Public consultation on The Role of Local Resilience Forums: a reference document
The Civil Contingencies Secretariat is consulting to provide English and Welsh Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) with guidance that they and other stakeholders have requested.
Working with resilience partners, the Civil Contingencies Secretariat developed and published the Expectations and Indicators of Good Practice Set for Category 1 and 2 responders guidance in 2009 as part of a suite of documents for performance development.
We now aim to produce The Role of Local Resilience Forums: a reference document which is designed to provide English and Welsh Local Resilience Forums (LRFs) with guidance that they and other stakeholders have requested. It aims to set out LRFs’ role of under the legislation, statutory and non-statutory guidance and the Capabilities Programme, and identifies broad criteria which an LRF can use as indicators of good practice. It also suggests issues, processes, systems and activities that an LRF will need to consider in establishing effective mechanisms to deliver its work. It is not designed to encompass the whole statutory regime, but is intended to provide a consistent framework for self assessment and peer review.
The document has been produced working with government offices, Regional Resilience Forums, Local Resilience Forums, and the devolved administrations and reflects the good work that is already taking place across the UK.
The consultation aims to seek the views of responders, lead government departments, improvement agencies, government offices and regulators.
In July, the government announced its intention in principle to abolish the government offices for the regions. The announcement stated that some government office functions, such as arrangements for resilience and civil contingencies, will need to continue. CCS and CLG were commissioned to provide joint advice to ministers on the options for the future of the regional resilience tier and have been working with government departments, government offices and other to establish and evaluate the options. We anticipate that ministers will consider this advice in late September/early October. The Role of Local Resilience Forums: a reference document relates to current structures and will be updated once changes are known.
The consultation will close on 3 December 2010. We aim to publish the government response to the consultation and finalised documents in February 2011.
About the Role of Local Resilience Forums: a reference document
This document is part of a suite of documents we are producing for use individually or collectively by organisations that constitute an LRF (or contribute to its work) as a guide to continuing development within each LRF to deliver increasingly effective anticipation for the risks and emergencies it may confront.
By establishing this reference document of expectations and outcomes the principle aim is to encourage and support LRFs in learning and continuous development; taking forward their capabilities in civil contingencies, emergency preparedness and elements of response and recovery. The document will act as the basis for further developing the Civil Protection Self Assessment Tool (CPSAT) which went live in March 2010 for Category 1 and 2 responders, to enable LRFs to measure their performance.
In addition to CPSAT the Civil Contingencies Secretariat is working with development agencies to review existing peer review tools for Category 1 & 2 Responders and LRFs to facilitate their development and build a stronger UK resilience community. Where necessary the review will develop new peer review tools to fill any identified gaps.
We hope that The Role of Local Resilience Forums: a reference document will act as a useful reference document as it navigates you through the legislation and guidance and sign-posts you to relevant more detailed guidance (if required). It does not however replace the need for ensuring that you are familiar with the CCA regime.
We would encourage you to use this document to identify any gaps in your performance and to help plan your civil contingencies work programme. It also provides a consistent for peer reviews and formal inspections by the relevant regulators for Category 1 and 2 responders. The Civil Contingencies Secretariat is aware that work is ongoing to assess the implications of the closure of government office for London and the future role of all government offices. Any changes required to this document to reflect this closure and/or structure changes will be picked up during the consultation period.