Andy Marshall, Director of Civil Contingencies and Chair of the Forum said,
"We were delighted that John Sellgren, the Chief Executive of Newcastle Borough Council opened the event and set the scene for the day"
The keynote speaker was Ian Smith, HM Coroner for North Staffordshire who spoke on the role of the coroner in an emergency. Other notable contributions were made from Andrew Donald, NHS Director of Commissioning Development who spoke on the current structure of the NHS in Staffordshire and Agnes Young, Head of the NHS Regional Capacity Management team who spoke on the work of her team.
Superintendent Peter Owen briefed the Forum on the Policing arrangements in Staffordshire during the 2012 Olympic Games and the Torch Relay and William Read, Resilience Support Officer at East Staffordshire Borough Council outlined Exercise Cloister, a table-top exercise to validate the Burton-on-Trent Town Centre Evacuation Plan.
Kate Wilkes from South Staffs Water explained how the flooding event in November 2011 in Streetly, West Midlands was dealt with and touched on the lessons identified.
Shona Frost (Staffordshire County Council) and Sarah Moore (CCU) spoke on the GIS capability and how it can be exploited in an emergency. Mel Page and Megan Harris outlined the engagement with the Voluntary Sector and in particular Exercise Hands Up.
Finally Ellie Gatrill-Smith and Andy Marshall provided a training and exercise update with particular mention for Exercise DARNAY which took place over two days in October 2011.
Peter Taylor from the CCU said,
" We were particularly grateful to all of our speakers who very kindly gave up their time to address the forum on a wide range of key topical issues."
"We would also like to thank Keele University for allowing us to hold the event on their premises."
As with previous events, the final item was a two-minute round where members of the audience were given the opportunity to update colleagues on any key pieces of emergency preparedness work that they are currently undertaking within thier own organisation.
The next event will take place at Cannock Chase District Council in June 2012.