Emergency Planning Structure
Tameside Council's Emergency Planning Unit works with representatives from other organisations at national, regional and Greater Manchester levels to ensure that emergency planning/civil protection arrangements are in place.
National
The Civil Contingencies Secretariat 
of the Cabinet Office was established in July 2001 to improve the resilience of Central Government and the UK to respond to emergencies. It aims to ensure that the UK and its communities remain a safe and secure place to live and work, by effectively identifying and managing the risk of emergencies, and maintaining world-class capabilities to respond to and recover from emergencies.
The Home Office is responsible for the government's contingency planning arrangements to protect the public from any possible threat from terrorists and to manage the consequences of terrorism, whatever form it comes in.
North West Region
Government Office for the North West has responsibility for the Regional Resilience Forum (RRF). The role of the RRF is to provide multi-agency strategic direction to civil protection planning at regional level. It does not have an operational role in response to incidents.
Greater Manchester
Greater Manchester Resilience Forum
Locally, civil protection issues in Greater Manchester are co-ordinated by the Greater Manchester Resilience Forum (GMRF), which consists of key representatives from a range of agencies. The aim of the group is to ensure an effective multi-agency response to major incidents and to create an efficient and effective means of delivering a work programme across Greater Manchester.
The objective of the GMRF is to promote closer joint working between all the agencies to encourage mutual support, sharing information and resources. Its responsibilities are to ensure that:
- Foreseeable risks are identified
- Policies are in place to respond to the risks
- Multi-agency relationships are close and effective to facilitate necessary action
- Plans are tested and exercised to enhance preparedness
- Training needs are identified and met
The GMRF is supported by a Resilience Development Group and other special intent emergency preparedness groups.
Resilience Development Group
Its aim is to provide a structure to maximise effectiveness in planning for incidents/disasters across Greater Manchester.
The Resilience and Development Group's responsibilities are:
- Undertake tasks referred by the GMRF
- Identify the risks
- Identify whether plans are in place to address the risks
- Produce and maintain a programme for the testing and exercising of plans
- Produce and maintain a training programme
- Ensure that the planning arrangements are part of a quality assured system
Tameside
Tameside Resilience Forum
The Tameside Resilience Forum is the main civil preparedness co-ordinating group for Tameside. It embraces multi-agency co-operation as required by the Civil Contingencies Act.
The purpose of the Tameside Resilience Forum is to ensure effective delivery of those duties under the Civil Contingencies Act that need to be developed in a multi-agency environment. The responsibilities of the Tameside Resilience Forum include:
- A contribution to the Greater Manchester Community Risk Register,
- A planned and co-ordinated approach to encourage the members of the Tameside Resilience Forum to address all aspects of policy in relation to:
- Risk;
- Planning for emergencies;
- Planning for business continuity management;
- Publishing information about risk assessments and plans;
- Arrangements to warn and inform the public;
- Other aspects of the civil protection duty, including the promotion of business continuity management and;
- Supporting multi-agency plans and other documents, including protocols and agreements, and the co-ordination of multi-agency exercises and other training events.
Membership of the Tameside Resilience Forum consists of members from:
- Tameside MBC Emergency Planning Team
- Tameside MBC Social Care and Health
- Tameside MBC Environmental Services
- Greater Manchester Police
- Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service
- Tameside and Glossop PCT
- North West Ambulance Service
- Tameside Pennine Care
- Tameside Hospital Acute Trust
- Greater Manchester Health Protection Unit