Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response (EPRR)

All NHS organisations have a duty to put in place continuity arrangements.

This means that services should be maintained to agreed standards during any disruption (e.g. loss of utilities, loss of staff, loss of estate etc.) or recovered to these standards as soon as possible. Business continuity management (BCM) gives Mersey Care a framework for identifying and managing risks that could disrupt normal service. The holistic process of business continuity management is an essential tool in establishing the organisation’s resilience.

All staff are responsible for

• Being aware of their role & responsibilities during incidents and emergencies ~ if in doubt, discuss with your line manager
• Ensure they are familiar with the contents and location of business continuity plan and action cards related to their team/ service.

Each team / service is required to have a Business Continuity Plan that defines how they will continue delivering critical services during periods of unplanned disruption e.g. loss of IT, loss of equipment etc.  The Emergency Planning Team are offering workshops to advise Team Leaders and Managers on how to complete their BCP. 

If you are interested in attending any of the sessions, please email Emergency.Planning@merseycare.nhs.uk to reserve a place. 

If you have any feedback on the session, please complete the attached form.

Please see table below for details of the workshop content and session dates.  You are only required to attend one workshop. 

Target audience

Team Leaders and Managers who are required to have Business Continuity Plans, and have little or no experience of creating a Business Impact Analysis and in turn, developing a Business Continuity Plan

Workshop content

The aim of the session is to;

• support team leaders and managers with creating a Business Impact Analysis (BIA) and developing a Business Continuity Plan (BCP)
• provide an introduction to the Trust’s BIA and BCP templates
• give an interactive demonstration, providing live examples of how to complete each section of the templates
• discuss the various scenarios / triggers which may impact on the delivery of essential services
• allow attendees the opportunity to raise general and role specific questions throughout

Visit YourSpace for more information including dates, times and contact information.

• Major Incident Plan
• Trust wide Incident Response Plans
• Business Continuity Policy
• Useful templates and guidance for the development of Business Continuity plans
• HAZMAT Plan - contact numbers for advice are available in the HAZMAT Plan, which is available on the Trust policies and procedures YourSpace page.

It is a mandatory requirement for all Tactical (Silver) on-call managers to attend the NHSE Principles of Health Command (Tactical) training.

The sessions for 2024 are listed below:   

• 26 January 12pm to 4pm
• 20 February 9am to 1pm
• 15 March 12pm to 4pm
• 22 April 10am to 2pm
• 15 May 9am to 1pm
• 14 June 12pm to 4pm
• 18 July 10am to 2pm
• 15 August 9am to 1pm
• 20 September 12pm to 4pm
• 10 October 10am to 2pm
• 14 November 9am to 1pm
• 11 December 12am to 4pm

To book a place please email PHC.North@nhs.net (copying in Emergency.Planning@merseycare.nhs.uk) with the following information:

• Name of the candidate
• Email address of the candidate requiring the course booking
• Organisation
• Role in organisation
• Command Level
• Date they wish to attend the ‘Teams’ 4-hour online course

Please note that candidates must attend for the entire four hours of the course to be compliant. If people leave early or part way through, they will need to attend another full session.

The main reason is because disasters can and do happen and we are expected to have tested plans to deal with them. Emergency response plans are developed to mitigate the implications of incidents. The organisation has a duty of care to patients and their families, the staff, the community, and partner agencies. Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust is a 'Category One Responder' under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and has a statutory obligation to plan, train and exercise for emergencies in consultation, coordination, communication, and cooperation with partner agencies like other NHS organisations, emergency services, local authorities, and commissioners. 

Major Incidents:

In line with the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, a major incident is any event that threatens life, the environment and security and has the potential to:

• Require a substantial emergency response from one or more agencies
• Stretch resources beyond the normal level of activity
• Require special arrangements to be put in place, including requirement for additional resources
• Require a planned, coordinated multi agency approach in conjunction with command-and-control arrangements

Please refer to the Trust Major Incident Plan for further detail.