow (CONFIRMED)
09:50	Opening Keynote: The Strategic National Framework on Community Resilience How can communities effectively equip themselves to deal with events such as riots, floods and severe weather? The need for communities to work together, and with local service providers, to develop an appropriate framework to respond to an emergency Successfully disseminating information about risk and articulating the benefits of emergency preparedness to the community Providing case studies of good practice to enable communities to implement successful resilience strategies The role of the resilient community ‘champion' Community resilience and the ‘Big Society’: Removing barriers to enable communities to help themselves become more resilient Looking to the future: Further plans and timeline for the Community Resilience Programme to improve emergency preparedness within communities James Cruddas, Deputy Director for Emergencies Management in Fire, Resilience and Emergencies Directorate, Department for Communities and Local Government (CONFIRMED)
10:10	Special Keynote: Civil Contingency Plans - Responding to the Evolving Threat Landscape Civil emergencies: A top four priority risk to national security What are the most recent, pertinent threats to communities and businesses? The risk from flooding, pandemics and terrorist attacks How is the threat landscape developing and what new risks do we need to prepare for? Protection from a growing threat: Securing our networks from cyber-attacks Ensuring our critical infrastructure is resilient to disaster and unexpected emergencies The Civil Contingencies Act Enhancement Programme Marc Beveridge, Chair, The Emergency Planning Society (CONFIRMED)
10:30	Questions and Answers Session
10:50	Coffee and Networking
11:10	Taking A Multi-Agency Approach to Civil Emergency Planning Improving the effectiveness, efficiency and interoperability of emergency responses to incidents within the West Midlands conurbation. The West Midlands Multi Agency Emergency Services Unit (MAESU) Responding in the first 60 minutes of any major incident to ensure a successful outcome. Working alongside health services with responsibility for emergency response management and collaborating to improve response to major incidents Acting as a single point of contact and providing information and updates to other category one and two responders prior to, during and after major incidents and events Working with representatives from other emergency services across the UK to share expertise and findings Introducing multi-agency training to enable a more comprehensive understanding of each other’s roles and responsibilities during an emergency incident Steve Horsley, Emergency Response Planning, Technical and Operational Support Directorate, West Midlands Fire Service Headquarters and Pete Benkwitz, Head of Emergency Repsonse, West Midlands Fire Service (CONFIRMED)
11:30	Case Study: Ensuring Cost-Effective Local Resilience in an Age of Austerity Devon County Council and East Devon District Council: Developing a plan for cost-effective community resilience Recovering from the 2008 floods: A partnership project to increase flood resilience in East Devon Establishing the East Devon Flood Recovery Group, getting people back into their homes and working to reduce the impact of potential future flood Implementing low-cost but effective methods to improve resilience in a rural area Combining technical expertise with local knowledge to find effective solutions Dom Maxwell-Batten, Emergency Planning Officer, Devon County Council(CONFIRMED)
11:50	Questions and Answers Session
12:10	Lunch and Networking
13:10	Effective Resilience and the Emergency Services Public services – a vision for the future The importance of the emergency services for ensuring community resilience Developing strategies and tactics to ensure an effective emergency response for the public The August 2011 riots: Responding quickly to an unexpected emergency The wider role of the fire service in addressing the civil disturbance Overcoming barriers to inter-operability Challenges for the future Warren Pickstone, Head of Resilience and Planning, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (CONFIRMED)
13:30	The Role of Science in Preparing for Civil Emergencies Using scientific advice effectively to improve response to disasters Communication before and during emergencies: How can we raise public and government awareness of risk? The role of scientific advice in preparing to respond to natural hazards, emergencies and terrorism Scientific research as a tool for understanding pandemic disease Handling the 2010 Volcanic Ash emergency: Looking at the science behind the situation Preparing for large scale, low probability disasters Dr. Chris McFee, Head of Civil Contingencies and Natural Hazards, Government Office for Science (CONFIRMED)
13:50	Ensuring Resilience: The Importance of Business Continuity Plans The importance of effective business continuity plans in the event of an emergency Ensuring resilience and the ability to deliver critical services during times of disruption Assessing which businesses activities are critical and how they might be disrupted by an emergency Determining a strategy for dealing with this and continuing to deliver key services Considering people, premises, technology, suppliers and stakeholders Ensuring variant channels of communication and using different technologies to retain communication during a crisis Research into new threats which may disrupt service delivery Staff training and guidance to ensure clear definition of roles and responsibilities for business continuity Dan Occhini, Business Continuity Co-ordinator, Kent Police (CONFIRMED)
14:10	Questions and Answers Session
14:30	Coffee and Networking
14:50	Ensuring the Resilience of our Critical National Infrastructure The intersecting nature of security challenges. Risk prioritisation/threat perception What are the most serious risks to the UK? Making our CNI networks resilient from unexpected emergencies Protecting our critical national infrastructure from terrorism Collaborating with utilities companies to ensure our networks are adequately protected Dr Brooke Rogers, Senior Lecturer in Risk and Terror, Department of War Studies, King's College London (CONFIRMED)
15:10	Case Study: Community Resilience to Large-Scale Unrest The August 2011 London riots and Haringey’s preparedness for large-scale social unrest Strategies for mitigating the impact: Multi-agency working to manage the clear-up Supporting the community: From evacuation to Community Assistance Centres and beyond Quickly providing information, advice and support to local businesses Realities of conflict situations: Overcoming divisions in recovery management Preparedness and responsiveness for a similar episode: What can be learned from the London riots experience Andrew Meek, Emergency Planning Manager, Haringey Council (CONFIRMED)
15:30	Questions and Answers Session
15:50	Chair's Summary and Close

*programme subject to change without notice

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Audience

The audience will comprise of central, local and regional government agencies, as well as health and telecommunications organisations; category 1 and 2 level responders, command level managers, heads of resilience and disaster recovery, GIS managers, directors of civil contingencies, emergency planning managers, operational risk managers, business continuity managers, police, ambulance and fire rescue officers, emergency responders, heads of IT security, heads of data security, heads of preparedness and response, internal communication leads and directors of telecommunications.

Civil Contingencies

Thursday 22nd March 2012, One Wimpole Street - London, 09:00 - 15:50

Civil Contingencies and Local Resilience: Ensuring Emergency Preparednes

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