A Guide to Working with the Voluntary Document Title: Emergency Services Version: 1.5 Date 7thAugust 2007 Prepared By: National Working Group Approved for National Issue: Steering Date Group Final Approval: Date A FRAMEWORK FOR MAJOR EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT WORKING DRAFT GUIDANCE DOCUMENT 8 A GUIDE WORKING WITH THE VOLUNTARY EMERGENCY SERVICES INTRODUCTION TO WORKING WITH THE VOLUNTARY EMERGENCY SERVICES ‘A Framework for Major Emergency Management’ (2006) replaces the Framework for Co-ordinated Response to Major Emergency, which has underpinned major emergency preparedness and response capability since 1984. The Framework sets out the arrangements, by which the principal response agencies will work together in the management of large-scale incidents. One of the areas where the Framework sets out Government policy is in relation to the role and participation of communities and the voluntary emergency services in the emergency management process. The Voluntary Emergency Services (VES) are recognised as a community in themselves, contributing to the wider community in time of need. It is intended that the principal response agencies will adopt a co-ordinated approach, working with the VES and progressing in a manner appropriate to that sector, to achieve common milestones in working and developing emergency response capacity together. This document, like others in the guidance series, is presented as a working draft and as such it is requested that comments and insights that arise during the implementation of this guidance are fed back to the national level. Comments should be addressed to: M.E.M. Project Team, Fire Services and Emergency Planning Section, Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Custom House, Dublin 1. CONTENTS Introduction 5 The Framework and the Voluntary Emergency Services General Issues to consider in working with the Voluntary Emergency Services Structures and Arrangements for working with the Voluntary Emergency Services Potential Roles for the Voluntary Emergency Services Specific Issues to consider Annex 1 Typical Draft Heads of Agreement between a PRA and a VES 2 Headings for Safety, Health and Welfare 1. INTRODUCTION This Guide is written for use by staff of the principal response agencies, and is written from that perspective. However, it is building from a significant consultation process with the Voluntary Emergency Services (VES) that took place in late 2005 during the development of the Framework. Following publication of the Framework in September 2006, the South Tipperary VES organised a national one-day seminar on 7 Oct 2006 that facilitated further discussion between National Working Group (NWG) representatives and the VES in Ireland. The assistance, both formal and informal, of representatives of the VES in developing this Guide is acknowledged. The purpose of this Guide is to enhance and enable the principal response agencies and the VES to work to the common objective of implementing the Framework. It attempts to set out good practice for collaboration between the statutory and voluntary sectors. In doing this, the Guide recognises that there have been instances in the past where collaboration between these sectors has been less than what might have been expected. This guide attempts to learn from such experience, and to deal with cultural as well as structural issues that may have hindered successful collaboration in the past. The aspirations the Guide sets out to deliver rest on the belief that principal response agencies and VES are charged with “working together for the casualty”, a view now underpinned by the Government decision to adopt and implement the Framework. 2. THE FRAMEWORK’S PROVISIONS IN RELATION TO VOLUNTARY EMERGENCY SERVICES Section 5.6.4 of the Framework sets out how Voluntary Emergency Services may be called to assist principal response agencies: “There are a number of organisations and agencies which may be called on to assist the principal response agencies in responding to major emergencies………… .Further information on these organisations and arrangements to mobilise them is provided in Appendix F13. These arrangements should be agreed with each agency (or confirmed in the case of pre-agreement) and set out in each principal response agency’s Major Emergency Plan.” A recent report1 by South Tipperary Voluntary Emergency Services: A Year of Working together for the Casualty (2003) has highlighted the potential of the voluntary emergency services sector to assist the principal response agencies in major emergency response. In general, the VES organisations can provide a pool of persons with relevant skills, vehicles equipment and facilities. Above all, they can provide personnel, working within their own discipline, to assist the principal emergency services at a time when they are, by definition, overstretched. The VES comprise a mixture of statutory and non-statutory organisations as outlined in sections 5.6.4.2, 5.6.4.3. and 5.6.4.4 of the Framework. In order to set the context for this document a brief description of the component organisations that form Ireland’s VES sector is set out below. Civil Defence The Civil Defence service is a statutory organisation of volunteers, which can provide a very important resource for use in major emergencies in support of the principal response agencies. Civil Defence services, which include over 3,000 active volunteers, are structured on a county basis and are operated by the Local Authorities. A Civil Defence Board, with a national Civil Defence Headquarters, oversees and assists the development of the Local Authority based Civil Defence organisation. The Irish Red Cross 1 Holland Pat (Editor), South Tipperary Voluntary Emergency Services: A Year of Working together for the Casualty (2003). This report was edited by Pat Holland on behalf of the South Tipperary Voluntary Services Committee. While copyright is retained by the committee, the report can be circulated, quoted or duplicated by all services represented on the committee, or others on request, on the understanding that the report and the recommendations within it are the work and property of the Committee as a whole and should be credited as such. Mr Holland may be contacted at [email protected]. © South Tipperary Voluntary Services Committee, Clonmel, May, 2003. The Irish Red Cross is established and regulated under the Red Cross Acts, 1938-54. These statutes define a role for the Irish Red Cross as an auxiliary to the state authorities in time of emergency and also provide a specific mandate to assist the medical services of the Irish Defence Forces in time of armed conflict. The President of Ireland is President of the Irish Red Cross and the Chairman is appointed by the President, on the advice of the Government. The Department of Defence is the Government Department associated with the organisation – a senior official of that department sits on the Board of the Irish Red Cross. Irish Red Cross’s membership comprises 2,500 volunteers, supported by staff in Head Office in Dublin and three regional offices. Volunteers are organised in local units, with overarching county and regional structures. The membership is country wide, with 111 units in twenty-five of the twenty-six counties in the state. The Voluntary Emergency Services Sector The non-statutory voluntary emergency services sector provides a significant potential resource to assist the principal response agencies in major emergency response. The normal range of voluntary emergency services includes the Order of Malta Ambulance Corps, St John’s Ambulance Service, Mountain Rescue Teams, Cave Rescue Teams, Search and Rescue Dog Associations, River Rescue Units, Community Inshore Rescue Units, RNLI, Sub-Aqua Units, etc. Their ongoing service to the public includes attendance at public events, as well as searches for missing persons and rescue of persons in distress. General Frameworks Provisions which Impact on VES The Framework includes the following general points that form the basis for principal response agencies working with the voluntary emergency services sector: • Each principal response agency’s Major Emergency Plan should provide for the inclusion of relevant voluntary emergency services to be part of, and to work in, the response to a major emergency. • The Framework recognises that the volunteer organisations operate under their own incident management/ command structure and systems; • While internal command of the volunteer organisation resides with that organisation, the Framework makes provision for each volunteer organisation to be linked with one of principal response agencies, and to operate under the control of the designated Controller of Operations of that agency initially in a response. The recommended link between principal response agencies and VES are shown in the Table 1 below. Principal Response Linked Voluntary Emergency Service Agency An Garda Síochána Irish Mountain Rescue Association Irish Cave Rescue Association Search &Rescue Dogs Sub-Aqua Teams Health Service Irish Red Cross Executive Order of Malta Ambulance Corps St John’s Ambulance Local Authority Civil Defence Table 1. Principal Response Agencies with Linked VES • The Framework provides for volunteer organisations to use their own communications systems for internal command purposes during incidents. It is necessary to provide for communication between the VES and the Controller of Operations to enable the Officer in Command (OiC) of each volunteer organisation to communicate effectively