Emergency Response 2010: Emergency Services: A 2020 Vision is the title of a December 2 conference at RUSI. The venue is the institute’s headquarters in Whitehall, London, SW1A 2ET
What does the next decade hold for UK emergency response and civil protection? ask the event organisers.
The current financial climate threatens swinging cuts across the emergency services, along with a reorganisation of resilience and contingency policy within Government. Responder agencies, therefore, need to ensure the money that is available is used as efficiently as possible.
RUSI’s recent research report Interoperability in a Crisis: Human Factors and Organisational Processes highlights a number of areas in which emergency responders feel their organisations need to work together more closely and to break out of the silo-thinking that impedes true interoperability.
This year’s annual Emergency Response Conference invites the key stakeholder agencies to respond to the research project’s final report and discuss the practicalities of its recommendations, including contributions from the Civil Contingencies Secretariat, the Office of the Chief Fire and Rescue Advisor, the Department of Health and the Association of Chief Police Officers.
Discussions will focus on strategic, operational and tactical considerations for future integration of UK emergency responders and will debate the practicalities of suggestions made in the report, such as the introduction of a national procurement budget for resilience, a national operations centre to co-ordinate multi-agency, multi-region major incidents, and a single responsible owner for the UK emergency services within central Government.
With contributions from policy makers, emergency responders, resilience suppliers and industry partners, the debate will provide a discussion into possible future directions for the emergency services, ensuring they evolve to meet the threats and challenges of the 21st century.
