Classification: Official
Publication reference: PRN01970
Dear colleagues,
Emergency preparedness, resilience and response (EPRR) annual assurance process for 2025/26
Thank you for your continued leadership and commitment to EPRR. We recognise that the healthcare landscape continues to evolve, and with that comes a degree of uncertainty. Nonetheless, maintaining our readiness to respond to emergencies remains both a vital priority and a statutory duty for the NHS. This includes the cross government pandemic exercise as well as the EPRR exercise programme.
Under the NHS Act 2006, NHS England has a statutory duty to ensure that the NHS in England is properly prepared for dealing with an emergency. This includes monitoring the compliance of each ICB and service provider with EPRR requirements via the NHS EPRR annual assurance process. This process for 2025/26 has now begun and this note contains a summary of actions for NHS organisations to take.
The assurance process uses organisational self-assessments of compliance with the NHS Core Standards for EPRR. The outcome of this process should be used by organisations to identify areas of good practice and issues that require further development. It is expected that organisations will use their self-assessment to guide their annual work plan and priorities the development of local arrangements.
ICBs will again take the lead across the Local Health Resilience Partnership to ensure that providers of NHS funded services remain accountable for their arrangements
NHS Core Standards for EPRR
The core standards can be found in the NHS core standards for EPRR self-assessment tool. ICBs and service providers are asked to undertake a self-assessment against the individual core standards relevant to your organisation type and rate their compliance for each.
The compliance level for each standard is defined as:
Compliance level | Definition |
|---|---|
Fully compliant | Fully compliant with the core standard. |
Partially compliant | Not compliant with the core standard. The organisation’s EPRR work programme demonstrates evidence of progress and an action plan is in place to achieve full compliance within the next 12 months. |
Non-compliant | Not compliant with the core standard. In line with the organisation’s EPRR work programme, compliance will not be reached within the next 12 months. |
Organisational assurance rating
The number of core standards applicable to each organisation type is different. The overall EPRR assurance rating is based on the percentage of core standards the organisations assess itself as being ‘fully compliant’ with. This is explained in more detail below:
Organisational rating | Criteria |
|---|---|
Fully | The organisation is fully compliant against 100% of the relevant NHS Core Standards for EPRR |
Substantial | The organisation is fully compliant against 89-99% of the relevant NHS Core Standards for EPRR |
Partial | The organisation is fully compliant against 77-88% of the relevant NHS Core Standards for EPRR |
Non-compliant | The organisation is fully compliant up to 76% of the relevant NHS Core Standards for EPRR |
Deep dive
Typically, each year as part of the annual process, a deep dive is conducted to gain additional insight in a specific area. We will not, however, be conducting a deep dive this year.
Action to take
EPRR Assurance Process
Stage 1: Self-assessment
- all NHS organisations must complete a self-assessment against the current NHS Core Standards for Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response (EPRR) relevant to their specific organisation.
Stage 2: Local assurance
- integrated Care Boards (ICBs) must work with their commissioned providers of NHS-funded services to establish a process that gives confidence in their compliance ratings.
- the self-assessment results and ICB review outcomes must be formally presented at each organisation’s public board meeting for executive approval and sign-off.
- organisations without public boards must still obtain executive approval and sign-off, and publish results in a public area, such as their annual report.
- ICBs must collaborate with Local Health Resilience Partnership (LHRP) partners to develop a process that encourages sharing of learning and good practice examples.
- provider organisations must submit an assurance outcome report to their ICB, including their self-assessment against core standards, an action plan for addressing areas of partial or non-compliance, and their overall organisational compliance rating.
Stage 3: Regional assurance
- NHS England Regional Deputy Directors of EPRR and their teams must work with ICBs to establish a process that gives confidence in ICB organisational compliance ratings.
- the outcomes from this process must be formally presented at each ICB’s public board meeting for executive approval and sign-off.
- NHS England Regional Deputy Directors of EPRR and their teams must create opportunities for ICBs to come together formally to discuss the outcomes of their assurance processes, promoting the sharing of learning and good practice examples across the region.
- ICBs must provide NHS England Regional EPRR teams with an assurance outcome report that includes their self-assessment against core standards, action plans for addressing areas of partial or non-compliance, common risks, good practice examples, and organisational compliance information for all organisations within their geography.
Stage 4: National assurance
- NHS England Regional Deputy Directors of EPRR must submit an assurance outcome report to the NHS Resilience Team before Wednesday 31 December 2025, including details of their regional process, preparedness levels, common risks, good practice areas, and organisational compliance ratings for each NHS organisation in their geography.
The board of each NHS Organisation is responsible for EPRR and should be engaged as part of this process. This includes holding the Accountable Emergency Officer (AEO) to account for delivering the organisation’s EPRR responsibilities.
If you have any queries, please contact your ICB EPRR lead leads in the first instance or your NHS England’s Regional EPRR.
Thank you for your continued dedication to this vital aspect of our work.
Yours sincerely,
Dr Mike Prentice, National Director for NHS Resilience, NHS England
Leaf Mobbs, National Programme Director for Urgent & Emergency Care, NHS England