Berkshire Integrated Emergency Planning (BIEPS)

The Emergency Planning Officers of the six Berkshire Unitary Authorities work together to provide integrated approach to emergency planning, in the acknowledgement that emergencies are not necessarily confined to administrative boundaries set by Local Authorities.

Bracknell Forest Borough Council, West Berkshire District Council, Reading Borough Council, Slough Borough Council, Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead and Wokingham Borough Council have added to their individual obligations under the Civil Contingencies Act the agreement to co-operate in Emergency Planning in order to provide wide area coverage and cost effective means of delivering the service. The Memorandum of Understanding is reviewed and agreed on an annual basis, this clearly details the integrated Emergency Planning function across the Berkshire Unitary Authorities.

Co-ordination is vital to the management of an emergency situation. Though responsibility for co-ordination of response to a disaster rests with the Chief Executive of the Unitary Authority in whose area the incident occurs, all the organisations concerned are aware of each other’s roles and responsibilities and are trained to respond quickly and effectively, together where necessary. This co-ordinated approach also involves all elements of Emergency Planning, including all of the other Responding Agencies whether statutory or voluntary based.

The structure of BIEPS is shown below with explanations of the different “task” groups, members are drawn from all the responding agencies:

Berkshire Resilience Group (BRG)

This group oversees the Emergency Planning arrangements from an integrated, Multi-Agency perspective. It includes representatives from all the main responders. It links to the Thames Valley “Local Resilience Forum” which is organised by Thames Valley Police. The BRG has agreed a Berkshire Major Incident Protocol which details how the Responding Agencies will work together in a major incident.

Local Authority Emergency Planning Group (LAEPG)

This group is made up of the Local Authority Emergency Planners, who consider planning arrangements for Local Authorities.

Emergency Support Organisations Group

This group looks at planning arrangements of interest to Voluntary Aid groups and organizations who support the response of others. The Berkshire Support Organisations Policy details the roles and responsibilities.

Health Emergency Planning Group (HEPG)

The Health Emergency Planning Group is co-ordinated by the Primary Care Trust at Reading and considers issues that are of relevance to the NHS and the local health economy.

Warning and Informing Group

To ensure that all agencies are aware of the skills, personnel, technologies & resources that are available for warning and informing the Public, in the event of a major incident.

Communications Emergency Planning Group (CEPG)

The Communications Emergency Planning Group will consider issues relevant to communications and technologies.

Media Emergency Planning Group (MEPG)

The Media Emergency Planning Group consider issues to relevance to Responders press Officers and the handling and facilitation of the Media for reporting the news as well as passing on public information messages.