Purpose of this Guidance

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Preparing Scotland states that:

“All responders should support the development of community resilience and associated activity, applying and encouraging an innovative approach throughout.”

Building community resilience is an important element in the approach recommended to responders in Preparing Scotland. It is widely recognised as good practice, particularly as it has huge potential to support and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of other resilience activities and improve outcomes for communities and individuals.

Introduction

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Introduction: Community Resilience in a Resilient Scotland

What is community resilience?

Preparing Scotland, Scottish Guidance on Resilience, (2016), defines resilience as:

“the capacity of an individual, community or system to adapt in order to sustain an acceptable level of function, structure and identity”.

Building Resilient Communities

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Executive Summary

Community resilience is defined by the Scottish Government as:

“Communities and individuals harnessing resources and expertise to help themselves prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies, in a way that complements the work of the emergency responders.”

It is based on a culture of preparedness, in which individuals, communities and organisations take responsibility to prepare for, respond to and recover from emergencies.

Annex C – Literature Review/ Further Reading

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• Evacuation and Shelter Guidance – HM Government (2006), Updated January 2014.
• How to help children cope in emergencies – Save the Children
• Support for bereaved children – Child Bereavement UK

Annex B – Support Centres

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The following should be considered when identifying potential centres.

Annex A – Legislation

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Preparing Scotland is underpinned by the principal legislation involved, the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 ("the Act") and the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (Contingency Planning) (Scotland) Regulations 2005/Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (Contingency Planning) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2013 ("the Regulations").

The Contingency Planning (Scotland) Regulations, 2005 require Category 1 responders to consider whether it would be helpful for a number of them to work together and maintain a multi-agency functional plan.

Funding / Cost Recovery

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Costs for opening and managing the various Centres, particularly where they are opened for a period of time, could be substantial and a process for recording costs (and where possible cost recovery) should be considered at the planning stage.

Communication and the media

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Effective communication is a crucial aspect of post-incident response and recovery. Through their communications teams, responders can ensure that those affected and their communities are informed about any existing risks, that they have the knowledge to mitigate them, and that they are kept updated regarding access to whatever support services they require.

Communications is also central in promoting public confidence in the actions taken by responders and other agencies.

Care for People Tasks and Activities following an emergency

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The Team’s activities should follow the stepped care model described above.

For the purpose of illustrating the Team's activities following an emergency, the examples below are built around response to a catastrophic emergency in one location. However, by basing its response on generic arrangements, the Team will be able to adapt to the particular needs of most emergencies. Resilience partners should acknowledge that the Team's activation may be required for events below the scale of emergency identified by the Civil Contingencies Act.

Delivering Care for People Activities over time

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As part of the planning process Care for People Teams should exercise and prepare for activations.

As part of the preparation process Care for People Teams should consider the diverse and complex needs of individuals and communities affected by emergencies. As the needs are influenced by a variety of factors and may change over time planning should be based on the PFA step change model and incorporated the stages and timeframe in table below.