The Lancashire Resilience Forum (LRF) has launched a new three-year strategy which aims to help the county’s communities be more prepared for emergencies.

The Lancashire strategy sets out the forum’s aims of building a county that is more prepared to plan for, respond to and recover from major incidents and emergencies and includes a specific focus on developing stronger communities and businesses to work with emergency responders, local authorities and voluntary agencies.

Steve Healey, Deputy Chair of the LRF, said: “This is the strategy that will drive our work for the next three years and beyond.

“It is very much centred around creating resilient communities and following the “whole of society’’ approach which ensures local people can be in a position to plan, prepare and respond to emergencies in their own areas and provide support to the emergency services at a time of need.

“There is a continued need to have support of voluntary organisations and community groups to deal with major incidents because they do happen, often with little or no warning, and we have seen in real life emergencies that the support they provide the emergency services is vital.

“The strategy also has a focus on innovation which the LRF prides itself in. Over the last year more than 250 potentially lifesaving Public Access Trauma kits have been distributed in key areas across the county while our new schools’ educational resilience project has been launched to give children a greater understanding of measures they can take to be as safe as possible.

“We are also leading the way in developing a humanitarian assistance programme to support our communities after a major incident which is also receiving national recognition.’’

Chief Supt Ian Jones, Chair of the Resilience Forum’s General Purposes Group, added: “We have made a lot of positive strides over the years but this strategy gives us a clear focus on ensuring we know our local and national risks and making sure that we work with partners to continually assess those risks and make any interventions needed quickly and efficiently.

“We are constantly assessing where we can make improvements and this strategy includes a real emphasis on empowering our local communities and supporting the general public and businesses to be prepared for any potential incidents.’’

The forum is one of 42 across England and Wales that were established to support organisations such as emergency services, local authorities, health service providers and utility and transport companies to deliver their statutory duties outlined in the Civil Contingencies Act.