The emergency services will initially respond to the incident and will determine any need for the evacuation of people from the affected area for their own safety. The initial evacuation is usually co-ordinated by the police or fire service, who will advise members of the public to make their way to a place of safety:
Rest Centres, i.e. a Council pre-identified facilities; or
Reception Centres, i.e. these can be any suitable building within a safe distance from the incident; this may be established by the police and may or may not be a local authority pre-identified facility. In the event of the police establishing a reception centre, upon notification to the Council, a joint discussion will take place regarding handover of welfare responsibilities to the Council and/or whether to transfer the evacuees to a pre-identified Rest Centre.
The Council has comprehensive Rest Centre arrangements in place and endeavours to open a centre within 3 hours of notification of the need by the emergency services. BRT liaises with District colleagues and Children, Young People and Families to ensure suitable and sufficient Rest Centres are identified by each District. Each pre-identified Rest Centre building has an activation plan specific to that site (in and out of hours). Birmingham Resilience Team is responsible for activating Rest Centres that may be used for the first 48 hours of an emergency. After the first 48 hours responsibility is handed over to Housing Landlords / Emergency Accommodation Team who will try to make alternative accommodation arrangements for the evacuees, or may continue with the operation of the Rest Centre.
The Council’s aim is to provide good, practical welfare and support for residents affected by an emergency. Rest Centre facilities and procedures aim to reflect the various needs of Birmingham’s diverse population. Regardless of the circumstances and scale of an emergency, BRT endeavours to meet the following considerations:
Accessible facilities for people with mobility difficulties;
Information leaflets in various languages;
Access to translation services;
Prayer facilities;
Specific food to meet dietary or religious requirements;
Bedding, toiletries, etc.
Many council services have responsibility for specific aspects of welfare provision during emergencies. These are summarised below:
BRT – maintains activation procedures; Rest Centre Manager / Team recruitment and training; during an emergency the Emergency Planning Duty Officer is responsible for liaising with emergency services, identifying the most appropriate facility and initiating activation;
Adults and Communities - crisis support, specialist transport, including wheelchairs, public health advice;
Children, Young People and Families - involved in the provision of food and refreshments;
Housing Landlords / Emergency Accommodation Teams – welfare and accommodation after 48hrs. BRT also maintains agreements with voluntary groups to support a range of welfare aspects.
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Emergency Information and Advice Officers
BRT liaises with District Teams to ensure sufficient numbers of their staff are trained and available to provide emergency information and advice to citizens affected by an emergency. These officers are typically involved because their day job matches the knowledge and skills required to carry out:
Door to door leaflet drops or provision of information and advice during or following an incident;
Provision of information and advice at a cordon;
Assistance with provision of advice and information at a Rest Centre, Reception Centre or other emergency shelter location, or a Humanitarian Assistance Centre;
Staffing of an information/advice point at or close to the scene of an incident;
Supporting a telephone helpline.
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Crisis Support Team
The Crisis Support Team provides short term and rapid psychological aftercare following trauma and can be activated as part of the initial emergency welfare support in a Rest Centre. This service involves meeting with individuals or groups involved in or affected by an emergency as soon as possible following the incident, and additional follow-up work. This intervention can reduce the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder developing in those affected by an incident.
This support could be carried out at any location. The Adults and Communities directorate manage the team of Crisis Support members who are available on a 24hr basis. Any further or longer term psychological support would be referred on to relevant health agencies. The Emergency Planning Duty Officer or Rest Centre Manager is responsible for activating the Crisis Support Team to attend a Rest Centre.
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Public Health
The Adults and Communities Directorate includes a Public Health specialist team that may be activated to deal with public health information and advice, including in rest centres. Many public health functions transferred to Local Authorities, under the Health and Social Care Act, 2012, effective from 1st April, 2013. This means that
the Birmingham City Council Director of Public Health has a lead role in the management of local public health emergencies and other civil emergencies giving rise to significant public health impacts. The Director of Public Health can be activated as part of this plan and can be called upon to provide professional public health information and advice as part of multi agency response structures. These multi agency response structures could be initiated and managed by Public Health England, NHS England or as part of a Scientific and Technical Advice Cell. It should be noted, however, that the transfer of many public health functions and
changes to the role of the Director of Public Health, do not represent a major change to the existing
operational emergency response of Environmental Health Officers, who manage local public health issues on a day to day basis and are fully engaged with Corporate Emergency Response plans and procedures and those of partner agencies.
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Police Teams
Emergencies may include activation of police documentation teams, Casualty Bureau, Family Liaison Officers, etc. BRT and West Midlands Police have worked together to ensure documentation and information sharing processes are in place as part of rest centre activations.
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Humanitarian Assistance Centres
Some emergencies impact on communities to the extent that assistance and information is required for some time after the immediate impact of an emergency, which can be provided as part of a Humanitarian Assistance Centre (HAC). A HAC is defined as a ‘one-stop-shop’ facility where bereaved families, survivors and anyone else directly affected by the incident can receive information and appropriate support from all of the relevant agencies, without the need for immediate referral elsewhere. BRT maintains a HAC plan and is summarised at Appendix O.