Emergency planning/management officer

Emergency planning/management officers use their contingency planning and response expertise to handle a range of emergency situations

As an emergency planning/management officer, you'll play a key role in protecting and maintaining public safety. Working as part of a team, you'll anticipate and plan for major incidents and respond to threats to public safety. You can work in any sector that may need to plan for emergency situations including local or central government, a public body, university or specialist resilience agency.

Your work may involve business continuity management, in which you'll support businesses to continue to function and provide a certain level of service in adverse conditions.

Job titles may vary depending on the employer and can include civil contingencies officer, civil resilience officer and emergency planning and resilience officer.

A related but distinct area of work is international relief and development. For more information, see international aid/development worker.

Types of emergency

You may respond to incidents such as:

• acts of terrorism
• epidemics and pandemics, such as swine flu and COVID-19
• flooding
• major industrial accidents
• natural disasters
• winter weather.

Responsibilities

As an emergency planning/management officer, you'll need to:

• write and implement safety development plans and reports
• provide advice and consultancy to businesses to ensure that they can carry on functioning in the event of an emergency
• complete risk assessments for a diverse range of sites, such as chemical factories, nuclear factories, city centres and major sporting venues
• analyse and plan for potential risks, such as outbreaks of infections or disease, technical failure of electricity networks, major gas leaks and severe weather conditions
• act as duty officer as part of a 24-hour duty system, responding to emergency situations as they arise
• prepare and conduct safety and training exercises to test emergency and business continuity plans
• respond to incidents, such as natural disasters, and assess the situation and the level of response required
• communicate with emergency services and other bodies in the event of an emergency
• help to coordinate the response of all non-emergency service organisations
• work with a range of agencies to ensure that normal support for local communities continues in the event of an emergency
• support the recovery of local communities to their pre-incident state
• deliver safety training to staff in local authorities, businesses, voluntary agencies and other organisations
• raise awareness of public safety issues by developing information, presenting at events and conferences and delivering special projects
• liaise with the police, fire services and the army
• give presentations on a range of topics at conferences and other events
• ensure compliance with relevant government legislation and develop new policies and procedures as needed.

Salary

• Starting salaries for trainee emergency planning officers range from £23,000 to £28,000 in local authority or NHS-based roles.
• Fully trained emergency planning officers can earn salaries ranging from £27,000 to £46,000 depending on the employer and level of responsibility in the role.
• Within senior roles at a management level, salaries of £50,000 to £60,000+ can be achieved.

Salary levels vary for similar jobs. The public sector has set pay scales that you can progress through, but you may find higher salaries in the private sector.

Figures are intended as a guide only.

Working hours

Your standard working hours will be between 37 to 40 hours per week, although they can be longer in an emergency.

Operating an on-call rota is the norm for emergency planning departments, so expect to be regularly placed on-call to help cover any arising crisis situations.

When dealing with an emergency situation you'll need to be flexible with your availability as you'll be expected to work outside of your usual hours. This will include having to work evenings and weekends.

What to expect

• When visiting outside locations and industrial settings you may be required to wear protective clothing, such as a high visibility jacket and a hard hat.
• This is often a high-profile role, so you need to dress smartly for meetings, presentations and some site visits.
• The job is pressured, with elements of risk and a high degree of responsibility, not only when responding to emergency situations such as floods or terrorism threats but also when managing a varied workload and meeting strict deadlines.
• Vacancies are typically available across the UK, especially within local authorities or other public offices.
• Travel is a regular part of the role, with occasional overnight stays.
• There are opportunities to work overseas for humanitarian organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Qualifications

Employers typically look for either a degree, professional qualification or substantial demonstrable experience in a related area. Degree subjects that are relevant to the emergency planning officer role include:

• business and continuity management
• disaster and emergency management
• risk management
• security and resilience management.

If your degree isn't in a related subject, you may need to complete a postgraduate qualification but check requirements from individual employers. It's possible to do a Masters in emergency management and resilience, disaster management and risk, crisis and resilience management. Search for postgraduate courses in disaster management.

Professional qualifications and specialised courses exist but these are typically aimed at people who are already working in a related role or area such as within the voluntary, health or public sectors. While these do not necessarily qualify you to move into emergency planning roles, they do support a move into work relating to emergency planning. Courses are available through the Emergency Planning College (EPC).

Skills

You'll need to have:

• the ability to communicate with people at all levels
• the capacity to stay calm in stressful disaster situations
• attention to detail and a thorough approach
• operational decision-making skills
• a logical approach and the ability to be creative in a high-pressure situation
• a flexible attitude, with the ability to manage a range of tasks at once
• the capability to work to deadlines and prioritise tasks
• project management skills
• analytical and problem-solving skills.

Some roles may require you to have a full driving licence and in some cases you may need to be prepared to work towards achieving a recognised emergency driving qualification. You may also need to be able to achieve appropriate security clearance.

Work experience

Employers value relevant work experience and so a part-time job or a placement in an emergency planning role will be an advantage. If you can't find a specific work experience opportunity, focus on developing the skills essential to the job.

Practical experience, such as voluntary work for a humanitarian organisation, may also be useful.

You may also want to consider getting membership of relevant professional bodies such as the Emergency Planning Society (EPS). This will give you access to useful resources and networking events and help keep you up to date with news in the industry. The society offers a reduced rate for student members.

Find out more about the different kinds of work experience and internships that are available.

Employers

Emergency planning officers are employed by public bodies, including:

• government organisations, such as the Environment Agency (EA) and Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)
• local authorities
• National Health Service (NHS)
• the fire service
• the police.

Charities and universities are also key recruiters of emergency planners and provide opportunities throughout the UK and overseas.

On the commercial side, consultancies offer specialist risk management and business continuity management services to:

• government
• private sector developers
• regional development agencies
• small businesses
• utilities companies.

Private employers range from small, specialist consultancies to large multinationals, offering business continuity as part of a package of services.

Increasingly, private companies are taking on business continuity specialists to protect their operations in the event of an emergency, particularly within the financial services. As with consultancy work, these roles usually require a good level of experience in the field, as well as a business continuity qualification.

Look for job vacancies at:

• Civil Service Jobs
• Continuity Central
• LG Jobs - local government jobs
• NHS Jobs

You can also look at individual local council websites for opportunities. Individual companies and organisations will also advertise their own vacancies so you can carry out an online search for those.

Professional development

Most employers carry out some on-the-job training and it's likely that you'll have the chance to learn from more experienced colleagues. You may also attend in-house training courses, and external training with a professional body. Training may cover specific emergency planning topics as well as soft skills such as project management, time management and communication.

The Emergency Planning College (EPC) is a provider of resilience training and offers various events and courses that are relevant to emergency planning/management officers. Training topics include:

• strategic emergency management
• writing contingency plans
• preparing for recovery management
• crisis communications
• developing and embedding business continuity management
• debriefing emergencies and exercises.

The EPC also has a knowledge hub, which provides articles and blogs, guidance, publications and a disasters database, which can all aid you in your work.

You could consider becoming a member of the Emergency Planning Society (EPS). This will give you access to various benefits and schemes including:

• events, training, webinars and a knowledge hub
• mentoring, networking and discussion groups
• the ability to contribute to academic research and access online resources
• access to a CPD scheme and learning pathway.

Health-related emergency planning courses are available from the relevant public health bodies.

It's important to keep up to date with emerging issues and developments in legislation, such as the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. Becoming a member of a relevant professional body such as the EPS can help with this.

Career prospects

Although you'll generally develop your career in either emergency planning and management or business continuity management, there is scope to move into other areas after gaining experience.

With a relevant qualification, it's possible to move into:

• international relief and development work
• risk assessment
• health and safety consultancy.

More established career pathways tend to exist within local authorities, where you may progress from a trainee/assistant emergency planning officer to emergency planning officer, and then into a senior management role. In these roles, you may specialise in a specific area, such as human or animal health or severe weather planning.

Senior officers in local authorities tend to take on more staff management and development responsibilities, moving away from the direct planning and response aspects of the job.

Other career options include making a move from the public to the private sector or moving into an emergency planning role overseas - supporting the work of government organisations in other parts of the world.