Group Welfare Plan under way

Following the recommendations in the Capability Assessment Report, members of the Welfare Advisory Group have been working on a number of ways to improve welfare coordination. The first of these was to appoint a Group Welfare Manager. This was done just a few weeks prior to the Canterbury earthquake so Suzanne Craig had a bit of an induction by fire. Since then, a small working group has got together to talk through the work programme for WAG and one of these was the development of the Group Welfare Plan. The purpose of the Manawatu-Wanganui Group Welfare Plan is to provide direction and clarity for the coordination of welfare planning, response and recovery in a civil defence emergency management context. The Plan will provide direction for the development of local welfare plans.

The first draft of the Group Welfare Plan has been sent to the working group for their input. It will then be circulated to the Welfare Advisory Group for consideration with feedback and further development at the next WAG meeting. Once the WAG members are happy with the Plan it will be forwarded to the Coordinating Executive Group for endorsement.