Guidance

Identifying and supporting persons who are vulnerable in an emergency

This guidance supports Local Resilience Forums in England to develop plans for identifying and supporting individuals who may be vulnerable in an emergency

Documents

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Details

The guidance has been developed by the Cabinet Office in collaboration with emergency planning professionals from Local Resilience Forums and UK Government departments. It supersedes and replaces previous guidance on Identifying people who are vulnerable in a crisis (2008).

It is not possible to capture every scenario that could lead to the need for support, however it is recommended that the guidance is used to support the planning for, response to and recovery from emergencies.聽

The guidance provides a common approach and principles for identifying and building relationships with agencies and organisations responsible for supporting vulnerable persons, and organisations working with vulnerable persons, so that the potential scale and mechanism of support to a response can be agreed before an emergency. Other organisations may benefit from familiarity with the approach in this guidance if they are involved in planning or providing for the needs of vulnerable persons.

The guidance has been written with English LRFs in mind. There may be elements relevant to emergency responders in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, however the nature of the devolution settlement for each nation means that there will be variations in the way this guidance could be applied.聽

The term Local Resilience Forum 鈥淟RF鈥 is used throughout, but could apply to similar emergency planning structures in other nations. This document supports the work of Category 1 and 2 responders and should not prevent the development of local policies.

Updates to this page

Published 1 February 2008
Last updated 28 April 2025 show all updates
  1. Updated the document: Identifying and supporting persons who are vulnerable in an emergency: supporting guidance for Local Resilience Forums in England Added the document: Guidance update summary note

  2. First published.

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