Job summary
Join Our Team: Emergency Preparedness, Resilience & Response (EPRR) Assistant Officer
Are you passionate about keeping people safe and ensuring that vital services continue in times of crisis? We are looking for a dedicated EPRR Officer to support and strengthen the resilience of the Integrated Care Board (ICB).
Key Responsibilities: As a key member of the EPRR team, you will:
- Maintain and update EPRR plans, policies, and training records.
- Work proactively with the System Coordination Centre (SCC) to ensure preparedness for business continuity threats and emergencies.
- Help lead incident response coordination and manage on-call functions to ensure 24/7 readiness.
- Facilitate clear communication across the ICB and its partners to ensure efficient incident management and safety.
What Youll Bring:
- Strong administrative and organisational skills.
- A proactive approach with excellent attention to detail.
- The ability to collaborate and adapt in a fast-paced environment.
- A passion for emergency preparedness and resilience in health and care services.
This is a fantastic opportunity to make a real impact on the health and care systems ability to respond to emergencies and maintain essential services. If you're ready for a dynamic and rewarding role, we want to hear from you!
Apply Today and Help Build a Safer, More Resilient Future!
Main duties of the job
- Support the development and implementation of contingency measures to meet national EPRR Core Standard requirements.
- Promote a positive Business Continuity and Emergency Preparedness culture across the ICB.
- Maintain the Local Health and Care Resilience Partnership work programme and ensure actions are tracked.
- Update and manage EPRR plans, policies, and documents to ensure timely review.
- Oversee training and exercise records, ensuring EPRR team and on-call staff competencies are current.
- Distribute sensitive information from NHS England and other agencies regarding emergencies and risks.
- Assist with the preparation and submission of evidence for NHS Englands annual EPRR core standards.
- Support the running of exercises to test business continuity and incident response plans.
- Provide administrative support to the Incident Control Team during major incidents.
- Serve as a Decision Making Loggist during incidents and maintain Incident Coordination Centre readiness.
- Manage Business Continuity Plans (BCPs), coordinating testing, exercises, and reporting.
About us
NHS
Somerset Integrated Care Board (ICB) is responsible for implementing a health
and care strategy developed by the Integrated Care Partnership. It consists of
approximately 350 staff across 8 directorates, each with multiple teams. We
welcome applications from all backgrounds, including underrepresented groups,
and are committed to equality of opportunity. We believe diverse organisations
best reflect the communities they serve.
We
reserve the right to close the vacancy early if sufficient applications are
received before the advertised closing date.
Visa
sponsorship is not offered.
Flexible
working is available from day one, including an agile home/office-based
approach. However, you will be required to work from our HQ in Yeovil for 2/3
days a week and traveling to other Somerset locations for meetings may be
necessary. Please consider this before applying.
Note
for existing NHS Employees applying for Fixed Term vacancies at NHS Somerset
If you
are an existing NHS Employee and are applying for a Fixed Term role with NHS
Somerset, the role will be offered on a secondment basis only.
You
should gain agreement from your current employer before applying to allow you
to be released on secondment.
Please
ensure the reference section confirms your current HR Department details.
Thank you
for your interest
Job description
Job responsibilities
PURPOSE
OF THE ROLE:
- The post holder is a key member of the emergency preparedness
resilience and response (EPRR) team, to support the development and
implementation of contingency measures to meet national EPRR core standards
requirements.
- The post holder will adopt a proactive approach in supporting
and promoting a positive business continuity and emergency preparedness culture.
Under the supervision of the EPRR Officer, support the delivery of the EPRR
work programme and work closely with the System Coordination Centre (SCC) team.
- A culture of continuous improvement and collaborative working
will be the key to success.
KEY
RESPONSIBILTIES OF THE ROLE:
Emergency Planning, Resilience and Response
-
Maintain
the Local Health and Care Resilience Partnership (LHCRP) work programme
documents, ensuring actions are tracked and followed up.
-
Maintain
the database of EPRR plans, policies and documents to ensure they are reviewed
and updated in a timely manner.
-
Manage
the training and exercising records and calendar to ensure that key
competencies for the EPRR team and on call directors are up to date.
-
Receive
and distribute sensitive information from NHS England, the Department of Health
and other agencies relating to emergencies, threats and risk assessments, where
necessary.
-
Support
and facilitate the work of the SCC and other ICB teams in preparing for and
responding to business continuity threats, incidents and emergencies.
-
Work
closely with the SCC to ensure that all relevant alerts are shared with
partners when received in the ICB, maintaining accurate distribution lists.
-
To
assist with the compilation, completion and co-ordination of evidence for the
NHS England annual core standards for EPRR submission.
-
Assist
in the preparation of Somerset ICBs EPRR annual report.
-
To
assist with audits pertaining to EPRR and the supporting evidence gathering.
-
To
contribute to the coordination and running of exercises to prepare staff and to
verify the capability of incident and business continuity plans.
-
To
provide key administrative support to the Incident Response Team, EPRR team,
SCC and directors on-call in the event of a major incident within the Somerset
system.
-
Act
as an official decision making Loggist on a rotational basis, in the event of
an incident and the establishment of an emergency response support team.
-
Update
the ICB EPRR Future NHS pages and Resilience Direct pages as directed by the
EPRR Officer, ensuring all information is up to date.
-
Support
the EPRR Officer in managing the two tier on call function of the ICB,
negotiating periods of cover with the directors on call, to ensure the ICB
fulfils the requirement to have a 24/7 on call function.
-
Support
the planning and preparation of the Incident Coordination Centre (ICC) to
ensure that the equipment is all present and fully functional, so that the ICC
can be stood up and fully functioning in the event of an incident at a moments
notice, adapting this process for a virtual ICC.
-
Capturing
and maintaining a calendar of events and key supporting documentation, as
provided by the Safety Advisory Group, completing a risk assessment and sharing
this information with providers through the Future NHS platform.
Business Continuity
-
Manage
the administration of a local testing and exercising schedule for business
continuity plans (BCPs), providing support in delivery of live and table top
exercises, collating responses and assisting in the writing of test reports and
action plans.
-
To contribute to and support the
development of ICB business continuity plans, liaising with team leads as
appropriate including any internal cascade process.
-
Coordinate
and implement a programme to annually review and test the resilience of the business
impact assessments with ICB teams.
-
To support the
development and implementation of a three year rolling testing and exercising schedule
(including regular communication tests and ICC establishment tests) to develop
major incident and emergency response management skills and awareness across
the organisation
-
Ensure staff take all
available opportunities to test their response capacity and to identify
learning and improvements needed in response plans.
-
Liaise with the Sustainability and
Estates Manager to ensure that ICB offices are safe and fit for purpose to
support the business continuity of the organisation.
-
Liaise with the digital and information
governance teams to provide evidence and assurance around business continuity
for the data security and protection annual toolkit submission.
-
Support communications to all staff
around business continuity including key events like business continuity awareness
week.
General
-
Produce
clear and accurate written correspondence and reports as required.
-
Maintain
and monitor team staff records (e.g. annual leave, training, personal contact
information).
-
Any
other appropriate duties in consultation with the line manager and post holder.
-
To
provide administrative support to the Head of EPRR.
-
Plan and organise own workload.
-
Adopting
an innovative approach to achieve goals.
-
Being
flexible in your approach to working hours, which may involve working outside
core hours.
-
Working
well with teams across the organisation (including working closely with the
SCC) and across the health and care system in Somerset.
-
Flexible
and hybrid working options are available, but routine face to face presence at
base or other locations will be expected.
Job description
Job responsibilities
PURPOSE
OF THE ROLE:
- The post holder is a key member of the emergency preparedness
resilience and response (EPRR) team, to support the development and
implementation of contingency measures to meet national EPRR core standards
requirements.
- The post holder will adopt a proactive approach in supporting
and promoting a positive business continuity and emergency preparedness culture.
Under the supervision of the EPRR Officer, support the delivery of the EPRR
work programme and work closely with the System Coordination Centre (SCC) team.
- A culture of continuous improvement and collaborative working
will be the key to success.
KEY
RESPONSIBILTIES OF THE ROLE:
Emergency Planning, Resilience and Response
-
Maintain
the Local Health and Care Resilience Partnership (LHCRP) work programme
documents, ensuring actions are tracked and followed up.
-
Maintain
the database of EPRR plans, policies and documents to ensure they are reviewed
and updated in a timely manner.
-
Manage
the training and exercising records and calendar to ensure that key
competencies for the EPRR team and on call directors are up to date.
-
Receive
and distribute sensitive information from NHS England, the Department of Health
and other agencies relating to emergencies, threats and risk assessments, where
necessary.
-
Support
and facilitate the work of the SCC and other ICB teams in preparing for and
responding to business continuity threats, incidents and emergencies.
-
Work
closely with the SCC to ensure that all relevant alerts are shared with
partners when received in the ICB, maintaining accurate distribution lists.
-
To
assist with the compilation, completion and co-ordination of evidence for the
NHS England annual core standards for EPRR submission.
-
Assist
in the preparation of Somerset ICBs EPRR annual report.
-
To
assist with audits pertaining to EPRR and the supporting evidence gathering.
-
To
contribute to the coordination and running of exercises to prepare staff and to
verify the capability of incident and business continuity plans.
-
To
provide key administrative support to the Incident Response Team, EPRR team,
SCC and directors on-call in the event of a major incident within the Somerset
system.
-
Act
as an official decision making Loggist on a rotational basis, in the event of
an incident and the establishment of an emergency response support team.
-
Update
the ICB EPRR Future NHS pages and Resilience Direct pages as directed by the
EPRR Officer, ensuring all information is up to date.
-
Support
the EPRR Officer in managing the two tier on call function of the ICB,
negotiating periods of cover with the directors on call, to ensure the ICB
fulfils the requirement to have a 24/7 on call function.
-
Support
the planning and preparation of the Incident Coordination Centre (ICC) to
ensure that the equipment is all present and fully functional, so that the ICC
can be stood up and fully functioning in the event of an incident at a moments
notice, adapting this process for a virtual ICC.
-
Capturing
and maintaining a calendar of events and key supporting documentation, as
provided by the Safety Advisory Group, completing a risk assessment and sharing
this information with providers through the Future NHS platform.
Business Continuity
-
Manage
the administration of a local testing and exercising schedule for business
continuity plans (BCPs), providing support in delivery of live and table top
exercises, collating responses and assisting in the writing of test reports and
action plans.
-
To contribute to and support the
development of ICB business continuity plans, liaising with team leads as
appropriate including any internal cascade process.
-
Coordinate
and implement a programme to annually review and test the resilience of the business
impact assessments with ICB teams.
-
To support the
development and implementation of a three year rolling testing and exercising schedule
(including regular communication tests and ICC establishment tests) to develop
major incident and emergency response management skills and awareness across
the organisation
-
Ensure staff take all
available opportunities to test their response capacity and to identify
learning and improvements needed in response plans.
-
Liaise with the Sustainability and
Estates Manager to ensure that ICB offices are safe and fit for purpose to
support the business continuity of the organisation.
-
Liaise with the digital and information
governance teams to provide evidence and assurance around business continuity
for the data security and protection annual toolkit submission.
-
Support communications to all staff
around business continuity including key events like business continuity awareness
week.
General
-
Produce
clear and accurate written correspondence and reports as required.
-
Maintain
and monitor team staff records (e.g. annual leave, training, personal contact
information).
-
Any
other appropriate duties in consultation with the line manager and post holder.
-
To
provide administrative support to the Head of EPRR.
-
Plan and organise own workload.
-
Adopting
an innovative approach to achieve goals.
-
Being
flexible in your approach to working hours, which may involve working outside
core hours.
-
Working
well with teams across the organisation (including working closely with the
SCC) and across the health and care system in Somerset.
-
Flexible
and hybrid working options are available, but routine face to face presence at
base or other locations will be expected.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Educated to a degree level or equivalent qualification or level of experience.
- 5 GCSE / O Level in Mathematics and English at Grade C or above
- Demonstrable evidence of continuing professional development
Desirable
- ECDL (European Computer Driving License) qualification
- Commit to learning and developing themselves to provide the best possible service, particularly by studying for the Award and/or Diploma in Health Emergency Planning
Experience
Essential
- Proven experience of working within administration
- Proven experience of working in a busy office/administration environment
- Previous experience in similar role in a healthcare or public sector environment.
- Experience of managing rotas and schedules of work.
- Previous experience working in an EPRR, business continuity or operational management setting.
- Experience of undertaking complex minute taking/secretariat for formal meetings.
Knowledge and Skills
Essential
- Knowledge of administrative procedures, project management, and information analysis.
- Demonstrating experience of dealing with a wide range of stakeholders and providing information and advice.
- Previous demonstrable experience of data collection, presentation and report writing.
- Ability to work on own initiative and organise own workload with minimal supervision working to tight and often changing timescales.
- Good understanding of the demands of a busy NHS senior management team.
- Ability and willingness to handle confidential information without compromising confidentiality or trust.
- Able to deal with challenging people and to cope with confidential and sensitive information.
- Good financial and numerical skills.
- Methodical approach and attention to detail.
- Advanced keyboard skills, use of a range of software.
- Professional calm and efficient manner.
- Well-developed interpersonal and oral/written communication skills.
- Flexible and to adaptable to changing and challenging
- circumstances.
- Works well with others, is positive and helpful, listens, involves, respects and learns from the contribution of others
- Understanding of the principles and theory associated with the provision of effective command and control support within EPRR
Personal Statement / Motivation for Applying
Essential
- Please use this section to explain how you meet the additional criteria in the Personal Specification including your reasons and motivation for applying.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Educated to a degree level or equivalent qualification or level of experience.
- 5 GCSE / O Level in Mathematics and English at Grade C or above
- Demonstrable evidence of continuing professional development
Desirable
- ECDL (European Computer Driving License) qualification
- Commit to learning and developing themselves to provide the best possible service, particularly by studying for the Award and/or Diploma in Health Emergency Planning
Experience
Essential
- Proven experience of working within administration
- Proven experience of working in a busy office/administration environment
- Previous experience in similar role in a healthcare or public sector environment.
- Experience of managing rotas and schedules of work.
- Previous experience working in an EPRR, business continuity or operational management setting.
- Experience of undertaking complex minute taking/secretariat for formal meetings.
Knowledge and Skills
Essential
- Knowledge of administrative procedures, project management, and information analysis.
- Demonstrating experience of dealing with a wide range of stakeholders and providing information and advice.
- Previous demonstrable experience of data collection, presentation and report writing.
- Ability to work on own initiative and organise own workload with minimal supervision working to tight and often changing timescales.
- Good understanding of the demands of a busy NHS senior management team.
- Ability and willingness to handle confidential information without compromising confidentiality or trust.
- Able to deal with challenging people and to cope with confidential and sensitive information.
- Good financial and numerical skills.
- Methodical approach and attention to detail.
- Advanced keyboard skills, use of a range of software.
- Professional calm and efficient manner.
- Well-developed interpersonal and oral/written communication skills.
- Flexible and to adaptable to changing and challenging
- circumstances.
- Works well with others, is positive and helpful, listens, involves, respects and learns from the contribution of others
- Understanding of the principles and theory associated with the provision of effective command and control support within EPRR
Personal Statement / Motivation for Applying
Essential
- Please use this section to explain how you meet the additional criteria in the Personal Specification including your reasons and motivation for applying.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
