1. Public Health England – Our progress under the Sendai Framework
Kevin Blanchard
Senior Environmental Scientist, Global Disaster Risk Reduction
Public Health England

2. Qualitative interviews of over 60 individuals and their teams
PHE’s review of our work under the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction was launched on the 20 October 2017
Methods
Qualitative interviews of over 60 individuals and their teams
Follow up meetings to refine information
February-October 2017
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3. The Scope of PHE
Public Health England (PHE) is an executive agency of the UK government’s Department of Health and works across government at all levels.
PHE’s mission is to protect the nation from public health hazards, prepare for and respond to public health emergencies, improve the health of the whole population by sharing its information and expertise, identify and prepare for future public health challenges and research, collect and analyse data to improve understanding of public health challenges, and develop solutions to public health problems.
PHE not only works at a national level but is also influential globally. It supports the implementation of international agreements relating to public health, including: the International Health Regulations, Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement, and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction.
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4. PHE Strategic Plan to 2020
The review was started so we could better understand where we were meeting the requirements of the Framework and also to understand where there were gaps in our knowledge.
The review was also done to meet part of PHE’s strategy both through its annual business plan and its wider strategic plan until 2020
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5. Timeline 1
February 2017 – development of a stakeholder workshop to populate the main roles of key departments within PHE that would have input to Sendai 2
March / April 2017 – Formulation of initial report, identified gaps in knowledge & building networks of people to assist in filing those knowledge gaps. 3
Summer 2017 – Individual meetings and workshops with teams to fill the gaps left by the original sift. 4
Autumn 2017 – Finalise, pre-publication checks & publication
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6. Methodology
A half day workshop facilitated by members of the Global Disaster Risk Reduction (GDRR) team
Senior staff from a range of different departments within PHE.
Read through each of the paragraphs of the four priorities for action identified in the Sendai Framework and provide examples of:
PHE local and national work areas already being implemented which are aligned with the Sendai Framework;
PHE international work areas already being implemented which are aligned with the Sendai Framework;
Research being undertaken by PHE to support implementation of the Sendai Framework both nationally and internationally.
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7. Recording findings
The workshop mapped several projects and work streams to the Sendai Framework priorities for action.
This information was catalogued and followed-up by a series of one to one meetings and targeted correspondence with senior members of departments
A draft of the findings was then shared for comment with all those who had participated to ensure, as far as possible, completeness and accuracy of the data collected.
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8. Locally and nationally
Results of workshop
Local and national
National Incident & Emergency Response Plan - supporting work programme and evidence based decision making. Provision of expertise to: Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) and National Security Council (Threats, Hazards, Resilience and Contingencies or sometimes referred to as COBR).
Member of Natural Hazards Partnership for Early Warning; Engagement with UK Climate Change Risk Assessment 2017
Published guidance to increase climate resilience of the healthcare estate and to make energy work in healthcare
REACHING OUT: Horizon 2020 funded projected. Development of various disaster recovery and response tools.
Identification of priority risks under National Risk Assessment (NRA). Assess local risks and resilience through LRFs and community risk registers.
Work with World Health Organisation (WHO) on the Ebola response
Locally and nationally
PHE is a Category 1 Responder under the Civil Contingencies Act (2004). Category 1 organisations are at the core of the response to most emergencies.
Identified the scope of our collaboration with the Cabinet Office’s Civil Contingencies Secretariat from the local to national levels
PHE provides input for the National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies.
This register provides an updated government assessment of the likelihood and potential impact of a range of different civil emergency risks
including naturally and accidentally occurring hazards
malicious threats
It also provides information on how the UK government and local respondents such as emergency services prepare for these emergencies.
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10. Regionally and globally
Results of workshop
Regionally and globally
PHE houses the WHO Collaborating Centre on Mass Gatherings and Global Health Security. Part of its role is to provide support to the emergency and health protection preparedness programmes, strategies and policies of PHE and the WHO at national, regional and global level
The UK Public Health Rapid Support Team managed within the Global Public Health Division, consists of clinicians, scientists and academics linked to the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who can be deployed to tackle outbreaks of disease anywhere in the world within 48 hours.
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12. Possible future work
The process of compiling this data identified gaps in PHE’s work and provided areas of focus moving forward:
Empower local authorities and other partners to work with civil society to encourage resilience to shocks at the household and community levels
strengthening and broadening international efforts of the UK government through disaster risk reduction policy.
Example
An upcoming piece of work, due to begin in 2018 looking at empowering local communities in the Pacific to report under Sendai

13. Feedback
“A great idea. I have learnt a lot from being involved in reviewing it, great for my personal knowledge and for the organisation as a whole…
…Please make sure this is shared widely. So many people will learn such a lot from this”

14. Sendai Reporting
The process of compiling this report provided an effective method in which to collect and analyse data to better understand our organisations progress against Sendai
The reports role of meeting our internal strategic goals allowed for the work to be developed with the full support of the organisation and its staff
The format of the report has also allowed for other teams (both in PHE and across HMG) to consider duplication on areas such as the Sustainable Development Goals.
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15. For the full report, please see:
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