The Cleveland Local Resilience Forum. What is it?
(Adopted from "Emergency Preparedness" Guidance on Part 1 of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004)
Co-operation at the response phase has been long practised by the emergency services - police, fire and ambulance. Emergency services liaison on matters of policy and planning - and in live exercises - has also existed for many years. Other agencies also co-operate closely, for example maritime search and rescue services and those organisations involved in the response to maritime pollution incidents........
Local authorities have joined the emergency services in formal strategic liaison arrangements at the policy and planning stage over the past 20 years - and gradually in recent years most of the category 1 responders covered by the Act have been pulled into strategic groups at the local (ie police area) level.
These strategic multi-agency groups exist everywhere in England and Wales........ Furthermore, there are a number of specific issues such as search and rescue. On a day-to-day basis, direct co-operation between Category 1 responders is the lifeblood of civil protection work......
The principal mechanism for multi-agency co-operation under the Act is the Local Resilience Forum (LRF), based on each police area. The forum is a process by which the organisations on which the duty falls co-operate with each other. It does not have a seperate legal personality, it does not have powers to direct its members.
In this area, this body is called the Cleveland Local Resilience Forum