DCRF Forum, March 2025
Devon Community Resilience Forum, tuesday 11th march 2025 at Langtree Parish Hall
Many thanks to our guests and their informative and thought-provoking presentations. This round-up gives a brief presentation of each, highlights some of the reports, websites and agencies they referred to along with links to other organisations mentioned.
For more information about Devon Community Resilience Forum, check our
Summary of presentations
There is a short summary of each presentation with a link to the slides below.
- Role of the District Resilience Officers: Alex Miles & Simon Bridgeman, North Devon and Torridge District Councils
- Emergency Response Exercise 'Preparing for a Storm: How would your community respond to an emergency?' Led by Harriet Freestone from JBA Consulting
- Police role in flood response: Sarah Deacock, Devon & Cornwall Police
- Community Hubs: Camella Town, Wiltshire & Swindon Local Resilience Forum
There is also a 'jargon buster' at the end of the page to unpack some of the acronyms that were used.
1. Role of the District Resilience Officers
Alex Miles and Simon Bridgetown introduced themselves and explained the important roles of a Resilience Officer in North Devon and Torridge Councils respectively. They discussed how they could get involved with communities and left people more aware of how to work with them going forward.
The full presentation can be accessed below:
2. Emergency Response Exercise 'Preparing for a Storm: How would your community respond to an emergency?'
The team from JBA Consulting kept us busy for the morning by creating a rolling emergency that we all had to engage with using our emergency plans – or others provided for the exercise. This gave a fascinating insight into the complexities of thinking on your feet, reflecting, and spotting gaps for improvement!
The full presentation can be accessed below:
3. Police role in flood response
Sarah Deacock from Devon and Cornwall Police gave us an insight into the role of the police if an emergency incident takes place. It was interesting to understand the way the response develops in relation to unfolding events, and gave a clear sense of how the police would engage.
The full presentation can be accessed below:
4. community hubs
Camella Town from Wiltshire and Swindon Local Resilience Forum presentation centred on the way communities can develop the idea of creating a generic emergency hub, allowing for responses to a variety of potential incidents. She gave insights into how these work in practice, and was very clear on why they are a good model for rural communities.
Q&A Summary
We gathered a healthy set of questions during the course of the day, which we tried to address at the end if the presentations hadn’t done so. One concern raised was around insurance to cover volunteers engaged in supporting an emergency plan being put into action. The consensus was that if acting in the best interests of the community, and under a plan, this would be unlikely to be an issue. Another interesting area of discussion focussed on identifying vulnerable people in a community. Answers particularly noted the value of local community knowledge, but also how -depending on the nature of an incident- vulnerabilities might change.
The twenty-plus questions raised also touched on such factors as how local government reorganisation would impact on emergency planning; how to invite volunteers to come forward to join in planning and where factors such as cyber security, wind and extreme heat sat alongside flooding issues in the emergency planning process.
We will review all the questions and send out a more detailed response in a forthcoming DCRF newsletter. If you would like to be added to the DCRF mailing list, please contact the team DCRF@devoncommunities.org.uk.
Jargon Buster
There were several acronyms and references to organisations that you might not be familiar with.
LRF – Local Resilience Forums plan and prepare for localised incidents and emergencies, identify potential risks and produce emergency plans. They are made up of representatives from local public services, including the emergency services, local authorities, the NHS, the Environment Agency and others. These agencies are known as Category 1 Responders, as defined by the Civil Contingencies Act. In Devon our LRF covers Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly (DCIoS) - DCIS LRF - Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly Local Resilience Forum (dcisprepared.org.uk)
VCSEP – Voluntary and Community Sector Emergencies Partnership. A network which brings together local, regional and national organisations ranging from nationwide specialist organisations like St John Ambulance and the British Red Cross to local infrastructure and smaller community organisations with varying levels of emergency response and preparedness experience. Sometimes written as DCIoS VCS
RE:ACT - an emergency and crisis response charity, operating in the UK and overseas which deploys the skills and experience of military veterans when people need immediate and urgent relief. REACT | Disaster Response - REACT (re-act.org.uk)
