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Publication - Advice and guidance

Guide to emergency planning for community groups

Published
18 Mar 2026
Topic
Preparing Scotland
Step 1 – making your plan

Identifying risks

It will help to identify a coordinator to take a lead role in organising and taking forward the work of this group, and helping to keep up motivation and interest from the community.

It is important that the person taking on this role has a good understanding of your community, and has the backing and support of community members.

Identifying risks

To plan for emergencies you need to know:

  • what risks you face
  • how likely they are to happen
  • if they happen, what their impact would be
  • if any people in your community are particularly at risk

It’s important that you focus on those risks that are important to your community and that you can do something about.

Examples of the sorts of risks you can consider are described below.

Environmental risk

  • are there any areas that flood regularly?
  • are parts of your community frequently cut off by snow?
  • are there any sites of environmental or historic importance which may be impacted?

Infrastructure risks

  • is there a major transport facility (like a train station) in the area?
  • are there any vulnerable bridges or main roads?
  • are there any large or important industrial sites in the area?

Social risks

  • are there any known vulnerable people or groups in your area? Examples may include:
    • people who have recently had an operation
    • people without access to transport
    • people with limited mobility
    • people reliant on regular medication or health visits
  • are there any groups who might find it difficult to understand emergency information?
  • are there any groups who do not live in the area full-time, like holiday makers or travelling communities, to consider?

Emergency responders cannot always know straight away what people need, or who in your community might be vulnerable in a crisis, particularly those who haven’t needed support before. Your local knowledge is important. Think about how you could share this information with the emergency responders if an emergency happens.

For each risk, think about what you can do to reduce the chance of it occurring, or to lessen its impacts. For example, if your community is affected by regular coastal or river flooding, are you and other members of your community group:

  • registered with Floodline to receive flood warnings
  • aware of the Scottish Flood Forum and the extensive resources they provide to help you prepare for and recover from flood
  • aware of the ’Flood Risk Management Plan’ held by your local authority
  • aware of sandbag supplies and how to access or replenish them
  • aware of key ‘assets’ in your community such as people who own 4x4 or ‘all terrain’ vehicles who could help move people or supplies into or out of an affected area?

The emergency responders already do a lot of work to identify the risks in their areas. They meet regularly as multi-agency Resilience Partnerships in the North, West and East of Scotland with a number of local partnerships within those regions.

These groups coordinate regional emergency planning and manage the response to, and recovery from, major emergencies. They also have a duty to publish a ’Community Risk Register’ showing what risks have been identified in your area, and their potential impact.

Look at these documents to help you think about the risks to your area and how they could affect local people.

These risk registers talk about high-level threats or hazards, and how the emergency responders can address them. Your group will have local knowledge and insight of other risks in your area that may not be included in those registers.

For example, is there a local road that regularly floods, or a footpath that could get blocked in severe weather, cutting off people from essential services?

If there are risks in your community that need action, you can have a say in how your local authority spends money. Participatory budgeting (PB) lets local people decide how some local money is used. PB is used across the world to give community more power over local decisions. Find out more at PB Scotland.

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