Search and Rescue Team in the UK - Case Study Example

Student Name: Instructor name: Unit Name: Date: Introduction Search and Rescue (SAR) team UK encompasses government departments, emergency services teams and other organisations. A number of charitable organisations and voluntary organisations devoted to SAR also play a major role in the search and rescue services. These authorities and organisations are have collaborated to form a partnership with their sole purpose being provision of effective and efficient services. UK's International Search and Rescue Team is entitled with the responsibility of ensuring the that people involved in calamities such as fire, earthquake, floods or tsunamis are rescued from any potential danger and given the necessary support before being handed over to the concerned authorities. Britain has a well structured Search and Rescue Team that offer assistance to victims of any kind of catastrophe. The rescue and search team usually entails a fully structured and well organised system consisting well trained experts with search and rescue units that employ the use of advanced communication systems to facilitate the process of search and rescue.1 The Fire and Rescue Service has a vital role to play in providing the national resilience capability against the largest risks such as terrorist attacks, chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN) incidents or major disasters including flooding. Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) Fire and Rescue Services in the UK have a statutory responsibility to deal with fires and road traffic collisions. Each Fire Authority has the power to use the resources primarily provided for fire fighting to deal with non-fire incidents. These may include maritime, aeronautical and land based SAR operations. It is for each Fire Authority to set its own policy with respect to SAR operations and these will vary.2 Legislation The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 bestows the constitutional power for the National structure. In line with the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004: The secretary of state is entitled to set up a comprehensive structure for the Fire and Rescue Service. However any alterations to the framework should be made after consultation with representatives of the Fire and Rescue Authorities and their employees. The Secretary of State has an obligation to update the Fire Rescues Authority of any adjustments to the framework. The act also makes it mandatory for the Fire and Rescue Authorities to carry out powers given to them with absolute respect for the framework. In addition, the Act gives the Secretary of State the power to intervene if he/she considers a Fire and 3Rescue Authority is failing, or likely to fail to act in accordance with the Framework. Any use of the intervention powers attached to the National Framework will be in accordance with the Local Government Intervention Protocol. The Fire and Rescue Service [FRS] in the UK functions at a local level in accordance with a national statutory framework. The statutory responsibilities for Fire Authorities are indicated in the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, or equivalent legislation in Devolved Administrations. Central Duties The Fire and Rescue Service Act 2004 gives the Fire Authorities powers to: 1. Ensure fire safety by extinguishing fires 2. Rescuing people involved in fire accidents 3. Protecting property from fire 4. Saving lives when road accidents have occurred 5. Decontaminating people who may become contaminated by CBRN material 6. Rescuing of people from rubbles and other accidents such as in air and water. The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 provides the Secretary of State in Britain with the power to extend further the statutory duties of Authorities in England to deal with specified emergencies. Similar provisions exist in the Devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. For instance in Scotland, the Fire Order 2005 has granted absolute powers Fire Authorities in Scotland to respond in cases where people are at risk of losing lives in the event of major flooding.4 Adoptive Powers The Fire and Rescue Service’s Act 2004 and its equivalent in Devolved Administrations gives authority to Fire Authorities to respond to emergencies in the event that the lives of people are at stake or there is a risky of polluting the environment that may endanger the lives of plants and animals.5 UK Human Rights Act Article 8 of the Human right Act: Right to respect for private and family life and Article 1: Protection of property under Protocol No. 1. The Human Rights Act endavours to improve public services, as it seeks to ensure the delivery of quality services that meet the needs of individual service users. The act works to increase public awareness and also help in providing legal assistance where the rights of the public have been violated. The Act’s vision is to cultural change in order to facilitate provision of good quality services with reference to basic rights, such as the right to privacy and family life, the right to a fair hearing and the right not to suffer degrading treatment. The Search and Rescue team works in accordance with the human rights act to provide service to the public. It therefore makes sure that it complies with the human rights act regulations and ensures that they do not violate the rights of the victims. The fire rescue team must offer good quality service to the public as stipulated in the human rights act. UK has a of health and safety regulation that was first enacted a century ago. Currently UK is governed under the Health and Safety at Work Act (HSW Act) in which was first enacted in1974 and had major changes in 2008. 6 The act allows provisions for a cohesive institutional arrangement and legal framework for health and safety regulation. The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have been given powers to ensure that the law is implemented in all workplaces including health and safety in nuclear installations mines, factories, farms, hospitals and schools. The basic principle under which the acts operates is that responsibility for health and safety lies with those who own, manage and work in industrial and commercial undertakings. The act therefore stipulates that fire rescue team should assess the risks related to the kind of emergence they are dealing with before taking recommended action so as to prevent further loss of lives and property.7 Globalisation Globalization has been attributed to growth of the economy in the world. It has been argued that globalisation has contribution to poverty eradication and provision of better services. However many analysts have argued that despite its benefits, globalization has greatly contributed to the various challenges facing the world today. These challenges include floods, pollution, famine and global warming. Globalisation encompasses a number of aspects that include; cultural, economic, political, social, ecological, and technological aspects. Politically, globalisation has resulted in loss of sovereignty in some states. In addition formation of economic policies has been influenced by multilateralism with such organisations such as the IMF, WFP and WB. Globalisation has played a major role in the cultural aspect whereby where traditional cultures have been replaced by international modern cultures. This has been seen in manner in which music, movies and social networks have emerged and accepted globally. However this can be of importance for instance during the calamities such as earthquakes people affected people can use internet sites such as Youtube, Facebook and Twitter, to inform people of the situation and seek for help. This was particularly employed in Haiti after .the devastating earthquake. The rapid development of advanced technology especially in mass communication globally has been beneficial during disasters as rescue teams are able to employ the advanced technology to communicate with victims especially those that may be trapped. Rescue teams employ advanced technology to feed survivors that may be trapped underground as they continue with the rescue. This has especially been employed in China where miners were trapped. In addition globalisation has facilitated development of enquiries that dictate the manner in which the content of social policy and the distribution of welfare are shaped by; governmental and nongovernmental organizations responding to emergencies in the event of disasters both locally and internationally (Yeates, 2007). The role of the practitioner The search and rescue team should always be prepared for a disaster. Therefore it is important that the team plan accordingly to be able to respond accordingly in cases of emergencies. The process involves putting down emergency plan on paper and also making necessary procedures to respond to calamities. Usually governments have their own national and local plans including organisations, responsibilities, priorities, and main actions to take in case of disasters. Most of the plans undertaken by rescue teams depend on the magnitude of destruction caused by the calamity. Preparedness involves the rescue team being set and ready for any emergence responses. Planning and preparedness enable the search and rescue teams to deliver a more efficient and effective response as demonstrated in Haiti. Planning for disasters is necessary at the organisational, national and international levels. Organisations such as the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies (IFRC), World Vision International and UN agencies ensure that all the necessary equipment, ambulance vehicles and even personnel are positioned throughout the world ready for any emergence response (Luk N. Van Wassenhove,et al. 2005). Assessments establish the level of the destruction, the availability of resources for the response, and the immediate needs of the victims. These assessments are usually carried out within the first three days after the occurrence of the catastrophe. They deal with giving the right amount of aid to the right people and play the role of demand estimation. They can be done by visual inspection, by asking people, by simulation or by sampling. There is some standard information used to assess the impact of disasters, including information such as, possible number of deaths and injuries, availability of local resources, public services like electricity, communications, and transportation services (Pedraza Martinez,et al.2009). In addition, assessments take into consideration the urgent needs such as water, food, important drugs and shelter. However in many cases this may be a challenge because the situation can be chaotic following such calamities; people are injured and dying, buildings are destroyed, and the primary focus is on search and rescue. For instance in Haiti, although some international humanitarian organisations such as World Food Program (WFP), Oxfam, IFRC and WVI were already operating on the ground, many of those present, including the UN Headquarters, were destroyed by the earthquake. The level of devastation made it very difficult to provide accurate assessments of the needs. Once the response operation is underway, organisations allocate available resources and begin requesting additional resources via the appeals process. Appeals for disasters can be carried out by a single organisation acting alone or through broker organisations such as Global Impact. The media plays a vital role in promoting appeals to the wider public thereby increasing the visibility of the organisations operating on the ground and what they need. During major disasters communication is usually disrupted. Although rare, in Haiti, affected people were using internet sites such as Youtube, Facebook and Twitter, to inform people of the situation, though many other communication lines were destroyed (Luk N. Van Wassenhove,et al. 2005). Therefore coordination and collaboration among the organisations taking part in the response is essential. It is important that all search and rescue teams work together even if they may have different opinions on the manner in which the search and rescue should be carried out. Cooperation between all the relief agencies enables the process to be carried out effectively and efficiently. Failure to initiate proper cooperation and partnership between all the rescue teams will result in lack of proper relief coordination as some areas may receive a lot attention while neglecting other areas. Therefore practitioners of the search and rescue team have the duty of ensuring that they work hand in hand with other relief organisations and be willing to share their skills and knowledge so as to provide speedy good quality services to the victims. Ethical considerations Ethics is the study of standards of good conduct and good morals (Curtis and Manning, 1988). It encompasses how the Search and Rescue employees are supposed to conduct themselves morally while on duty with the sole purpose of protecting lives. Training of fire service employees is usually directed at the manner in which they can carry out their duties in areas such as department operation and leadership skills. However, authorities fail to give adequate education on ethics which is equally important in the search and rescues service. It is therefore important that necessary mechanisms are put in place to ensure that the fire and rescue employees are taught on how they are supposed to behave while on duty. This helps them improve on their reasoning and thinking and be able to do their work morally. During the search and rescue period the safety of both the rescuers and the victims is paramount. Therefore it is the duty of the search and rescue team to ensure that they should endavour to protect their lives as well as the lives of the public. Sick or injured patients would not feel confident about the medical care they received if they suspected they were needlessly endangered by substandard vehicle maintenance. In addition, those in charge in the risky department would not feel confident in the Division if apparatus requiring safety repairs was operated without due respect for the safety of the public. Risk management issues had to be addressed from both a safety standpoint and an ethical standpoint. The need to operate with everyone’s safety always as the top priority should always be emphasised and adhered to. Ethically, fire rescuers must be prepared for emergencies because the lives of the public are dependent upon their swift actions. In cases of any conflicts between the employees then they should find a way to solve them without impacting on their services. Sufficient regulations should be put in place to ensure routine inspection vehicles and equipment. Therefore employees in charge should always take responsibility for equipment found in a defective state. Strengthening of ethical standards is needed to increase responsibility among Search and Rescue employees. Reinforcement of ethical standards can be achieved by ethics training. Therefore it is essential that the Search and Rescue Organisations adopt values to guide the actions of their members. Employees take their moral cues from the leaders of the organization. And therefore those in leadership should steadily conduct themselves ethically to be emulated by their junior employees (Cooper, 1990). Employees of the search and rescue team should be trained on the manner in which they should behave when dealing with situations where lives have been lost or people seriously injured. This applies when those who have died include the public or colleagues who may die in the line of duty. Losing loved ones especially colleagues is a very sensitive issue and therefore care should be taken to avoid inflicting more pain to those grieving. Conclusion The key responsibility of fire service team is to ensure the safety and well-being of the public. Therefore all leaders in the search and rescue team have a mandate of instilling a safety culture within the department and during training exercises or emergency response. The search and Rescue team have a big role in protecting and saving lives and also in prevention of destruction of property. There are many challenges that they face as they continue giving support during disaster emergencies. They face a lot of challenges that include insecurity, painful emotional circumstances in cases where they lose their colleagues and even the public. They do splendid and courageous work and therefore should be appreciated and respected for their devotion to saving lives. It is clear that even though globalisation has sometimes been blamed for the problems facing the world today such as pollution; it has a major role in facilitating humanitarian assistance. For instance globalisation has enabled enactment of global laws that govern countries and allow countries come together through organisations such as Red-cross, IMF, United Nations and World Food Program to offer humanitarian assistance in other countries after occurrence of calamities. This was clearly portrayed in Haiti after the devastating earthquake that led to massive loss of lives and property. References Cooper, T. (1990). The Responsible Administrator: An Approach to Ethics for the Administrative Role (3rd ed.) San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers Curtis, K. and Manning, G. (1988). Ethics at Work: Fire in a Dark World. Cincinnati, OH: South-Western Publishing Company Fire and Rescue Service National Framework 2008–11. (2008). Communities and Local Government Eland House Bressenden Place London: Crown Copyright, 2008 Glatzer, M. and Rueschemeyer, D. (eds). (2005). Globalisation and the Future of the Welfare State. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press Luk N. Van Wassenhove,et al. (2005). An Analysis of the Relief Supply Chain in the First Week after the Haiti Earthquake. Nicola, Yeates. (2007). Globalisation and Social Policy. pp.627-643. Pedraza Martinez,et al.(2009) The Armenia Earthquake: Grinding Out Effective Disaster Response in Colombia’s Coffee Region. Search and Rescue Framework for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. April Issue 2008. Swank, D. (2002). Global Capital, Political Institutions and Policy Change in Developed Welfare States. 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