Preparing for an emergency - Sussex Resilience Forum
Local resilience forums bring together emergency services, councils, utilities and other essential public and voluntary services to work in partnership to support the local community during incidents and emergencies.
Through the Sussex Resilience Forum (SRF), organisations work together to prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies. The SRF is responsible for coordinating and testing emergency plans and procedures so that member organisations are prepared to meet their duties specified under the Civil Contingencies Act.
During an incident or emergency, members of the resilience forum work together to support the organisation/s that are leading the response.
The Sussex Resilience Forum is hosted on behalf of all partners by Sussex Police.
For more information about preparing for and responding to emergencies in your area, visit:
The nature of the emergency will affect the decisions you make and the actions you take.
In an emergency, if you are not involved in the incident, but are close by or believe you may be in danger, the best advice is to go inside a safe building (close windows, turn off any air-conditioning or ventilation equipment), stay inside until you are advised to do otherwise, and tune in to local radio or TV for information.
- Make sure 999 has been called if people are injured or if there is a threat to life.
- Do not put yourself or others in danger
- Follow the advice of the emergency services
- Try to remain calm and think before acting
- Try to reassure others.
Emergency responders may not immediately be able to provide information on what is happening and what you should do. However, you should watch TV, listen to the radio or check the internet often for official news and instructions as they become available.
All local resilience forums are required to publish a community risk register, setting out the most likely risks, the plans in place to manage those risks and what local communities can do to be prepared.
There is a range of tools, checklist and advice available to help individuals, communities and businesses to be better prepared for incidents and emergencies.
Category 1 responders
Emergency services
- Sussex Police
- West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service
- East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service
- South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust
- Maritime and Coastguard Agency
- British Transport Police
Local authorities
- Brighton and Hove City Council
- East Sussex County Council
- West Sussex County Council
- Eastbourne Borough Council
- Hastings Borough Council
- Lewes District Council
- Rother District Council
- Wealden District Council
- Adur District Council
- Arun District Council
- Chichester District Council
- Crawley Borough Council
- Horsham District Council
- Mid Sussex District Council
- Worthing Borough Council
Sussex NHS
- NHS Sussex
- East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust
- Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust
- Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
- University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust
- NHS England (South East)
Other partners
- UK Health Security Agency
- Environment Agency
Category 2 responders
Utilities
- National Grid
- UK Power Network
- South East Water
- Southern Water
- Portsmouth Water
- Scottish & Southern Energy
Communications network
- 02
- EE
- 3
- Vodafone
Transport
- Highways England
- Southern Trains
- South Eastern Trains
- EWS (freight operator)
- Network Rail
Airports
- London Gatwick Airport
- Brighton and Hove City Airport
Harbour authorities
- Shoreham Harbour
- Newhaven Harbour
- Rye Harbour
Other partners
- Met Office
- Health and Safety Executive
- Animal and Plant Health Agency
- Ministry of Defence
- Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
- Sussex Chamber of Commerce
Voluntary, community and social enterprises
- British Red Cross
- St John Ambulance
- Cruse Bereavement Care
- Disaster Action
- Raynet
- Salvation Army
- The Samaritans
- Victim Support
- Sussex 4x4 Response
- RVS
A small business management team, hosted by Sussex Police on behalf of all partners, provides secretariat support to the resilience forum. They can be contacted at:
SRF Business Management Team
Operations Department
Sussex Police Headquarters
Church Lane
Lewes BN7 2DZ