Flood awareness campaign 2006/7 – 2008/9 Sarah Junik David Faichney

Recap - the 2005/6 campaign  Roadshow visited 11 communities at risk of flooding during Flood Awareness Fortnight  Very successful – 95% of visitors rated it fairly or very useful and 96% said they would take some action to prepare for flooding  Advertising in communities and local media to support visit  CDrom explaining the Floodline service  Evaluation  Our report to this group 17 th November meeting

What next?  Three year strategy for 2006/7 – 2008/9  Activity focused around the ‘flood season’ rather than a fortnight  Strong local community focus  Main activity to focus around the flood warning schemes where we are able to offer the full Floodline service  Launch the new schemes in the south west of Scotland  Raise awareness of and potentially register people to dissemination project

The campaign in more detail  Focus on 15 flood warning schemes during the ‘flood session’  Spend approximately one week raising awareness in each scheme area  Carry out a range of activity tailored to area to maximise awareness and need to take action  Carry out more extensive evaluation to allow us to learn and build upon on our experience during the three year life of the campaign

Key tactics  Work with local community groups  Trailer or bus visits to key urban areas in each scheme area (similar to the 2005/6 campaign)  Take an educational play to primary schools in at risk areas  Develop the website to maximise its full potential as an awareness raising tool

Supporting material  Banner/display stands to make available in locations with a high footfall  Targeted versions of our ‘Preparing for Flooding’ booklet  Posters to advertise our visit to each area  Fold-out information cards  Information packs (general, business and community council)

Publicity / media relations  Local advertising (although with less emphasis on this than previously)  High profile launch of ‘flood season’ involving the Minister  Both the trailer/bus and the play for school children will provide many local media opportunities

Supporting tactics  Make the most of free opportunities  Raise general awareness among those schemes where we are not focusing activity and where there is no formal flood warning scheme but still a risk of flooding

Evaluation  Evaluation is key to the development of the three year programme  We will:  Pre-test campaign messages  Use a larger sample size than previously to carry out pre and post surveys into the success of the campaign

How can FIAC help? Main committee workplan, FIAC 2005(3) “Members will consider how the work of the committee might feed into the flood awareness campaign…”

How can FIAC help?  Strategic direction…  Elements of the campaign  Campaign duration  Target areas  How to link to other campaigns and strategies (e.g. Coastal Flood Warning Strategy)?

How can FIAC help?  Adding value through involvement in the campaign…  Intelligence (e.g. Knowledge of Communities/issues/customer needs)  Support:  Attendance  Supporting information and materials  Logistics (e.g. locations/permissions)

Discussion

Awareness and Assistance Workplan - Effective awareness raising FIAC 2005(6) 12.In order to establish an effective approach to raising awareness the Sub-Committee should consider flooding from the perspective of those impacted by flooding. The views of Flood Forum will be particularly valuable in this respect through informing the group of key issues and lessons from past events.

13.The Sub-Committee will advise on an overall strategy for raising awareness that reflects factors such as the different causes of flooding, the make-up of communities, typical responses to flood risk and flooding and information available from public surveys.

14.There has been an annual flood awareness campaign in Scotland since 2001 initially focussed on the launch of Floodline and latterly focussed on the need to prepare for flooding. SEPA will give the group a perspective of issues that have been covered during these campaigns and the proposals for the October 2006 campaign.

15.The Sub-Committee will assess how the annual campaign fits into an awareness strategy and specifically will advise on what can be done to assist SEPA in its Annual Flood Awareness campaign; in particular raising the profile amongst homeowners of their duty to protect their own properties.