Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response (EPRR)

The NHS needs to plan for, and respond to, a wide range of incidents and emergencies that could affect health or patient care. These could be anything from extreme weather conditions to an outbreak of an infectious disease or a major transport accident. The Civil Contingencies Act (2004) requires NHS organisations, and providers of NHS-funded care, to show that they can deal with such incidents while maintaining services.

This programme of work is referred to in the health community as emergency preparedness, resilience and response (EPRR). New arrangements for local health EPRR form some of the changes the Health and Social Care Act 2012 is making to the health system in England. If you would like more information or have any queries, please email nhscb.eprr@nhs.net

Updates (since 1 March 2013)

• 25 March: The NHS England Core Standards Matrix has been slightly amended to ensure clarity in respect of some of the standards. A control sheet within the matrix, highlighting these changes, has been provided. The NHS England Core Standards for EPRR document has been re-issued with the matrix detached.
• 25 March: The NHS England FAQ for EPRR has been updated with a link to the Public Health Regulations 2012 (in the answer section to question 12).
• 22 March: Ian Dalton wrote to colleagues regarding the transition of EPRR.
• The requirements for EPRR are set out in the NHS England planning framework, Everyone Counts: Planning for Patients 2013/14 (section 1.45 on page 13).
• The requirements for EPRR are set out in the near final draft of the 2013/14 NHS standard contract (Service Condition 30, page 25).
• 20 March: The published NHS CB Emergency Preparedness Framework 2013 describes a set of general principles to guide all NHS organisations in developing their ability to respond to incidents and emergencies and to manage recovery locally, regionally or nationally under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. It replaces the NHS Emergency Planning Guidance 2005.
• 20 March: The publishing of the NHS England incident response plans at national, regional and area team level.
• 20 March: The publishing of the NHS England Emergency Planning Officer Competencies and JD Template.
• The Summary of published key strategic guidance for health EPRR has been updated (25 March) to identify those documents which transferred to NHS England to include additional Cabinet Office information and to reflect the publication of the NHS England emergency preparedness framework (2013).

NHS Emergency Preparedness Framework

NHS England Emergency Preparedness Framework 2013: This is a strategic national framework containing principles for health emergency planning for all NHS England at all levels including NHS provider organisations, providers of NHS-funded care, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), GPs and other primary and community care organisations. All NHS-funded organisations must meet the requirements of the Civil Contingencies Act (2004), the Health and Social Care Act (2012), the NHS standard contracts, the NHS England EPRR core standards, the NHS England command and control framework (2013) and NHS England business continuity management framework (2013). This framework supersedes both the “The NHS Emergency Planning Guidance 2005″ and the “Arrangements for Health Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response.

NHS England incident response plans: These set out the arrangements for the command, control and co-ordination of an NHS England health response in the event of periods of pressure, significant incidents or emergencies at either national, regional or area team-level. The plans should be read in conjunction with the Civil Contingencies Act (2004), the NHS planning framework for 2013/14, the NHS standard contracts, the NHS England emergency preparedness framework (2013) and the NHS England command and control framework (2013). These documents collectively supersede the Department of Health’s NHS Operations team’s national incident response plan (NIRP).

• Incident Response Plan (IRP) – national
• Incident Response Plan (IRP) – regional team
• Incident Response Plan (IRP) – area team

NHS England Command and Control Framework for the NHS during significant incidents and emergencies (2013): This document sets out the nationally recognised NHS command and control structure. It explains the framework for responding to local, regional and national periods of pressure, significant incidents and emergencies. This document supersedes the Strategic Command Arrangements for the NHS during a Major Incident guidance published in December 2007.

NHS England Business Continuity Management Framework (service resilience) (2013): This document highlights the need for business continuity management in NHS organisations so that they can maintain continuity of key services in the face of disruption from identified local risks. This document replaces the ‘NHS Resilience and Business Continuity Management Guidance 2008 (Interim Strategic Guidance for NHS organisations)’.

NHS England Core Standards for Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response (EPRR): The core standards are the minimum EPRR standards which NHS Organisations and providers of NHS-funded care must meet in accordance with NHS England planning framework, the terms and conditions of their contracts and in compliance with the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. The core standards matrix is available in Excel format. For NHS- funded providers, these standards clarify the existing EPRR requirements – they are not additional. It is expected that the level of preparedness will be proportionate to the role of each organisation and the services they provide.