Resilience Matters 01

ResilienceIssue 31, Winter 2017/18 MattersThe newsletter of the Herts Local Authority Resilience Partnership

Get Ready for Winter joins up messages from Government and voluntary sector partners to encourage individuals, families and communities to think about winter preparations they can make to help them stay warm, healthy and safe.

All types of weather can affect you, those around you, and your property. Make sure you’re prepared by checking the ‘Get Ready for Winter’ tips and

advice. Find the latest articles and information under all the Get Ready for Winter sections.

• Stay safe in a storm• Cold weather and driving• How cold weather affects your health• How to cycle in winter• How to get your property winter ready• Keeping your home warm in winter• What to do in a power cut

It pays to prepare for whatever weather winter may throw at us - it could be wind, rain, storms or snow and ice. Take some steps now to Get Ready for Winter. Further information is available on:

• Travel advice• Health and well-being• Your home• About ‘Get Ready for Winter’

GET READY FOR WINTER - Are You Winter Ready?With the cold winter season upon us, are you as prepared as you can be for any severe weather that might be just around the corner?

Get Ready for Winter’ is an annual campaign run and implemented by the Met

Office on behalf of Cabinet Office.

“

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https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/barometer/advice/about-get-ready/

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PREPARE YOUR EMERGENCY KITHere is the Red Cross guide to all the essential items you’ll

need in an emergency, when severe weather strikes – for your home, on the move, and in the car.

For more information, please visit the BRC website:http://www.redcross.org.uk/What-we-do/Preparing-for-disasters/How-to-prepare-for- emergencies/Ready-for-winter

There is also lots of information on the HCC website, under Resilience, to ensure you are ‘Ready for Anything’. https://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/services/fire-and-rescue/are-you-ready-for-anything.aspx

What to have at homeHow long could you last without power, heat, water and a trip to the shops? Take time now to put these essential items into a kit:

• list of emergency contact numbers

• battery operated torch and spare batteries (or a wind-up torch)

• battery operated radio and spare batteries (or a wind-up radio)

• any essential medication, some toiletries and a first aid kit

• three days’ supply of bottled water and ready-to-eat food that won’t spoil

• copies of important documents, such as insurance policies and birth certificates

• pencil, paper, penknife and whistle

• spare keys to your home and car

• spare glasses or contact lenses

• if needed, baby and pet supplies.

What to keep in the car Before you set off, make sure you have the following:

• ice-scraper and de-icer• snow shovel• map for unplanned diversions• blanket and warm clothes• first aid kit• battery operated torch

and spare batteries (or a wind-up torch)

• battery operated radio and spare batteries (or a wind-up radio)

• jump leads.

What to take on the moveWhether you’re travelling by car, foot or any other type of transport, check the weather forecast and pack these items:

• suitable clothes for the weather, such as winter boots with grips, warm clothing or waterproofs

• ready-to-eat food, a warm drink in a flask and bottled water

• mobile phone and charger• any essential medication• spare glasses or contact lenses• cash and credit cards• list of emergency contact

numbers• if needed, baby and pet supplies.

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#WinterReady#WinterReady

GET READY FOR

WINTERWINTER

Flu affects people in different ways. If you are healthy you will usually shake it off within a week, but for young children, older people with chronic health conditions, it can be very serious. The annual flu vaccination is offered free to people who are at most at risk from the effects of flu.

1. Get your flu jab

It is advisable to use screen wash additive as this helps to keep the windscreen free of dirt and winter road grime which can cause visibility issues. There is also the risk of a frozen windscreen so ensure you use a proper anti-freeze screen wash.

2. Top up anti-freeze screen wash

If you get stuck in your car in winter it could be dangerous, so get a winter car kit ready: ice scraper, de-icer, jump leads, shovel, blanket, sunglasses (for winter glare from the low sun), torch. Get all these things ready before the start of winter and then keep them in the car - you never know when you might need them. For longer trips think about food, water and medicines too.

4. Think about a winter kit for your car

6. Heat your home to at least 18 °CCold weather can be a risk to your health, particularly if you are over 65 or have health conditions. The cold thickens blood and increases blood pressure, and breathing in cold air can increase the risk of chest infections. Your home (and those of your elderly relatives and neighbours) should ideally be at least 18 °C. During cold spells, keep your windows closed at night as this could cause a real drop in the temperature indoors. If you have a heating boiler consider getting it serviced before the coldest weather arrives.

8. Check your pipes are insulated

9. Know where your stoptap is

10. Think about what may be impactedby strong winds

12. Freeze a loaf of bread and a pintof milk for times of bad weather

7. Consider how you would accessvital information

3. Check your vehicle’s tyres

5. Consider alternative commutingplans for severe weather 11. Check if you are at risk of flooding

Not only is it dangerous to drive in winter conditions with low levels of tread on your vehicle’s tyres, it’s also illegal. Check your tyres regularly to avoid a fine of £2500 and three penalty points per tyre found below the legal depth.

It’s worth thinking about how you might get to work in the event of severe weather. Consider your alternative options and discuss with your employer so if the weather does turn you’re already prepared.

If a storm meant power and mobile phone networks were affected, what would you do? Consider a separate battery charger, and you could store key information such as the power cut helpline number (105) on your phone.

Insulating pipes has two benefits – you’ll keep the heat in, saving you money, but it also means reduced risk of frozen pipes which can burst, causing flooding, damage and leaving your home without water.

Do you know where your stoptap (also called stopcock) is? It’s something you should know so you can turn off the water to your home quickly should there be a problem. Most are under the kitchen sink, or sometimes in a cupboard, garage or cellar.

In windy weather surprising things can become dangerous. Trees or branches can come down, cast iron guttering could be lethal and so can roof slates. Garden furniture and even children’s toys and trampolines can fly around causing damage and potential harm.

Check if you are at risk of flooding using a simple postcode search. Sign up for free flood warnings: if you live in an area at risk of flooding you could get free flood warnings direct to your mobile, home phone, or email. Know what to do in a flood: download the Environment Agency’s ‘Prepare Act Survive’ flood guide. Find out more at https://floodsdestroy.campaign.gov.uk/

Thinking about a few freezer-friendly foods and how to combine them with store cupboard staples means you can still serve up a feast for the family - even if you can’t get out to the shops.

Winter ready checklist

Helping you to prepare for andcope with winter weather

www.metoffice.gov.uk/get-ready-for-winter

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The HCC Resilience Team are on call 24/7 to respond to any emergencies in Hertfordshire. Here is an example of some of the types of calls we get to deal with:

BALDOCK & LETCHWORTH

WATER OUTAGE

The Resilience Team Duty Officer (RDO) was heading into a meeting when the duty phone rang, on the end of the line was her manager informing her that residents in Baldock had no running water.

The RDO confirmed with Affinity Water that 3,500 properties had been affected and the cause of the problem was damage to an outlet pipe at Weston Hills Reservoir. The burst pipe had caused the surrounding land to flood making the isolation and repair of the pipe a tricky task. It quickly became apparent that in order to repair the pipe the now 3m deep lake which had formed around the burst would need to be pumped out first and the water supply to residents in Letchworth would have to be switched off so the repair could be carried out safely. This would

leave 23,000 properties without water for an estimated 24 hours!

The RDO sprang into action and called the affected council, North Herts District Council who responded by declaring a major incident and activating their emergency plan.

Meanwhile the RDO worked with HCC’s Adult Care Services and Children’s Services to identify any vulnerable people who may have been affected by the water outage. This information was passed onto Affinity Water who undertook to deliver bottled water to those identified.

By this time Affinity Water had already delivered bottled water to customers who had previously registered with their priority services list – it is well

worth a phone call to your water, gas and electricity companies to see if you are eligible to register with their priority lists to minimise the impact any disruption to utilities may cause you.

After hours of pumping, and digging down 4 metres the offending pipe was located and fixed by Affinity Waters technicians and water was gradually restored to all 23,000 affected properties in Baldock and Letchworth by the following morning.

This was a day we all train and plan for but hope never happens – thankfully Affinity Water were able to fix the problem before the situation became more serious.

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Over 50 local authority officers, including Resilience Officers, Corporate Communications Officers, and Community Officers attended the event, held at Herts Fire & Rescue’s Training Centre in Stevenage.

The objectives of the workshop were:

• To explore the issues around spontaneous volunteers;

• To explore the issues around spontaneous donations of money, goods and services;

• To identify communication issues that can impact on an effective and joined up response;

• To explore whether the current Hertfordshire mutual aid arrangements are fit for purpose.

Organisers of the event were mindful that the Grenfell Tower Inquiry was ongoing and were careful not to jump to conclusions about the local authority response to theincident. General information was gathered from the media and

other documented sources to give workshop delegates an unofficial picture of the response.

Data from the event is still being evaluated and will form part of a workshop report which will follow soon and will be reported back to this newsletter.

Facts and Figures• The Grenfell Tower fire broke out

on 14 June 2017 at the 24-storey Grenfell Tower block of public housing flats in North Kensington.

• Emergency services received the first report of the fire at 00:54 local time

• It burned for about 60 hours until finally being extinguished.

• Casualties: 71 deaths, 74 hospitalised.

• The Grenfell Tower Inquiry held its first hearing on 14 September 2017, and evidential hearings started in October.

• Police and fire services believe the fire started accidentally in a fridge-freezer on the fourth floor.

• The rapid growth of the fire is thought to have been accelerated by the building’s exterior cladding, which is of a common type in widespread use.

• More than 250 London Fire Brigade firefighters and 70 fire engines were involved from stations all across London in efforts to control the fire.

• Over 100 London Ambulance Service crews on at least 20 ambulances attended, joined by the specialist Hazardous Area Response Team.

• The Metropolitan Police Service and London’s Air Ambulance also assisted the rescue effort.

Outcome:• Government taskforce taking

over parts of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) council function.

• Urgent fire safety tests on cladding from similar towers.

• Independent review of building regulations and fire safety commissioned.

Resilience WorkshopGRENFELL

At the end of October last year, Hertfordshire’s Local Authority Resilience Group (LARG) held a workshop to look at resilience issues following the Grenfell Tower incident.

grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk

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The full programme included speakers from a wide range of resilience organisations, including the Met Office, National Flood Forum, Kimpton Parish Council, Herts County Council’s flood authority team and the Local Resilience Forum, Independent Living and Crisis Response, British Red Cross, and the Environment Agency.

The day was well attended with over 50 delegates from across different agencies around Hertfordshire attending.

Below are some of the learning points from the day:

• Agencies need to work harder to deliver consistent messages.

• Explain uncertainty – say what we know and also what we don’t know and why.

• Signpost who does what, who is responsible.

• Partners – Who can we arm with information to help get the messages out?

• Know what your organisation’s responsibilities are. Those making enquiries get passed around organisations only to end up back at the starting place.

• Information. Information. Information. There can never be too many bulletins.

• Cannot do it all alone – Join up the agencies – make use of the 3rd sector. There is a lot of experience, resource and good will to be tapped into. Just make sure that you have already made the connections before the emergency happens.

• Recovery can take 10 years. Don’t underestimate people’s fears – i.e. re flooding - every time that there is a warning or an anniversary, it has a real eroding effect upon residents.

• Be flexible – adapt to people’s needs. Rigid policies help no one.

• Manage expectations – Information again!

• Involve the Communities Team in planning. Hold community engagement events – plan for recovery as much as you would plan for an emergency.

• Involve housing officers very early on.

NHDC

EMERGENCY PLANNING CONFERENCE

Back in 2017, North Hertfordshire District Council (NHDC) hosted its annual emergency planning conference, with three key themes:

• Major Incidents: Are we as good as we could be?

• Is there enough of a focus on recovery during responses?

• Disasters are not just about responses, they are about managing people

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Also invited were Lee Hutchinson, Station Commander, Herts Fire & Rescue and Rachel Hyde, Police Press Officer acting as professional friends and to raise awareness of their organisation’s own response to the incident.

The scenario involved a petrol tanker crash and resulting fire, leading to a largescale evacuation of the public from a residential block of flats, plus massive media coverage, spontaneous volunteers and a full scale emergency response from the Borough Council.

Jim Farrier, Senior Resilience Officer with the HCC Resilience Team facilitated the event and split the scenario into three discussion phases; initial response, incident response and recovery.

The initial response looked at the Borough Council’s alerting system, call-out and command and control s tructure. There was a discussion on the principals of JESIP (Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Programme) and how the Borough Council’s procedures and ways of working dovetailed into the multi-agency response to incidents. The principals could be applied to any type of multi-agency incident and help organisations to work effectively together.

During the incident phase the Borough Council looked at dealing with hundreds of evacuees to provide them with shelter using an emergency rest centre and then discussing issues around temporary housing and hotel accommodation. The scenario also had hundreds of spontaneous volunteers turning up to help and the public offering donations of food, clothing and money; inspired by social media and requiring a quick and effective response by the Borough Council. Exercise players had in-depth discussions about the response to the media, communication links and how the Borough Council could respond quickly and effectively to social media pressures.

In recognising that the recovery stage starts as soon as the incident has happened, the exercise discussed longer term housing issues, allocation and administration of donated monies and memorials.

The exercise helped to identify a number of learning points in the Borough Council’s emergency arrangements and these will be detailed in the exercise debrief report, which will be published in due course.

Senior Management And Key Officer Tabletop ExerciseStevenage BC

Stevenage Borough

Council recently held

a tabletop exercise for

its senior managers and

key officers to practise

their emergency response

to a major incident.

This was an opportunity

for them to gain an

overall awareness of

their own roles as well

as those around them.

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Recently, Tyron Suddes joined the HCC Resilience Team.

Here he gives us a brief introduction.

I was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa, quite a different setting to where I am now but I am enjoying every minute of being in this wonderful country.

I graduated from the University of South Africa in 2016 and decided that I needed a change which lead to my move to the UK in April 2017, one of the best decisions I have ever made. Upon my arrival in the UK I knew that I wanted to work for the council: the dynamics and rewards of the public sector have always been a keen interest of mine.

I have been asked why resilience? A simple response would be because it’s a career like no other, not one day is the same as the last and it’s the type of career that will always keep you on your feet. I have been in this role for two months and the amount of experience that I have gathered within that time is astronomical, I can only look forward to what might come next.

I cover Adult Care Services within Hertfordshire County Council and East Herts Council as part of the district traded partnership.

Adult Care Services have recently run a successful cyber-attack exercise in late October which was well received. We were able to identify any learning areas in business continuity planning and business impact assessments. I was tasked with producing a post exercise report for this which streamlined the process and enabled us to identify any possible actions.

I currently work with East Herts Council two days a week and we are currently developing multiple projects including annual reviews of the reception centre plan, emergency plan and incident control centre plan.

On a more personal note, I enjoy travelling, which was one of the main considerations for moving here. I have travelled around most of the UK and I will be extending my travels to Austria and Scotland by the end of the year. My travel list is constantly growing and I am very lucky to be at the doorstep of the world to fulfil it.

I look forward to a rewarding career in resilience!

Scientific and Technical Advice Cell Awareness Training – Public Health Training Centre, Didcot

Back in 2017, two HCC Resilience Officers travelled to Public Health England’s Training Centre in Didcot to learn about Scientific and Technical Advice Cells, or STACs, which provides a single point of advice to the Strategic Coordination Group in a major incident.

The idea to create STACs were born out of the explosions at Buncefield in 2005, and Andoversford chemical works a year later, as the debriefs from these incidents highlighted a need for better coordinated scientific and technical advice to be provided to responders.STACs are activated to gather information on any scientific, technical, environmental and public health consequences of an incident, such as analysing smoke plumes to determine if there is a risk to the public or responders.

This information, along with advice on how to control any risks and how to communicate safety messages to the public, is then given to the Strategic Co-ordinating Group to action the advice received.

The event attended by Makyla and Jess was hosted by Thames Valley Local Resilience Forum and s uccessfully raised awareness of how to activate STACs and which organisations are part of the Cell such as Public Health England, the Environment Agency and the Met Office.

The afternoon was very informative and ended with a group exercise where learning was put into practice with a scenario based around an unknown illness to see if we knew which organisations to invite to our imaginary STAC and what advice they would be able to provide to the Strategic Coordinating Group. I am pleased to say Makyla and Jess made the right decisions!

TYRON SUDDES

Resilience Officer

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COMAH stands for Control of Major Accidents and Hazards and is a regulatory and legal requirement for some industrial premises.

The COMAH Regulations ensure that businesses:• Take all necessary measures

to prevent major accidents involving dangerous substances, and

• Limit the consequences to people and the environment of any major accidents which do occur

The Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations 2015 (COMAH15) came into force on 1 June 2015, and replace the Control of Major Accident Hazard Regulations 1999.

COMAH applies mainly to the chemical industry, but also to some

storage activities, explosives and nuclear sites, and other industries where the threshold quantities of dangerous substances identified in the Regulations are kept or used.

COMAH 2015 is enforced in England by the COMAH competent authority (CA), comprising of the Environment Agency (EA) and the Health & Safety Executive (HSE).

In Hertfordshire, we currently have one COMAH site, the Buncefield Oil Depot in Hemel Hempstead.You may remember that back in 2005 a major incident occurred at the Buncefield site that was to have national implications.

An explosion occurred on Sunday 11 December which resulted in significant disruption to the local area and infrastructure, not to mention customers of one of the largest fuel distributers in the UK.

HCC are responsible for the external (off-site) emergency plan for Buncefield, being a top tier COMAH site. Under the regulations, this plan has to be exercised every 3 years on a multi-agency level with a live exercise and then various other exercises in between time to satisfy the competent agencies, namely the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), and the Environment Agency (EA).

Summer 2017 saw the latest live ex-ercise, led by the Fire Service, which allowed a very real scenario to be played out with other multi agency partners. The scenario was a report of a fire in a building, following a small explosion, with several site personnel unaccounted for.

Upon arrival, the first crews in attendance found a simulated fire in one of the onsite workshop buildings with 4-5 persons unaccounted for. A short time later, there was to be a second smaller simulated explosion emanating from a tank which was to cause a tank and bund fire.

Police, Ambulance, HSE and EA all provided injects for the exercise to test elements of the plan and all attending agencies, including HCC Resilience Team, had objectives as part of it.

In terms of the external plan activation, HCC Resilience Team had two objectives. The first was to test the effectiveness of the external plan activation procedure with the emergency services and the second was the recording of all actions and decisions made during the exercise with Fire Control to ensure the external plan measures were met.

The combined multi-agency response on the day was excellent and it proved to be a very valuable test of procedures.

A great deal of effort is put in to the exercising of local identified risks in order to prepare for situations that may occur.

The HCC Resilience Team works tirelessly with HCC departments and with district council partners to ensure that our organisations are fully prepared in planning for, and responding to major incidents.

COMAHWhat is

and how does this impact on Hertfordshire County Council’s Resilience Team?

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Security is everyone’s responsibility; not just those in your IT department.

Back in October last year, the HCC Resilience Team ran Exercise Jazz, a cyber-attack exercise, with the Adult Care Services department.

The aim of the exercise was to raise awareness of Business Continuity arrangements in the wake of a cyber attack and the key objectives were to: • Identify any gaps in business

continuity planning;

• Highlight critical functions within ACS and the resources needed to sustain them; and

• Identify any future training and planning needs

The tabletop exercise was delivered to senior management and followed

a global cyber-attack that crippled NHS England in May 2017, where more than 300 000 computers were infected.

The exercise scenario began with a smaller scale ICT outage, progressing to the emailing system being shut down and finally the entire communication system, including emails and landline telephones, were shut down for a period of 2-4 days.

The overall feedback from the exercise indicated that it was successful. The exercise achieved its aim in that the group was able to practically analyse their plans and assessments. The group agreed that the exercise was successful in supporting the running of the services and that it was well organised. It highlighted a few points that need to be considered.

Top tips for cyber security:

• Don’t plug untrusted devices (eg memory sticks) into networks

• Don’t leave your computer unlocked

• Don’t click on untrusted links

• Take care when using insecure networks (eg wifi hotspots)

• Be aware of your surroundings when using IT on your journey to or from work

• Use trusted/encrypted memory sticks

• Use strong passwords - Integrate capital letters, numbers and characters into a memorable word.

For more information and advice on increasing your cyber resilience see the Business Continuity Institutes webpages.

CYBER SECURITYThe Business Continuity Institute (BCI’s) Cyber Resilience Report revealed that two-thirds of organisations had experienced at least one cyber security incident during the previous year, and 15% had experienced at least ten. Recent headlines have proven to us just how crucial it is for businesses and organisations to get all staff thinking about being cyber savvy.

www.thebci.org

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Next issue - Summer 2018

Contact Us:HCC Resilience Team Community Protection, County Hall, Pegs Lane, Hertford SG13 8DE

Tel: 01992 555961 Email: resilience.team@hertfordshire.gov.uk

• Provides professional support and response arrangements across HCC departments so that the Authority meets its statutory duties as set out in the Civil Contingencies Act.

• Provides a traded service to partner District and Borough Councils to assist them in the preparation and maintenance of emergency plans.

• Ensures that HCC can fully play its part in a multi-agency, major incident response as well as continuing to deliver critical services during times of disruption.

• Direct work with communities is done under the “Hertfordshire Resilience” banner - the County’s Local Resilience Forum. The Resilience team provide the secretariat function which also drives forward multi-agency, major incident response plans, co-ordinates and develops training and exercising arrangements and facilitates the strong partnerships which have stood the county well in responding to a number of high profile major incidents over the years.

The Resilience Team is part of the HCC department of Community Protection. The Chief Fire Officer, Darryl Keen is the Director of Community Protection.

The Community Protection Directorate has four areas;

• Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service (HFRS)

• Trading Standards

• County Community Safety Unit (CCSU)

• Resilience

For more information on Community Protection, please visit

http://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/services/commsafe/commprotect/emeresilience/

Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) Resilience Team