Aston Business School leads on emergency preparedness for public

06 Feb 10

Senior public sector emergency planning officials gathered at Aston Business School this week to gain expert help on preparing the public for an emergency.

By Brian Sims

The delegates – from organisations including the UK Cabinet Office, Crisis Centre of the Belgian Government, Public Utility for Healthcare Emergencies (Spain), the Civil Defence Committee (Iceland) and The Metropolitan Police Service in the UK - attended a two-day ‘masterclass’ on planning for mass evacuation in the event of a major catastrophic incident (such as a terror attack or serious flooding).

The masterclasses formed part of a three-year Aston Centre for Research into Safety and Security (CRISIS Centre) project on surveying how EU countries prepare for mass evacuation. The project, funded by the European Commission, is entitled Evacuation Responsiveness by Government Organisations (ERGO).

Key stages of mass evacuation

This week’s masterclasses involved speakers from Birmingham City Council, South Wales Police, Essex County Council, the Civil Defence Committee in Iceland and HKV in the Netherlands.

Delegates explored the key stages of mass evacuation – planning before the incident, execution of plans during the incident (including evacuation, temporary shelter provision and availability of food and supplies) and recovery after an incident.

Duncan Shaw – professor of operational research and critical systems and director of the Aston CRISIS Centre at Aston Business School – said: “Preparation for evacuation is critical for every member of the public. It’s each person’s responsibility to prepare themselves for major catastrophic incidents. They can do this by learning what to do if they are told to evacuate, preparing family plans on where to meet and having enough supplies available in their home to sustain themselves for several days until emergency responders can reach them.”

The masterclasses sought to share best international practice on how to prepare the public, including examples on educating schoolchildren, working with city centre store managers and working in small communities.

Conference on emergency preparedness

Aston CRISIS Centre is holding its International Conference on Emergency Preparedness (InterCEPt) from 21-23 September on ‘The Challenges of Mass Evacuation’. The conference, to be held at Aston Business School, will provide an opportunity for academics, practitioners and policy makers to share lessons, plans, approaches and methods that will prepare Governments for the times when disaster strikes.

In addition, there’s a stated desire to identify new approaches to prepare the public to respond to major incidents.

Calls for papers are being accepted until 28 February 2010.

About the Aston CRISIS Centre

The Aston CRISIS Centre provides a global research and consultancy service to high-level safety and security organisations. Clients include the Home Office (consultancy on preparing for a terrorist attack), the United Arab Emirate’s police force, the Fire and Rescue Service, the UK’s Health and Safety Executive, the European Commission and the Defence Scientific and Technical Laboratory.

The CRISIS Centre’s work has had widespread impact on policy and practice including:

the writing of new law in the area of dealing with nuclear waste
informing high-level Government policy advisors on preparing for evacuation in the event of a crisis
training groups of international emergency managers
transferring research findings to international Governments