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Royal United Services Institute conference report
The annual Royal United Service Institute (RUSI) conference took place on October 8 in Westminster and the BAPCO Journal was in attendance for a number of key talks throughout the day. Here you can read our write-up these talks.
The opening talk was given by Bruce Mann the Director of the Civil Contingencies Secretariat (CCS) in the Cabinet Office who outlined the purpose and function of the CCS and how resilience fits in to the government’s plans. He started by underlining that resilience is ‘more than just bouncing back’ but also involves detailed planning, risk assessments and preparedness for emergencies. He illustrated this with a graph that plotted events against scales of likelihood and effects – for example dealing with flooding is something that is becoming more likely and its effects can be devastating – as witnessed in Humberside and Gloucestershire in 2007.
The talk continued by focusing on the idea of developing the human side of resilience by identifying personnel who have good ‘crisis leadership capacity’ and could take charge in demanding situations. By setting standards in resilience management you can instigate a culture of good practice and continue the growing professionalism within resilience, Bruce explained.
Looking to the future – an essential part of contingency – and the CCS is looking to the possible addition of new members to the organisation – the MET office being the prime example – as well as trying to increase their engagement with the public. Bruce underlined it was important resilience management objectives were done ‘for the people’ and not ‘to the people’. The Olympics in 2012 are a good example of this with much work to be done but without affecting the feel of the games.
This level of forward planning is taking place within all emergency services but for the CCS this is standard practice and they are now already looking around five years ahead – beyond 2012 – and thinking about events such as wide-area flooding, loss of essential services, possible non-conventional terrorist attacks and other unpredictable events such as reservoir failures.
Bruce finished by outlining the fundamental core of resilience was not just to plan for the response to the loss of something, but is also the need to plan for change that an event invariable causes. By taking this to a regional level as well as national it makes it easier for plans to be organised coherently and strategically – which led on to the topic of the first session.
Regional and Local Contribution to Resilience
Nick Best, the Regional Director of the Government Office for Yorkshire and the Humber, spoke of some of the issues and concerns in his role, with direct reference to the impact of the 2007 floods.
Nick started by emphasizing the extent of the flooding; 10,000 homes were flooded, and there are still people waiting to return to their homes even now. One of the major issues for resilience is dealing with the ‘fog of war’ that occurs at the start of an incident when no-one is entirely sure of the size and nature of incidents. For example, in the floods, it took some time for them to realise that over 23,500 people were affected and needed help.
The importance of ensuring people were helped as quickly as possible – with provisions such as sandbanks and portaloos – was underlined by Nick who said ‘the most important responsibility of the government is the security of the nation for its citizens’. Making this work means planning, testing and exercises and creating a ‘gold standard’ of crisis leadership capacity. However, Nick also covered some of the same points as Bruce Mann regarding the involvement of the public. ‘To better serve the population it’s important to reach out and engage citizens and communities’ he said. ‘People have to be prepared and prepare themselves for the worst – they can’t rely on luck.’ This also applies to the UK at large and as Nick noted, the UK cannot expect help from overseas as a matter of course. Some events could affect other nations too – flooding or widespread power outages across the EU – and so the UK would have to deal with it alone.
Ian Walford, the Head of Scottish Resilience in the Scottish Government, was next to speak and examined the Scottish experiences with resilience. The Glasgow terrorist incident of 2007 underlined the threat that has to be taken seriously in any area. Furthermore, like the whole of the UK, Scotland has to prepare for such events as flu pandemics, extreme weather and utility failures. The increased interoperability between the blue light services has been an improved aspect of the resilience in both Scotland and the UK, and this is especially important given that some events could impact on either side of the border, requiring forces from both England and Scotland to work together in difficult conditions.
Problems unique to Scotland though, explained Ian, revolved around the geography of the country, and the scarcity of population in some areas especially in the outer islands or highlands. Ian also highlighted a potential problem with Scotland in that it has quite a fragile transport network coming into the country with just two main roads and railways bringing all major food stock and similar into the country – this potentially poses a large-scale risk for Scotland.
Ian continued by noting the importance of learning from events, of any type, to help better prepare for the future. Buncefield, the Grangemouth strike, and the Pitt Report on flooding, were all cited as different ways Scottish Resilience continue to work at improving their role. Ian’s final point concerned resilience as a concept: ‘resilience means springing back from shocks or compressions – we have to be ready for any event, in a worst-case scenario situation. The long-term view is vital and in essence we have to prepare for anything, not everything, so whatever the situation is, we can adapt and deal with it in a strong and organised manner.’
Andy Marshall, the Director of Civil Contingencies in Staffordshire Civil Contingencies Unit, also focused on his area, underlining again the various individual threats and potential risks each area faces, and how this can be prepared for, with relation to the national agenda. Andy began by outlining some of the risk to Staffordshire. With so many major airports in or around Staffordshire there is a significant potential risk from the air while on the ground the M6 runs right through the heart of the county as well. This poses a unique risk for Staffordshire and forms the backbone of a key part of Staffordshire’s response strategies. This also linked back to Bruce Mann’s final point that regional and national resilience strategies had to be coordinated effectively to best deal with whatever events occur.
Staged events are also a major part of Staffordshire’s response training. A recent event at held at Alton Towers focused on the potential requirements for a mass-decontamination incident. Andy outlined that the event went well, but that future challenges were identified – namely improving further the interoperability and communication between the emergency services. Andy also explained, as an interesting side, that they sourced uniforms from the local area to give the Civil Contingencies Unit a coherent sense of teamwork and to help them work together better by giving them a specified look, as well as ensuring a good duty of care.
