What we do
It is our responsibility at AWP to be prepared to respond to any possible incident. We are committed to developing and maintaining prepared and resilient services by taking a proactive approach to Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response (EPRR).
Our aim is to increase the resilience of AWP so we can respond to major incidents and disruptions while continuing to deliver the critical services that our community relies on. Major incidents and disruptions could include severe weather, fuel or supply shortages, or industrial action involving strikes from work.
In the event of a local or national emergency, the Trust aims to:
- continue to deliver critical services.
- support the emergency services.
- look after casualties from the incident.
- recover as quickly as possible and learn from the incident.
- incorporate all learning from an incident into future plans.
- ensure the safety of our staff.
The following legislation outlines what we must do to ensure we continue to deliver the right standards and levels of care and protection in an emergency:
- Civil Contingencies Act 2004 (CCA)
- NHS Act 2006 (as amended by the Health and Social Care Act 2012)
The objectives of the CCA (2004) are:
- complete a risk assessment.
- develop emergency plans.
- maintain business continuity arrangements.
- warn and inform communities.
- share information with co-responders.
- co-operate with co-responders.
Our duty to deliver EPRR is detailed in the NHS Standard Contract and the NHS England EPRR Framework.
AWP is also measured against 54 standards in the NHS England EPRR Core Standards which cover governance, training, exercising, business continuity and command.
This is subject to an annual assurance process, of which AWP achieved 100% compliance in 2021, which was maintained at 100% in 2022 and again in 2023.
AWP is a member of the BNSSG (Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire) and BSW (Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire) Integrated Care Systems (ICS) for EPRR, working with partners from different agencies in these areas to plan for and respond to all types of emergencies and major incidents.
As part of our EPRR strategy, AWP offers:
- major incident planning, advice and guidance.
- business continuity planning, advice and guidance.
- incident management training, advice and guidance.
- scenario testing and exercising, advice and guidance.
- debriefing to capture learning from incidents.
- multi-agency response.
