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Association of Port Health Authorities
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Emergency management case study - APHA
Civil Protection & Emergency Management Training for the Association of Port Health Authorities
The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 placed a statutory duty upon Port Health Officers to act as Category 1 Responders. As a result, the Association of Port Health Authorities (APHA) asked Steelhenge to assist them in complying with their new role through the design and delivery of a series of civil protection and emergency management workshops.
Port Health Officers are on the front line of UK resilience by protecting public health through their operations to control human, animal and plant-borne infectious disease, ensuring food safety on ships and aircraft, and their rigorous controls of hygiene and safety aboard all air and sea-going vessels in the UK. Port Health Officers therefore face considerable challenges as their profile and role within the resilience community grows and their area of expertise becomes increasingly relevant in the face of current threats.
The Association of Port Health Authorities (APHA), represents the interests of port health authorities and local authorities through close liaison with Central Government, local authorities, professional bodies and, increasingly, with the World Health Organisation and international policy-making and trade bodies. Through its engagement with these entities, it clearly identified the need for all Port Health Officers to become fully integrated within the UK responder community, contribute to emergency management and to develop plans for continuity of port health business.
Steelhenge therefore designed a series of tailored workshops to meet these objectives. Each workshop ensured that delegates achieved:
- A strong understanding of the Civil Contingencies Act, the structure the implications of the Act for Port Health Authorities as Cat 1 Responders.
- An understanding of the emergency planning environment and of how the different tiers of Government plan and respond to crises.
- The means by which they should engage and integrate themselves within Local Resilience Forums (or Scottish Strategic Coordination Groups) and exploring how best Port Health Authorities can contribute to planning and at all levels.
- How to access, use and contribute to Community Risk Registers and conduct assessments of risk.
- Awareness of the emergency environment in which officers may be called to operate, set within sudden-onset terrorist incident and ‘rising tide’ influenza pandemic scenarios. This stage covered aspects of both port health engagement in the resolution of major incidents and the impacts of such events upon port health continuity of core functions.
- Awareness of the means used by responders and the media to communicate in a crisis.
- A foundation in the conduct of business impact assessments upon port health authorities and the preparation of business continuity management plans, based upon the framework contained within the Civil Contingencies Act.
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