Ensuring we are prepared to deal with emergencies
Under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea is defined as a Category 1 Responder. During any emergency that occurs in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, the role of the Council is to support and assist the emergency services in life saving and operational activities and then take the lead alongside its communities to implement recovery.
Supporting our communities
The Council recognises that in order to effectively support Kensington and Chelsea’s communities in the event of emergencies in the borough, it needs to continuously review, refresh and test its contingency arrangements, benchmarking them against resilience standards for London.
We also want to include and work alongside our communities, volunteers, groups, and organisations in the response.
Resilience Team
The Resilience Team lead on specialist areas of community engagement, major incidents and business continuity.
The team is made up of:
- Resilience Manager
- Resilience Advisor (Community Engagement)
- Humanitarian Assitance Advisor
- Resilience Advisor (Business Continuity)
- Resilience Advisor (Major Incidents)
What we dof
We:
- ensure that the Council fulfils its statutory duties under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004
- prepare, maintain and review arrangements for dealing with major incidents across the Borough.work closely with the emergency services, other councils and many other agencies and organisations within the London Resilience Forum. This ensures that arrangements are in place and everyone is prepared and to react if something does happen
Planning
We:
- continually assess the risks posed to Kensington and Chelsea using the London Resilience Forum risk matrix
- develop and maintain plans to ensure that procedures are in place to control and mitigate the impact of adverse events. This includes developing processes and plans to maintain business continuity within our own Council to minimise any disruption to our services.
Training and advice
We:
- work with staff and partner agencies to raise awareness and develop skills in planning and managing emergency situations
- develop training in resilience and emergencies for our departments and teams
- advise council staff on resilience and emergencies matters
Testing
We test our own and others emergency response by scheduling and taking part in exercises. This enables us to check that procedures and arrangements work effectively and gives staff the knowledge and confidence to carry out their roles in a controlled environment.
Liaising
We:
- work closely with local groups, people and partner agencies to share information and ensure our plans and procedures are all-inclusive. This helps us provide an effective and coordinated response to emergency incidents
- work with local communities to make communities stronger and more able to help themselves in an emergency
Responding
- We respond to any emergency when we are called upon
- Our Resilience and Emergencies Advisors are on call 24 hours a day to respond to emergency incidents.
Contact us
Emergencies
- telephone: 020 7361 3000
For non-urgent enquiries
- email: [email protected]
London Resilience Forum
The London Resilience Forum is a non-statutory, multi-agency organisation that works together to make London a safer place. Membership consists of:
- Emergency Services
- National Health Service/UK Health Security Agency
- London’s local authorities and the GLA
- Environment Agency
- military and other government representatives with a comprehensive support from the voluntary sector
- utility companies
- Port of London Authority
Further information
Find out more about the London Resilience Forum.