Emergency Services and Government deliver new National Occupational Standards

Aligned with the launch of the UK Resilience Academy, the NOS for Resilience and Emergencies have been developed to strengthen organisational and societal resilience to known and unknown threats, such as climate change or a COVID-19-style pandemic for example, and enable business, Government and civil society to better withstand (and quickly recover from) a crisis episode.

Experts in resilience and emergency planning and preparedness from across central and local Government, the Emergency Services, the NHS and operators of key strategic infrastructure led the project to design the NOS. Now published, it’s intended that the NOS for Resilience and Emergencies will guide recruitment, training and skills needs analysis and performance management activities in organisations with statutory and non-statutory responsibilities for emergency planning and disaster preparedness.

Vitally important

Dave Walton is Deputy Chief Fire Officer at the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service. He’s also co-chair of the West Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum and leads on resilience and emergency preparedness for the National Fire Chiefs Council.

“Resilience is vitally important to the Fire and Rescue Services as we have to plan and train for emergencies and be able to respond 24/7, 365. What resilience looks like is different for every organisation, though. The NOS gives everyone a baseline to work from in terms of ensuring emergency response is as effective as it can be.”

Walton added: “The Resilience and Emergencies NOS will be vital for supporting interoperability and intraoperability in Fire and Rescue and the wider Emergency Services, providing recognised standards for the training of staff. Society presents us with dynamic and complex challenges. Some are predictable, others are less so, which is why effective emergency response is an integral part of strengthening overall resilience.”

Definition of competence

Hamish Cormack, head of the UK Resilience Academy, stated: “NOS provide an employer-led, multi-sector definition of competence, setting the standards which govern and quality assure skills and skills development across the UK. The NOS for Resilience and Emergencies are a significant step forward in terms of supporting a UK-wide approach to resilience and emergency preparedness, providing the foundations for building skills capacity across our nations and regions to mitigate the risks posed by a range of disruptive challenges.”

John Rogers is CEO of The Workforce Development Trust, the charity and standard-setting organisation responsible for the development and review of the NOS for Resilience and Emergencies. Rogers informed Fire Safety Matters: “In a complex and uncertain world, it’s paramount that society as a collective takes action to strengthen the nation’s resilience towards new and emerging threats, protecting the health and security of our communities.”

Rogers continued: “Strengthening our resilience requires the business community, Government and civil society to work together to develop the shared capabilities and capacity needed to re-think, re-adjust and re-align in the face of rapid change. Skills and skills development are integral to this. The NOS for Resilience and Emergencies provide an overarching framework and common language to support employers and qualifications bodies to work in alignment with one another on achieving this goal.”

Separate standards

The NOS for Resilience and Emergencies contain 11 separate standards, which can be used alongside a series of generic NOS supporting areas such as management, project management, governance and IT.

Together, the standards are intended to be used for developing skills and knowledge via direct transfer into vocational and other qualifications, as a framework for training programmes and job descriptions and also as measures of workplace competence.

NOS are recognised by the Scottish Qualifications Authority, Qualifications Wales and the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment in Northern Ireland. In England, NOS are part of the Regulated Qualifications Framework which regulates general and vocational qualifications.