Rsns and mrgny rrdnss in the UK - Case Study Example

mеrgеnсy Rеsроnsе and Рrераrеdnеss in UK (Student Name) (Course No.) (Lecturer) (University) (Date) Еmеrgеnсy Rеsроnsе and Рrераrеdnеss Introduction Emergencies and disasters often result in significant impact on the people and property. To some extent, they cause loss of lives, serious psychological problems, and other health related issues. The disaster emergency systems of the United Kingdom have been facing significant changes and reforms since the occurrence of World War II in order to primarily decrease the number of human casualties involved. Through the years, the country has witnessed numerous disasters triggered by natural activities, biological and chemical processes, and human activities. Questions regarding readiness of the country in managing disaster have been on the rise since the occurrence of 9/11 terrorist attack and London bombing that occurred in 2005. Every new threat of disaster occurrence reveals the magnitude challenges resulting from managing them. In order to manage the risks efficiently, it is important to note that such management involves a series of step that also ensures that the vulnerable communities are involve (Brebbia et al., 2011, 122). Therefore, for effectiveness and accountability, every disaster management and preparedness technique must aim at combining the process of reducing hazard and vulnerability of the people. Since the occurrence of the flood event that occurred in 2007 that left about 13 people dead and others displaced. Currently, most of the displaced people reside in risky areas of England and Wales, which is creating more concern over the rising vulnerability of the people to hazardous conditions. Due to severe vulnerability of the people, the UK government is currently setting different institutions and calling on the international communities that work in areas of disaster management to raise public awareness and educate them on the best ways of managing disasters. Organizations involved emergency management and preparedness The central government of UK has been able to revolutionize disaster management since World War II. Since UK began experiencing nuclear attacks, the government enacted several laws including Civil Defense Act in 1948 for the protection of civilians. However, the government felt the need to possible emergencies be managed with the local agencies. Considering the level of flexibility of the local agencies to requesting regional and international assistance, the government also set the guidelines that allowed these institutions to seek assistance through appropriate lead government department. The incidents that occurred in 2000, flooding activities and Fuel Blockade, raised more questions on the level of preparedness of the country to handle emergencies. Additionally, it reflected the state’s inadequate structure to deal with such emergencies, which lead to adjustment and review of the existing disaster management methods through the Home Office. These reviews led to establishment of a framework responsible for responding and preparing for emergencies at all the levels. According to CCA, there are two types of responders to emergencies whose responsibilities are spelt out clearly within the Act. Category 1 responders include the police services, fire and rescue authorities, health institutions, local authorities, Environmental Agency, and Maritime and Coastguard Agency. On the other hand, category 2 responders are transport providers, Highway Agency, Health, and Safety Executive, and utility providers. CCA requires Category 1 responders to have an emergency plan that should include the detailed procedures of determining if an emergency has occurred. Emergency planning is a systematic process of preparing an organization towards responding and recovering from the hazard. The process involves two steps: consultation and embedment processes. This action plan is applicable to both Category 1 and 2 responders. Figure 1: Planning model used in UK Civil Contingencies Secretariat (CCS) The institution is managed by the central government and works closely with the government departments, devolved administrations institutions, and other stakeholders. Such partnerships aims at enhancing the ability of the country to prepare, respond, and recover from disasters and emergencies. CCS has distinct roles in disaster management and preparedness. It has the responsibility of spotting probable hazards, assessing the nature, and providing awareness to both the state and vulnerable communities. It is important to note that not all disasters are predictable; nevertheless, if the institution detects emerging issues at earlier stage, then placing more accurate measures for assessment and responding would be easier. In addition, the institution also performs the role of scanning various possible emergencies (Sahin, Kapucu, & Unlu, 2008, 22). This role has helped in reducing the earlier gaps in the warning signs and enhanced the level of awareness. More importantly, CCS is mandated to establish the national risk assessment process valid over a period of five years. The guidelines provided by the institution also form the basis in which decisions are made regarding the contingency in question. Even though other government departments and organizations have always had their own emergency plans, CCS has ever since its establishment led a Capabilities Programme that aims at providing central direction and coordination for emergency preparedness. In order to reduce the level of susceptibility of the people, there is need to increase the level of resilience among the people. However, with continuously changing demographic patterns, technology, and social related issues, creation of sustainable resilient communities is becoming a challenge since they often result in unpredictable conditions. The central government also takes part in the management of emergencies depending on the magnitude and complexity of the circumstance. Even though such duties are mainly performed by CCS, the central government only comes when the prevailing conditions exceeds the capacity of the CCS and other local agencies. Besides the handling natural disasters, CCS also plays an important role in dealing with terror activities. Since the establishment of CCS, it has become an important organization within UK in creating a risk resilient state and improving the techniques used in preparedness and response towards the hazards. Moreover, it has helped in addressing risk identification challenges, risk assessment, planning, and management of contingencies. The National Resilience Capability Programme (NRCP) The major reason behind the establishment of this institution is to enhance the capability of UK towards its response and recovery from civil contingencies. In order to achieve this, NRCP mainly focuses on building the capability of the state to dealing with the consequences, which are considered common to familiar types of emergencies irrespective of whether such emergencies are due to accidents, anthropogenic activities, or natural hazards. Moreover, the programme aims at identifying, challenging, and monitoring the current capability levels in every area within the state. NRCP works closely with CCS to ascertain the capability requirements for meeting the National Planning Assumptions. Resilience and Emergency Division also works with CCS in the Department for Communication and Local Government (DCLG RED) that has the ability of feeding the information to the local institutions are building capacity and how they are integrating their activities with the central government (Cabinet Office, 2009a, par. 7). The institution works together with the central government in an effective manner towards responding to an emergency. This is possible through the arrangement coordinated by the Cabinet Office by creation of crisis management guidelines that are understood and utilized across the central government. At the regional level, NRCP works close with Regional Resilience Team (RRT). This is to ensure that RRT acts as a channel of communication between the national government and devolved administrations. In areas where the response to an emergency is set to benefit from the regional coordination, Regional Coordination Group (RegCG) is often convened. In the UK, at local level, the approach used in most cases to address the emergency response and recovery are based on bottom-up approaches where the operations are managed and decided at the lowest level possible. Therefore, NRCP provides key opportunities for the delegates to come together with the view of examining the best strategies for enhancing resilience against any threat. Emergency management and preparedness structure within UK is decentralized with major incidences being managed at the local levels. Other non-governmental organizations also play an important role in emergency and preparedness process in UK. For example, UK International Search and Rescue Team which has been playing an important role in responding to humanitarian accidents across the country and globe. The organization is offers specialized search and rescue services to the government of UK upon request (Sahin, Kapucu, & Unlu, 2008, 32). Whenever the management of a disaster is hard, complex, and covers a wider scope, the assistance from the central government is often coordinated through the Lead Government Department. Once the government is involved, Cabinet Office Briefing Room is activated to support and coordinate the decision-making process of the LGDs. Figure 2: Interagency command used by The National Crisis Management and Coordination a) Cabinet Office Briefing Room (COBR) b) Civil Contingencies Secretariat (CSS) c) Joint Health Advisory Cell (JHAC) d) Joint Intelligence Group (JIG) e) Ministry of Defense (MoD) f) Police National Information and Coordination Center (PNICC) g) Regional Civil Contingencies Committee (RCCC) h) Strategic Coordination Centre (SCC) Deficiencies in disaster management and preparedness Coordination of matters relating to emergency preparedness and management play a significant role in creating resilient communities. This is one of the problem that has been compromising disaster management especially within the Home Office where there is no proper framework outlining the roles of all the state agencies. As a result, cases of overlapping duties often result. Consequently, poor structures encourage conflicts among the lead agencies while addressing disaster related issues. In 2004, UK enacted the Civil Contingencies Act (CCA) that has played a significant role by introducing the required framework on the responsibilities of all local agencies. In most cases, overlap of duties and poorly structured response system often contribute to laxity and provision of services, which do not much the internationally required standards. The Home Office also managed to establish a legal framework to be used by the local agencies to respond and prepare for hazardous incidences. Currently, the framework performs coordination duties at all state levels. With the rising number of disasters exhibiting different characteristics, in 2001, UK established Civil Contingent Secretariat (CCS) to coordinate the responsibilities undertaken by all agencies. Through the years, UK has been able to reform its methods of managing disasters. Fortunately, CCS has been able to deal with disasters of varying magnitude and complexities within local levels without involving the central government. CCS is mandated by the Civil Contingencies Committee (CCC) to manage all negative impacts resulting from disasters. Nevertheless, the committee has mandated it to be the central focus in which all the state departments, agencies, and other stakeholders coordinate their activities. Besides guaranteeing success response to disaster management, it is the responsibility of CCS to also assist in recovery processes. Disaster from terror activities were originally conducted by the Head Office Terrorism and Protection Unit within UK. Nonetheless, Government Leading Department (GLD) and CCS to over such roles and ensured they provide risk assessment needs of the country, scaling up disaster management methods at all levels, and informing all parties interested in disaster management (Bailey, 2007, 33). Besides the issues relating to poor management framework, inadequate resources allocation is another factor contributing to inadequacies in disaster management. It is from this background that international organizations like the United Nations have been able to ensure the existence of adequate emergency preparedness, hence improved response services. In order to enhance the level of coordination between the various central governments and lead agencies, the UN through it Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), has been able to improve coordination activities especially by bringing together humanitarian organizations. For example, The International Federal of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, which has been playing important role of providing coherent services, related to recoveries from emergencies besides advocating for the rights of the vulnerable communities or those recovering from emergencies. Over the recent years, UN has also been playing an important role in providing the early warning system especially on issues relating disasters in countries suffering from food shortages like UK among the vulnerable communities. Considering the negative consequences of disastrous activities, hunger and health related issues are the major issues often taken into consideration by the UN organizations. To some extent, negative issues of disasters are related to migration, which the country also need to serious take into consideration. Organizations such as International Organization from Migration have been able to collaborate with UK’s central government in transferring the affected communities (Matthews, Smith, & Knowles, 2009, 122). Integration and corporation of both government agencies and international organizations play crucial role in enhancing teamwork in issues relating to humanity services. Such practices have been able to reduce the number of casualties and vulnerable communities exposed to emergency disasters. The central government does not only to encourage teamwork at international levels but also within its lead agencies in order to encourage commitment and accountability among the lead agencies. Recommendations It is important that the state outline the distinct role of all the players involved in emergency in order to prevent overlap of duties and cases of misappropriation of resources. For effective and efficient management practices, the central government, devolved administrations, and international organizations concerned with emergency preparedness, should work closely together and cooperate in an effective manner with an aim of finding amicable solutions on how to reduce the number of casualties should disasters occur. The management should also look beyond the technical solutions within the organizational arrangements through ensuring there is proper form of communication between the responders. Moreover, identification and reviewing of the critical communication processes that in most cases underpin the response arrangement is crucial. Considering the fact that organizations are increasing working in environments constrained with inadequate resources, it is important that prioritize be given to critical activities viewed as essential towards effective response arrangements. Technology play an important role in ensuring that disaster management and preparedness acquire the accurate information on the on the likelihood of an emergency. With the geographical position of UK, it is prone to issues relating to climate variability such as flooding activities. Therefore, there is need to employ the use of modern technical methods of monitoring these conditions in order to prevent disaster occurrence without any prior preparations. It is also important to note that, complete prevention of a natural disaster is impossible; however, the number of affected casualties and property could be reduced through putting adequate measures of reduce human susceptibility. The natures of the disasters are also changing meaning there is need to educate the public on the preparedness and response methods for reducing the number of casualties. Conclusion Protection of the citizens is from any emergencies and disaster is the role of the central government and devolved administration. For efficiency and effectiveness of the emergency preparedness and management, there is need to involve the public. Considering the geographical scope of UK, it is crucial to have reliable disaster preparedness and management institutions. Moreover, the country is highly vulnerable to threats emanating from global warming, rainfall intensity, and rise in the sea levels that most results in flooding hazards due to its geographical location. Both technically and economically, it is difficult to prevent natural disasters but the negative impacts especially on the vulnerable communities could be reduced. Disasters affect the economic performance of every country; thus, to reduce or eliminate such negative consequences, preparedness is inevitable Reference Bailey, I. 2007. Market Environmentalism, New Environmental Policy Instruments, and Climate Policy in the United Kingdom and Germany. Annals of The Association of American Geographers, 5(13), 19-45. Brebbia, C. A., Kassab, A., Divo, E., & International Conference on Disaster Management and Human Health. 2011. Disaster management and human health risk II: Reducing risk, improving outcomes. Southampton, UK: WIT Press. Cabinet Office. 2009a, March 26. Civil Contingencies Act. Retrieved April 10, 2009, from Cabinet Office: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/ukresilience/preparedness/ccact.aspx#part2 Matthews, G., Smith, Y., & Knowles, G. 2009. Disaster management in archives, libraries and museums. Farnham, England: Ashgate. Sahin, B., Kapucu, N., & Unlu, A. 2008. Perspectives on Crisis Management in European Union Countries: United Kingdom, Spain and Germany. European Journal of Economic and Political Studies , 1 (1), 19-45. Read More