Considering the role of convergent volunteers during major floods

Project Summary

This DEFRA funded research project being led by Professor Duncan Shaw explores the complex issues associated with the involvement of volunteers during major floods. While some volunteers provide their services to organised voluntary organisations and may therefore have undertaken suitable training for the tasks they perform (e.g., Red Cross/RNLI), many other volunteers converge on the day and may or may not be deemed a suitably qualified or experienced person (SQEP). Establishing whether an individual is SQEP both in advance of and during an incident represents a key challenge for policy makers and emergency responders.

Objectives

• Identify if (and how) the notions of volunteering can be formally embedded in flood response.
  
• Help officials to design plans that include (or exclude) convergent volunteers in alignment with any potential government policy.
• Identify the principles of being SQEP.
• Scope the principles of a dynamic risk assessment of convergent volunteers.
• Lay the foundations for a policy (if needed) that accommodates views from different regions, agencies and officials.
• Enable any issues to be communicated to the public in advance by responders.

This research explores the dimensions that should be considered when developing plans to involve convergent volunteers, and whether these dimensions should be presented as a national policy. This research will provide a clearly defined range of dimensions to specify what the guidance could include and will be designed to reflect the views of key stakeholders.

Overall, the research will raise the issue of embedding convergent volunteering in planning a proportional response and will identify questions and provide answers around the topic at the national level.

For further information on this project please contact Duncan Shaw (duncan dot shaw at wbs dot ac dot uk)

Principal Investigator: Professor Duncan Shaw
Research Assistants: Christopher Smith, Graham Hieke