3. Multi-agency working

Multi-agency working

Another theme raised in the systematic literature review was the importance of multi-agency cooperation, and effective communication across organisations when planning and responding to disasters. This is also important from a legal perspective.

Quick Quiz: Remember your learning from Module 2 on the Civil Contingencies Act 2004.

The Civil Contingencies Act requires the creation of which of the following:

  1. Local Resilience Forums
  2. Disaster Response Partnerships
  3. Local Authority Disaster Forums

Which of the following is a Category 1 responder under the Civil Contingencies Act?

  1. Network Rail
  2. NHS
  3. Food Producers

Which of the following is not a requirement for Category 1 responders?

  1. Put in place emergency plans.
  2. Build community resilience to respond to disasters.
  3. Have an appropriate number of trained emergency response personnel.

Answers

Social workers need to be able to engage with a range of professionals in preparing for and responding to disasters, as well as in supporting recovery. This includes working with the Category 1 responders, such as the police, NHS, and the ambulance service. This also includes other professionals, such as housing organisations, the coroner’s office, community leaders and keyworkers working for private organisations.

Complete short task 7 in workbook (15 minutes)

It is important to re-iterate at this point that the social work role in disasters is not always recognised, and in engaging in disasters social workers need to be confident to advocate for their role, and the support that the populations they work with require. This requires preparation, and social workers should not expect to be able to engage in effective multi-agency working in the event of a disaster without this preparation (this is covered in more detail in Module 2).

Next section

Section links

  1. Listening to people impacted by disasters
  2. Research on working with specific groups
    1. Older Populations
    2. Ethnic Minority Populations
    3. Women
  3. Multi-agency working (current page)
  4. Follow-up task