Assessing community skills and resources

Once your community is aware of the risks and what their impacts might be, it is important to consider what skills, resources and equipment your community already has that could help during an emergency.

You might be surprised at the level of knowledge you have, and the wealth of equipment and other resources in your community. It’s better to find out now what is or is not available before an emergency happens, rather than during one.

You may want to look at your community’s existing skills and resources under the following headings and add this information into your plan:

Volunteers

People already help each other in emergencies. But as part of your planning, you could speak to people and groups in your community and ask them in advance if they would be willing to volunteer during an emergency, and if they have any useful skills, tools or equipment. For example, local farmers and tree surgeons may have equipment (see below) and expertise which they are willing to use and perhaps have included on the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s Community Asset Register. Some people may be trained in first aid or food preparation. Many people can help in tasks like clearing snow. Some local authorities have contracts with farmers to assist during severe weather, you may wish to check with your own local authority if there are any arrangements like this in your area.

You might also want to talk with existing local groups to see if their volunteers or contacts would be willing to help in an emergency. Sports clubs, faith groups or school parent councils may be willing to help out if needed. It is important to make sure that you keep volunteers up to date and engaged in your emergency planning.

Find out more about managing groups of volunteers on the Volunteer Scotland website.

Tools and equipment

With your Community Emergency Group, think about what tools and machinery might be needed if an emergency occurs. There may be people in your community who are qualified, capable and willing to operate these tools and machinery in an emergency. For example, tree surgeons may have useful skills and equipment, farmers may be willing to use their tractors to help.

It’s important to make sure that anyone using this kind of equipment is properly qualified and insured to do so. This is for their own protection and also to protect the people they are helping.

Supplies

In an emergency, your community may require supplies, like food and water, which may be difficult to obtain. Talk to your local authority to see what arrangements are in place and consider talking directly with local businesses and suppliers who might be willing to provide these supplies. If a written agreement is made between your community and the supplier, attach this to your plan.

Transport

Find out which vehicles could be used by the local community and know how to access them in an emergency. It is important to make sure that vehicle owners are properly licensed and insured to use their vehicles in this way.

Insurance, health and safety

You shouldn’t see insurance and liability as a barrier to preparing your community for emergencies. Having a Community Emergency Plan does not mean that volunteers should be putting themselves in danger or endangering other people in the community.

For every-day activities that you might do to help your neighbours, in a personal capacity, your ordinary household buildings or contents insurance will generally provide personal liability cover. You must always act sensibly, avoid unnecessary risks, and check your insurance policy or speak to your insurer if you’re not sure.

If you are part of an existing group, you may have third-party liability insurance, and check with that insurer that the types of activities you want to do will be covered by your policy.

If your group is not employing anyone, health and safety legislation will not apply in the same way. However, if you are motivated to do something to help your community in an emergency, you will want to make sure that the volunteers are working safely.

Some communities have arrangements with their local authorities to enable actions taken as part of their community emergency plan to be covered under the local authority’s third-party liability insurance. You may want to discuss this possibility with your local authority.

For some Community Councils, it has been agreed that community resilience activities that don’t involve mechanized equipment are covered under existing insurance policies. You should contact your insurance provider to confirm whether this applies to your group.

There are fuller guides to Insurance and Health and Safety for Community Groups in the annexes to this document.

Identifying and supporting places of safety

In an emergency, your local authority might need safe places or ’rest centres’ for people to shelter, or which can act as “hub” for information sharing across the region’s communities.

Your local authority is likely to have already identified a number of key locations, but your Community Emergency Group may be able to offer support in setting up additional locations in your local area or linking up with already identified places of safety.

Emergency contact list

It is important to keep an up-to-date list who is in the Community Emergency Group, as well as others in the community who have offered their help in an emergency. This will help you contact everyone quickly in an emergency and make it easier for you and the emergency responders to know who is part of the Community Emergency Group.

You could record contacts in a ’telephone tree’, which sets out a process through which people have responsibility for ringing other contacts, sharing the work.

There are a few principles for storing people’s personal data safely, for example:

• make sure the personal data you (your group) hold is accurate and kept up to date
• only collect and store the minimum amount of information needed
• make sure people know how to contact you if they want you to remove their data from your records
• tell people what data you have about them if they ask you to, and remove it if requested
• store data securely, and only share data with those who need the information

Find out more about storing personal data on the Information Commissioner's Office website.