‘Humanitarian Assistance in the UK: Current Capability and the Development of Best Practice’, a research report commissioned and funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has been published by Tessa Jowell, the Minister responsible for Humanitarian Assistance.

The research was undertaken as part of the Humanitarian Assistance Unit's work to better understand local capability in this field.

Tessa Jowell said: "The results of this report will, I hope, guide us in doing better for individuals who are the innocent victims of disasters. For example, so that in future, in the aftermath of a disaster, survivors do not have to struggle to access the support they deserve."

The report distils its evidence into key themes, and contains a number of recommendations for central, regional and local government. It also identifies and outlines areas of good practice and cites twenty two cases - of the many identified during the research - which demonstrate the sorts of activity taking place across the UK.

In addition, the researchers highlight three areas that might benefit from a better understanding of key principles:
- Joint working between police family liaison officers and humanitarian response teams;
- The provision of psychosocial support services; and
- Planning around exit strategies for those services.

Some other key findings were:

* Most Local Resilience Forum (LRF) and local authority respondents have a lead responder in place for humanitarian assistance, and arrangements in place for welfare response. However, planning activity tends to focus on short term rather than longer term needs and recovery strategies;

* Most LRF respondents do have a humanitarian sub-group in place to lead on planning for humanitarian assistance, however there are varying views on how LRFs are working and about levels of preparedness;

* There is huge variation in the organisation, experience, training and establishment of humanitarian response teams, with much reliance on volunteers and calls for more guidance, consistency and standards relating to this work.

For a copy of the report click here.

•Date: 11th October 2007• Region: UK •Type: Article •Topic: DR general
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