Community Resilience Workshops - Round Up

Thank you to everyone who was able to come along to the Community Resilience Strategy Workshops. We had over 130 people register and some great discussions took place over the 6 sessions. There is a huge amount for the team to absorb and we are working through all of that now. We've set this page up to help with the work of improving resilience in Aberdeenshire and we hope to use it as a resource for us all as well. You'll see that we've added a number of links to the page where you can get more information as well some of the documents referenced in the sessions. For those who weren't able to attend you can see the presentation here.

There were some key issues raised so hopefully this message will give some updates for everyone.

Individual, Household, Family and Community Resilience

While we are working through all the notes and feedback there was clear support for the development of the concept of individual, household, family and community resilience. Our challenge is now to articulate that in the strategy but more practically convert that into meaningful action. We are working hard on this and will keep everyone updated on progress.

Digital Telephones

We know there are concerns about the retirement of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and the move to a digital telephone network by 2025. We are grateful to our colleague Jack Rigby, from the Council's Digital Engagement Team who was able to make some of the sessions and give really clear insight and information about the switch over and what it means for us all. The big take away message was that the roll over is happening by 2025 but that If you are dependent on your landline phone – for example, if you don’t have a mobile phone or don’t have mobile signal at your home – then your provider must offer you a solution to make sure you can contact the emergency services when a power cut occurs. For example, a mobile phone (if you have signal), or a battery back-up unit for your landline phone. Detailed advice is available from Ofcom the telecoms regulator.

The Digital Engagement Team welcome contact so if you want to discuss an issue in more detail please get in touch with them.

Individual Preparedness Guides

Currently Aberdeenshire Council promote the guidance on Ready Scotland which is the Scottish Government website for the promotion of resilience matters in Scotland. There is a lot of useful information in this site but feedback we've received following the winter storms and in general is that the Individual Preparedness Guides on Ready Scotland are a little on the light side and can be improved. The information is of course all on Ready Scotland but not in a single document which many find easier to use.

That's why we've looked elsewhere both within the United Kingdom and internationally. To the right of this page you'll see a link to the Household Emergency Plan produced by SSEN and of course those international documents (New Zealand, Canda, Norway, Sweden) we discussed. The SSEN document provides lots of helpful material and is ready to use. We would commend that to you. We will continue to develop an Aberdeenshire Individual Preparedness Guide and welcome comments or thoughts on how this can be developed.

As we develop a draft Aberdeenshire version we will share that for thoughts and comments.

Household Emergency Kits

A consistent message from the sessions was guidance on what to include in a household kit. This was also a strong theme during the engagement sessions we carried out following the storms. There is good advice out there, particularly from SSEN but we accept that Aberdeenshire Council could provide some guidance here. We will put out some quick information on this soon which can be shared.

Community Hubs

We know that many Community Resilience Groups are looking for guidance on where their particular premises fits into any response and in many ways we can't offer any certainty to that answer. Each response will be different depending on the needs of the emergency we face. Costs, insurance liabilities and other issues also feature in this and there is a report currently under consideration within the council that will clarify the position. Some are concerned that they may duplicate council provision, our view in the Risk and Resilience Team is that this isn't a problem and that groups should decide when to open their own venues depending on the circumstances they see in their own area.

Vulnerable People

During the Winter Storms many of us were involved in exercises to visit the addresses of those we consider vulnerable. We also know and appreciate that many groups would like access to the information that the Council, Health & Social Care Partnership and NHS hold. While we understand why, it's unlikely to happen due to the compex nature of sharing personal medical information. As partners, Council, Health & Social Care Partnership and NHS are signed up to the Persons at Risk Distribution (PARD) project where we can access the details of anyone who may need additional help in an emergency.

We do recgonise that some groups may wish to maintain more formal self registering lists that they maintain. Groups can do this as long as they adhere to the principles of the General Data Protection Regularions and we may be able to help.

We continue to promote the Priority Service Registers in Scotland. The Priority Services Register (PSR) is a free UK wide service which provides extra help during power cuts or when there’s an interruption to your electricity, gas or water supply. Joining the PSR helps companies to provide adapted services, adjust communications and make amendments to keep you safe, such as setting up a password scheme and providing advance warning of planned interruptions to electricity, gas or water supplies.

SSEN Funding

Finally, we just wanted to touch on the funding that SSEN have set aside for Aberdeenshire. Following the completion of internal and external reviews into the Winter Storms of 2021/22, SSEN have announced an additional £3.5m of funding to support network and community resilience. This comprises:

• £1.2m for additional network resilience investment, focused on enhanced protection of key circuits and contingency measures to help improve response time in future major storm events.
• £1.8m of ring-fenced funding for local authorities in the most affected regions to support community and personal resilience projects, focused on the vulnerable, adding to the £0.5m boost to SSEN’s Resilient Communities Fund which was awarded in September.
• A total of 27 awards totaling approximately £460,000 has been made to Aberdeenshire based applicants.