Request for council volunteers to support emergency response

Our risk and resilience team is appealing for volunteers to be part of the response to a major incident in the county.

Supporting communities during large-scale emergencies is at the heart of our resilience plans. Although such incidents are rare, when they do occur, it’s important that we respond quickly and effectively, working with emergency services and partner agencies.

“There are lots of roles available and they all play an important role in our incident response,” explains Scott Kennedy, Team Manager – Emergency Planning and Resilience. “Council volunteers carry out vital administrative roles within our Emergency Coordination Centre, as well as potentially in-person support within a Rest Centre. Having a bank of people we can call on if needed is essential in case of an incident. This is why we’re currently looking to increase the number of volunteers. Training is offered and it’s a rewarding area to be involved in.”

Roles include:

Emergency Co-ordination Centre (ECC)

Work within the ECC, based at Penston House, would include supporting a service manager or equivalent to answer calls relating to any emergency and recording them on an incident log within the CRM system.

For those interested in volunteering, the Emergency Planning and Resilience team will be running awareness sessions during 2025, which will last no more than two hours.

These awareness sessions will be informal and explain to you the importance of the role and what it entails, with some initial training on the system and how to log incidents.

Rest Centres

A Rest Centre provides temporary shelter and welfare support including warmth, food and drinks during an incident or evacuation.

We have three main designated rest centres located at Bleachingfield Centre, Dunbar, Musselburgh East Community Learning Centre and Port Seton Community Centre.

We can also use community centres, sports centres, village halls and other council buildings as rest centres if required.

A rest centre exercise is planned for later this year. Anyone volunteering for this role will be able to undertake initial training at a rest centre and understand more about this activity.

Get in touch

If you could help as part of our emergency response in one of these vital roles, please email emergency planning. Include details of which volunteer post(s) you’re interested in and the team will be in touch with the dates of awareness sessions and rest centre training in 2025.