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10.2 The Humanitarian Assistance Centre7510.3 Overview of Kent County Council Responsibilities7610.4 Overview of District and Borough Council Responsibilities7610.5 Associated Documents and Plans7610.6 Location of Documents7611 Community Leadership7711.1 Overview7711.2 Core Activities During an Emergency7711.3 Community Liaison During the Recovery Phase7711.4 Associated Documents and Plans7711.5 Location of Documents7712 Training and Exercising7812.1 Training7812.2 Exercising7812.3 Training and Exercising Programme (covering last 5 years):7913 Emergency Governance in KCC8413.1 Cross Directorate Resilience Forum8413.2 Directorate Resilience Groups8513.2.1 Adult Social Care and Health8513.2.2 Children, Education and Young People8613.2.3 Growth, Environment and Transport8713.2.4 Strategic and Corporate Services8913.7 Social and Psychological Care Steering Group9013.8 Directorate Management Team9213.8.193KCC Emergency Governance Structure Chart13.9 Role of Duty and Recovery Directors9413.9.1 The Duty Director9413.9.2 The Recovery Director9413.9.1 Extra-ordinary CMTs9513.9.2 Briefing of Leaders, Cabinet and Other Elected Members95Appendix 1 – Kent County Council Duties under Resilience Legislation and Guidance96Appendix 2 – Mutual Aid Agreement9914KCC Major Emergency PlanVersion 8.2 – April 2021

1IntroductionKent County Council must evidence compliance with legal and regulatory duties to provideeffective emergency planning and business continuity arrangements (please see Appendix 1).From time-to-time emergencies occur which require special measures to be taken. Such eventsare defined under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 as:“(a) an event or situation which threatens serious damage to human welfare in theUnited Kingdom or in a Part or region;(b) an event or situation which threatens serious damage to the environment of theUnited Kingdom or of a Part or region; or(c) war, or terrorism, which threatens serious damage to the security of the UnitedKingdom.”This Plan reflects duties contained within the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and other resiliencelegislation and guidance.1.1Aims and Objectives1.1.1AimTo provide procedures and guidance to facilitate appropriate and proportionate planning, responseand recovery by the County Council to an emergency impacting the administrative county, and toenable the local authority to achieve continuity of service delivery during any disruption.1.1.2 ObjectivesTo provide a strategic corporate plan: to define the County Council’s responsibilities in an emergency in accordance with theCivil Contingencies Act 2004 and other relevant legislation and guidance; to outline the County Council’s emergency response capabilities; to describe how the emergency response and recovery processes will be activated; to describe the alerting arrangements for calling out key staff, mobilising services oractivating mutual aid (please see Appendix 2); to outline management and communication structure in emergencies; to describe the set up and management process of the County Council’s emergencyarrangements; to provide a co-ordinating document referring to and linking with other emergency andbusiness continuity plans and frameworks; and15KCC Major Emergency PlanVersion 8.2 – April 2021

1.2to outline the County Council’s Business Continuity Management arrangements.The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and other LegislationThe Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and associated regulations require upper tier local authorities to: assess the risk of an emergency occurring; plan for and to respond to a broad range of emergencies; be resilient as an organisation, putting into place suitable business continuity measures; share information with other responders; warn and inform the public before, during and after an emergency; co-operate with other responders; and promote business continuity and other good resilience practice to local businesses andthe voluntary sector.This plan meets requirements outlined within this legislation (please see Appendix 1).1.3Role of Executive and wider Elected MembershipElected Members, and especially the Leader, Cabinet and those representing affected Divisions,must deliver community leadership roles in the event of an incident impacting the County. Further,they have ultimate responsibility for ensuring that resilience policy and practice is appropriatelyreflected within the County Council’s governance and planning.Specific Guidance addresses these roles in detail: Kent County Council Resilience Guidance forElected Members - the role of County Councillors before, during and after major emergencies.1.4Staff Health and SafetyHealth and safety at work duties are especially pertinent to emergency planning, including riskassessments and provision of personal protective equipment (PPE). However, due to urgency andthe rapidly changing nature of major emergencies, it is likely that more reliance will be placed upondynamic risk assessment. Awareness of hazards and their potential to cause harm will need to beaddressed by all levels of response. It must be remembered that this is a continuous process.It is important that managers and staff recognise when their limit of knowledge and understandingof potential hazards has been reached and they need to seek competent advice before proceedingwith an activity.Emergency planning contingencies and training will also need to include measures to manage andreduce risks.1.5Staff WelfareStaff engaged in major emergency response may find the experience both physically andemotionally challenging. Exposure to traumatic events, or close contact with people who have just16KCC Major Emergency PlanVersion 8.2 – April 2021

experienced or witnessed a traumatic event, can have negative impacts upon staff wellbeing,especially if appropriate safeguards are not put in place and followed.Crisis management involving long working hours, often combined with intense activity demandingrapid decision making, is potentially stressful. Careful selection of staff for such roles andappropriate support can help to minimise this risk. Management awareness of those staff withpersonal links to individuals directly involved in the disaster or direct links to similar events in thepast should also form part of the criteria for selection of personnel for particular roles.Managing shift lengths and rotation of staff, structured breaks with adequate refreshments andopportunities to engage in informal discussion with colleagues away from the “front line” can alsohelp to minimise potentially damaging stress.Staff should be made aware of the Council’s counselling service, Staff Care Services, and howthey can access it. Participation in training and exercising will better prepare staff to cope in anemergency.Following a significant incident that impacts on KCC’s staff, the KCC Social & Psychological CareSteering Group will meet to ensure the corporate strategy for the delivery of post major incidentsocial and psychological care interventions by KCC for staff is delivered.1.6Interlinking DocumentationThis plan is designed to act as a foundation to the authorities’ response and will ensure that itinterlinks with the following documents: the Pan Kent Emergency Response Framework; the Pan Kent Emergency Recovery Framework; other KRF Risk Specific Plans; relevant partner and Kent County Council plans; relevant partner and Kent County Council detailed functional plans associated directlywith the services covered within this plan; and national and regional plans.17KCC Major Emergency PlanVersion 8.2 – April 2021

KRF Pan KentEmergencyResponseFrameworkKRF Pan KentRecoveryFrameworkKCC MAJOREMERGENCYPLANKCC Emergency andBusiness Continuity PlansKRF Risk SpecificPlansPartner Emergency andBusiness Continuity PlansSuitable cross referencing to relevant documentation and plans will be made as necessary,therefore ensuring that all appropriate interlinking arrangements are identified accordingly.18KCC Major Emergency PlanVersion 8.2 – April 2021

2Plan Maintenance, Audit and Review2.1The Generic Plan TemplateThe generic plan template acts as the core foundation document that is customised by District andBorough Councils or other Kent Resilience Forum partners to act as their Major Emergency Plan.The generic plan template is maintained by Kent County Council Resilience and EmergencyPlanning Service.2.2Other Plans Using This TemplatePartners’ customised plans using the generic plan template are maintained, audited and reviewedinternally, using their own internal maintenance, audit and review processes.2.3Kent County Council Major Emergency Plan MaintenanceThis plan is maintained by the KCC Resilience and Emergency Planning Service. The plan will beaudited and reviewed every two years and undergo a consultation process via the CrossDirectorate Resilience Forum, before final approval and sign-off by Growth, Environment andTransport Directorate Management Team and Corporate Management Team.Please note: Individual service Business Continuity Plans are maintained by that service andsigned-off by the relevant directorate DMT (with oversight and monitoring by Resilience andEmergency Planning Service). Service Business Continuity plans are all held on the KCC pages ofthe Resilience Direct secure platform.19KCC Major Emergency PlanVersion 8.2 – April 2021

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3Alerting, Determination and Activation3.1Alerting ProcedureNotification that an incident has occurred may be received from several sources. This informationmay come from “official” sources such as Kent Police, Kent Fire and Rescue Service or Maritimeand Coastguard Agency. It is equally possible that the first notification of an incident may comefrom a member of the public. The 24/7 contact number for alerting KCC to a major emergencyis via: The Duty Emergency Planning Officer (DEPO).Back up procedures: If the DEPO cannot be contacted, the KCC Contact Point emergency lineshould be contacted on 03000 41 91 91. They will pass a message to a member of the Resilience& Emergency Planning Service or the Kent Resilience Team. If this number is not working,personal mobile and home telephone numbers for DEPOs may be found on the KCC pages withinResilience Direct.3.1.1Formal Alerting Arrangements in a Major EmergencyNHSNotes:1. Chart illustrates a cascade notification process.2. Notification may be received formally or informally via several sources directly to the authority, which may require formalactivation of this plan.21KCC Major Emergency PlanVersion 8.2 – April 2021

Determination3.2123456Has an event or situation occurred which threatens seriousdamage to human welfare - including one or more of thefollowing impacts: loss of human life human illness or injury homelessness, damage to property disruption of a supply of money, food, water, energy or fuel disruption of an electronic or other system of communication disruption of facilities for transport disruption of services relating to health.Has an event or situation occurred which threatens seriousdamage to the environment - including one or more of thefollowing impacts: contamination of land, water or air with harmful biological,chemical, radio-active or other pollutants flooding disruption or destruction of plant or animal life.Has an event or situation occurred which threatens seriousdamage to security of all or part of the UK - including one ormore of the following impacts: war or armed conflict terrorism.Has an emergency occurred which seriously affects the abilityof the Council to continue to perform its functions?Has an emergency occurred which makes it necessary ordesirable for the Council to perform its functions for the purposeof preventing the emergency, reducing, controlling or mitigatingits effects or taking any other action in connection with theemergency?Can the emergency be dealt with as part of the Council's dayto-day activities without significantly changing the deploymentof our resources and without acquiring additional resources?7Not a major emergency8MAJOR EMERGENCYIf ‘Yes’go toIf ‘No’go to42434465677822KCC Major Emergency PlanVersion 8.2 – April 2021

3.3ActivationThe plan will be activated when the County Council receives a formal or informal notification of anemergency occurring in its administrative area that is likely to seriously impact upon the CountyCouncil’s functions and could exceed its capacity to deal with it effectively using normal day-to-dayresponse arrangements.In some cases, it will be clear from the outset that a major emergency situation for the CountyCouncil has occurred or is imminent but, in others, it might be that the initial level of information isnot sufficient to make an immediate decision, and it will be necessary to seek more information toclarify the situation and/or liaise with colleagues and key agency partners.The Duty Emergency Planning Officer will consult the Duty Officer Handbook (please see section5.1) for full details of further activation advice and procedures (including liaison with key KCC andpartner agency contacts).Please note: Where an incident is strategically significant and/or politically sensitive the KCC DutyEmergency Planning Officer must alert and consult with the KCC Duty Director at the firstopportunity.3.4On-call Emergency Planning Personnel ResourcesThe County Council maintains out of hours capability across a number of its core service areas,encompassing Contact Point, Infrastructure, Social Care, Public Health, Highways, TradingStandards and Press Office. A Command Rota is issued weekly to key personnel and serviceslisting those individuals on call and their contact details. These roles comprise:3.4.1 Duty Emergency Planning Officer (DEPO) – Covers a seven-day period spanning fromand to 09:00 each Monday and receives a stand-by payment. The DEPO will call in additionalresilience professional support if circumstances require this. This officer is first point of contact foremergency alerts into the County Council and has a key role in activation and deliveringprofessional resilience advice to colleagues and partner agencies.3.4.2 Duty and Recovery Director (and support) – Cover a seven-day period spanning from andto 09:00 each Monday. The Duty Director provides strategic leadership across the emergencyresponse on behalf of the County Council, may attend Strategic Co-ordinating Group and briefsCorporate Management Team colleagues, Leader and Cabinet, and wider Elected Membership.The Recovery Director fulfils an identical role for the recovery phase (where the County Councilmay chair the Multi-Agency Recovery Advisory Group and subsequently the Recovery Coordinating Group. Essential support is provided for both these roles by a staff officer.23KCC Major Emergency PlanVersion 8.2 – April 2021

cy CentreCounty nagementGroupStrategicMulti-agencyStrategic ntresOperational4CountyDistrictWelfare OperationsLiaison OfficerLiaison OfficerOther Forward OperationsMain Information & Comms Links24KCC Major Emergency PlanVersion 8.2 – April 2021

Notes:1. This diagram reflects a comprehensive local authority emergency management structure and itsinteraction with a multi-agency Strategic Co-ordination Centre (SCG).2. The structure may be partially set up depending on the size and scale of the event, as well aswhich level of local government is required to respond.3. When an emergency is entirely within one district/borough council area then that council willusually co-ordinate the overall local authority response. If it affects more than one district/boroughcouncil area, or if it is too big for the district/borough council to manage, then Kent County Councilwill take on the overall co-ordination role. However, individual districts/boroughs and Kent CountyCouncil will need to co-ordinate their own specific emergency response interventions.25KCC Major Emergency PlanVersion 8.2 – April 2021

Common functional emergency responseplans5This section details the authority’s specific roles in accordance with its role in a major emergencyresponse.This section has been provided with a generic layout as follows: an overview of the plan; the location of the plan; and a copy of the plan can be placed within the section if appropriate or required.As an aide-memoir, the following table covers local authority responsibilities, and illustrates thesplit between Kent County Council and District and Borough Council roles. Where a responsibilityfalls to one tier of local government, the other may have the capacity and capability to carry it outon their behalf, through mutual aid arrangements, or to provide support. The list is also crossreferenced with the relevant section(s) of this plan.For the sake of brevity, the list does not include the many day-to-day and specialist roles whichlocal authorities may carry out as part of the emergency response, nor does it cover internalmanagement activity.Local Authority Resilience Responsibilities – split between KCC and District and Boroughroles and responsibilities:County District/Borough Section(s)12345Provide a 24-hour point of contact toreceive alerts and warnings, and for themanagement of a large volume of publiccallsCo-ordinate the local authority responsewhere more than one district/borough isinvolvedEstablish and staff a local authorityForward Control PointAlert health authorities where action otherthan direct casualty care is requiredLiaise with central and regionalgovernment 35.15.24Note 3 5.4 8.1 6Liaise with administrative authorities in binational or multi-national emergencies 7Arrange for military aid 8Assist in providing a catering service forinvolved personnel 5.35.105.35.108.58.117.17.27.326KCC Major Emergency PlanVersion 8.2 – April 2021

9101112131415161718192021222324252627Alert and co-ordinate voluntaryorganisationsArrange attendance of ministers of religionSupport other responders with councilresourcesImplement animal or plant health plansSupport other responding agencies in theresponse to a communicable diseaseoutbreakEstablish a system for disseminatinginformation to the public, in co-operationwith other responders, and makepremises available for public informationcentresOpen and run welfare centres as requiredProvide alternative, transit or temporaryaccommodation for temporarily homelesspeopleFacilitate care for people in transit whohave been affected by the incidentFacilitate catering service for evacueesFacilitate provision of emergency clothingand other welfare consumablesProvide specialist care for vulnerablepeople at welfare centresMake available premises under councilcontrol for temporary accommodation ofevacuees or for other use in support of therespo

An up-to-date printed version of this plan is also held within the County Emergency Centre, 2nd Floor, Invicta House, County Hall, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1XX. . 6.1 Environmental Health Response Plan 33 6.1.1 Overview 33 6.1.2 Location of Documents 33 . 7.1 Adult Social Care and Health Emergency Plan 35. 10 KCC Major Emergency Plan Version 8. .