Government training more than 4,000 people to deal with 'the next Covid'
Government training more than 4,000 people to deal with 'the next Covid'
A new academy has been launched to train 4,000 people in the public and private sectors
New exercises could be heald every three years
Ministers have launched a new national training initiative to help public officials manage future crises such as another pandemic. The UK Resilience Academy will train more than 4,000 people each year, working in both public services and the private sector, to better deal with crises.
Skills being taught including helping businesses maintain continuity in the event of a disaster, crowd management skills, and crisis communications. The new academy will be based at the Hawkhills estate near Easingwold, north of York, a site which has a history of being used for emergency planning.
The armed forces and Civil Service will also be offered the training, which is aimed at making sure Britain is better prepared in the event of something like the Covid-19 pandemic. The training is among the steps the Government is taking following a warning from the UK Covid-19 Inquiry that the UK is not prepared nor resilient enough to deal with another pandemic.
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Baroness Heather Hallett, the inquiry chairwoman, called for pandemic preparedness exercises to be held at least every three years in future in her conclusion to the first module of the wide-ranging investigation. Ministers plan to hold one in 2025, with all Government departments, local councils, emergency services and the devolved authorities invited to take part.
An emergency alert system, which rings out from mobile phones in the event of a public emergency, is also to be tested this year.
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However, Lady Hallett said only this month that the Government needs to do 'far more work' on emergency preparedness beyond the steps already being taken.
Pat McFadden, a senior minister in the Cabinet Office, who is leading the Government's resilience planning work, said: 'Today, we're making a generational upgrade to crisis training for thousands of workers, and helping decision-makers identify vulnerable groups in a crisis.'
Mr McFadden has also launched a new piece of software which will be used to highlight where vulnerable groups are, including the elderly, and those with power outages and insecure food supplies, during crises.
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