Amber Cold Weather Alert plus Cold weather preparedness SURVEY!
Please see the following TWO updates from WCC's Reslience team and please also fill out the servey further doen:
UPDATE #1: UKHSA has issued an Amber Cold-Health Alert (CHA) for London valid from 6 January 2025 at 12:00pm to 12 January 2025 at 12:00pm.
- An Amber CHA represents a situation in which the expected impacts are likely to be felt across the health and social care sectors, with potential for the whole population to be at risk.
UPDATE #2: Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP) Activation:
Westminster City Council are formally activating Tier 1 Severe Weather Emergency Protocol SWEP from today 07/01/2025.
- What is SWEP - SWEP and winter provision toolkit | Homeless Link
- SWEP is a locally agreed procedure and offer, followed to minimise harm or death to anyone who might be sleeping rough in severe weather, through the provision of emergency accommodation.
- How to make a referral
- If someone is seen rough sleeping, you can make a StreetLink referral which goes directly to our outreach team. Both the individual and location can be described so the teams are able to target the individual and offer support if not already known. To make a referral visit this link: https://www.streetlink.org.uk/
Recommended ACTIONS for Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations (VCS):
Remember in the event of an emergency always call 999.
SURVEY:
! In an effort to adopt 'a whole of society approach' to resilience, the WCC Resilience Team would like to gather insight on how VCS & Faith organisations are currently preparing for cold weather. Please take 5 minutes to answer these 10 quick questions on your organisations EXISTING Cold Weather Preparedness efforts.
- Please sign up to receive Met Office Alerts Met Office (govdelivery.com) and UKHSA Cold Health Alerts using this registration form.
- Encourage staff and service users to sign up to Met Office Alerts & UKHSA Cold Health Alerts
- Review the suggested actions to consider for an amber alert !
- Ensure staff, volunteers and stakeholders are aware of cold weather guidance and are engaged in preparing for cold weather conditions
- UKHSA encourages VCS organisations to use this plan to develop their own local plans - Adverse Weather Health Plan
- Whilst there are weather warnings are in place, use this as an opportunity to review your Business Continuity Plans. Additionally, ensure staff, volunteers, and other pertinent individuals are aware of any organisational plans and their roles and responsibilities - Creating a business continuity plan | Westminster City Council
- Communication for the public on simple and effective steps on how to prepare for an emergency, and how to stay warm and well during cold weather can be found under 'Communication' in the CHA action card, some key sites include: