scope:

This document provides guidance for Emergency Service Management when considering integrated operational response to a major emergency. This guidance will enhance an organisation"s ability to determine their existing operational capabilities for being able to respond to a major emergency. The ability for the emergency services to provide a co-ordinated, effective and sustained response to major emergencies, providing acceptable levels of protection for both emergency responders and the citizen is directly dependent upon the level of capability and preparedness within individual organisations. This guidance identifies the key elements that should be considered by the emergency services and supporting organisations when determining their ability to respond to a major emergency. The overriding aim within pre-planning is to determine the potential scale of individual major emergencies and ensure that preventative measures are introduced and that integrated emergency management plans are in place to enable a co-ordinated and positive response. Once the scale of a major emergency is determined consideration can then be given to the existing resource capability, on a risk ba Once the scale of a major emergency is determined consideration can then be given to the existing resource capability, on a risk based approach, in terms of providing an effective response. This pre-planning exercise will produce a gap analysis highlighting, were appropriate, additional resource implications for providing an effective response. This leads naturally to a cost benefit analysis that will determine the practical resource requirements for protection of emergency responders and the citizen. There is a need to consider capability of emergency services management in responding to local, regional, national and trans/national major emergencies. Any emergency response must be fit for purpose in terms of timeliness, effectiveness, inter-operability, independency, sustainability and rec ...