Terms and Conditions Membership Registration

Application Form

1. You may apply to register for membership of the Emergency Planning Society (EPS). All relevant details must be complete on the application form, you will be required to pay a registration fee, and this fee is NOT refundable.

Fees and Payments

1. If you have elected to pay by invoice you will receive this within the next week, once payment is received your membership card will be sent to you. Fees are payable within 30 calendar days of the invoice being received
2. All payments due on application, if booked on-line, you will receive your membership card within 14 days
3. If you have elected to pay by Direct Debit this takes approximately 8 weeks to process, once this is done you will receive your membership card.
4. Invoice can be issued on request for advance payment purposes if require
   Invoices will be despatched when your application is received
5. All transactions will be converted to sterling, using rate that is applicable on the day of process
6. Cheques/BACS should be made payable to the Emergency Planning Society

Cancellation Charges

1. The EPS reserves the right to cancel or refuse membership
2. The yearly registration fees for membership are not refundable

Data Protection

1. EPS does not sell trade or rent personal information to others. Your details will be added to the EPS database in order to process your application, and so that you can be kept up to date with relevant details of our services

CODE OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT

Introduction

The complexity of modern society means that a whole range of technical and ethical issues confronts the Emergency Management Professional. This Code seeks to address a whole range of questions which flow from the impact of these issues upon members in their day-to-day work. Equally important, it aims to ensure and justify public trust and confidence in the services provided by EPS members, by seeking to ensure high levels of competence and professional conduct are maintained.

This Code of professional conduct has been prepared by the Board of Management under paragraph 3(6) of the Memorandum of Association; approved at a Board Meeting held on 9 August 2007; and authorised for publication on The Society’s Website for implementation in terms of Article 20 of the Society’s Articles of Association. It applies to all categories of membership and to all aspects of performance of their emergency planning and management function.

Code Points 1.

1. Quality: Members shall aim to maintain high quality work at all times. Quality may be assessed by audits, monitoring, quality processes, or other appropriate means.
2. Professional Independence: Members of EPS, however employed, owe a primary loyalty to the people in the community they serve and the environment they affect. Their practise should be performed according to high standards and ethical principles, maintaining respect for human dignity. Emergency planning and management practitioners shall seek to ensure professional independence in the execution of their functions. The term professional independence relates to the function of the practitioners within the organisation in which they practice. Their role may be advisory or executive.
3. Legal Requirements: Members must abide by the legal requirements relating to their practice, and practitioners have a duty to make themselves aware of the appropriate legal requirements for the territory in which they practice.
4. Objectivity: Members called to give an opinion in their professional capacity shall be honest and, to the best of their ability, objective and reliable. Objectivity and reliability is based on the best current available knowledge, or in the absence of such knowledge, reference to appropriate emergency planning and management principles.
5. Competence: Members shall not undertake responsibilities as emergency planning and management practitioners if they do not believe themselves competent to discharge them. Members shall acknowledge any limitations in their own competence. In pursuit of this members shall take all reasonable steps to obtain, maintain and develop their professional competence by attention to new developments and shall encourage others working under their supervision to do so. Competence we define as 'the possession of sufficient knowledge, experience and skill to enable a person to know what he or she is doing and to be able to carry out a task in the way in which a person competent in the activity would expect it to be done and to have an appreciation of one's own limitations'. Competence is maintained by undertaking continuing professional development [CPD] as required by EPS within its scheme, and may be supplemented at appropriate levels by membership of other specialist bodies.
6. Abuse of Membership: Members shall not improperly use their membership of EPS for commercial or personal gain.
7. Conflict of Interest: Members shall avoid their professional judgement being influenced by any conflict of interest and shall inform their employer, or client, of any conflict between their own personal interest and service to the relevant party. For example, a consultant may be aware that his/her recommendations are not being implemented, but continues to advise the organisation in order to avoid losing the revenue associated with the contract.
8. Confidentiality: Members shall not improperly disclose any information which may reasonably be considered to be prejudicial to the business of any present or past employer or client.
9. Professional Responsibility: Members shall accept professional responsibility for all their work and shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that persons working under their authority or supervision are competent to carry out the tasks assigned to them; are treated with fairness and equal opportunity; and accept responsibility for the work done on the authority delegated by them. Where members have good reason to believe that their professional advice is not being followed, they shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that persons overruling or neglecting their advice are made aware of the potential adverse consequences which may result. In such instances it is advisable that such actions are recorded in writing.
10. Upholding the Aims and Objectives: Members shall have regard to the reputation and good standing of the EPS, other members professional practice and standards, and shall not knowingly bring them into disrepute. Disrepute amounts to the loss of a previously good reputation. It may arise from the conduct of a member who by act or omission lowers the professional reputation of EPS and its members in the view of right thinking members of the Society generally. At all times members should seek to uphold the Memorandum and Articles of Association of the Emergency Planning Society.
11. Professional Reputation: Members shall not in the course of their practice recklessly or maliciously injure, or attempt to injury, whether directly or indirectly, the professional reputation, prospects or business of another.
12. Members Relations Inter Se: Members shall at all times treat other members of The Society with the utmost respect and fairness, and at no time undermine their integrity and dignity. Members will at all times seek to work in a cooperative and productive way with each other. Office Bearers at Branch and National level have a particular responsibility in this regard; to ensure that all members and their views are heard, valued, and respected.
13. Society Website: Members understand and agree that any content posted on The Emergency Planning Society Website Discussion Board is the exclusive responsibility of the person who posted or uploaded it, and that they will be solely responsible for any content that is uploaded, posted, emailed or otherwise transmitted via this Website. Members acknowledge that The Emergency Planning Society is not responsible for, does not control, does not endorse and does not verify the content posted to the Discussion Board, and that it makes no guarantee regarding the reliability, accuracy, legitimacy or quality of any such content.

    Members agree that they will bear any and all risk of reliance on the accuracy, validity or legitimacy of such content, and accept that under no circumstances will The Society be liable in any way for any content, including, but not limited to, any errors or omissions in any content or any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any content posted or otherwise transmitted via the Discussion Board.

    Members acknowledge that The Society does not pre-screen content, but agree that The Society shall have the right (but not the obligation) to access the Discussion Board, and remove or restrict access to any content on the Board at its sole discretion and without notice or compensation. Without limiting the foregoing, The Society shall have the right to access the Discussion Board and remove or restrict access to any content that violates members’ agreement to this paragraph or that The Society believes is otherwise objectionable. Members acknowledge and accept that their use of the Discussion Board is subject to the requirements of this Code of Professional Conduct

    Members acknowledge and agree that The Society may preserve or disclose any content if it reasonably believes disclosure is required by law, or in good faith believes that such preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with legal process; (b) enforce members’ agreement to this paragraph; (c) respond to claims that any content violates the rights of third-parties; or (d) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of The Society, its members and the public.

14. Financial Propriety: Members shall maintain financial propriety in all their professional dealings with employers and clients. Any inducements which may be seen as prejudicial to professional independence or in breach of contractual or moral obligations should be discouraged.

Supplementary Guidance for Specific Groups

1. Consultants

• Members engaged as consultants shall maintain a confidential relationship with clients, upholding and enhancing the public perception of the profession. In particular they should:
• agree with client a clear brief, preferably written, for consultancy work;
• agree working and charging arrangements;
• agree the scope and manner of reporting including, where appropriate, copyright or patent issues arising;
• not work for more than one client simultaneously on the same case without the express consent of the client;
• not solicit improperly for work by making excessive claims or by attacking the reputation of other consultants;
• in the case of expert witness services, confine their evidence to the matters in which they can speak with authority from personal knowledge and experience; and
• protect the 'intellectual rights' of the client and client confidentiality, and not disclose information to any 3rd party without the full and explicit written authorisation of the client concerned.

When acting in private practice or independently of salaried employment, the Consultant has a right to disengage their services in the face of a dilemma involving professional standards or conscience.

As members of the Society Consultants shall seek to first and foremost serve its interests, and seek no commercial gain or influence through membership.

2. Employers

Members, as employers, shall:

• recognise the rights of professionals to exercise their independence;
• resolve conflicts by a clear, fair procedure;
• support the professional development of their employees; and
• demonstrate impartiality and provide equal opportunities for all employees.

3. Information, Data Protection and IT

In the course of their work members are required to store and retrieve formation. They should ensure that:

• all work carried out is completely, accurately and indelibly recorded at the time by the person concerned, and that subsequent reporting and handling ensures its integrity and availability for as long as may be required;
  reports that are provided describe the objectives of the work, the methods employed and the measurements and observations made, and accurately reflect the data and information obtained;
• all records are dated and referenced where appropriate;
• all records are duplicated or copied and stored in a safe and effective manner;
• forms and schedules are designed to provide clear entry methods for the data being collected and guidance for any calculations; and
• computers into which data are either stored or captured directly for longterm storage are programmed to ensure that subsequent amendments replace but do not overwrite the original so that an audit trail may be established.

4. Providers of Training and Education

Trainers should only provide courses for which they are competent to teach and, where appropriate are designed in conjunction with clients. In design and delivery of courses they should ensure:

• the teaching team has adequate qualifications and experience to cover the technical content of the syllabus;
• there is adequate scope for programme planning and review;
• courses are delivered in an adequate, physical environment for learning with suitable equipment as demanded by the course content;
• information sources are available as required by the level of the course; and
• where an issue may be contentious, a balanced approach to all ideas relating to issues should be maintained. Personal prejudices should not be presented.

5. Researchers

Members engaged in research may have specific ethical concerns in the conduct of their work they should:

• recognise the nature and limits of their research, competence and not propose or undertake any work they are not equipped to carry out;
• recognise and make known to sponsors any relevant personal prejudices which may influence their work;
• ensure that any ethical implications identified in their work are recorded in the written plan of the proposed research;
• where work affects employees or others, ensure safeguards exist against physical, mental, emotional and social harm to subjects;
• be responsible for obtaining freely given and informed consents from individuals who are the subject of any proposed research; and
• be aware that personal health information is confidential, requiring permission and consent before research use. This does not apply effectively to anonymised data. Researchers must be aware that the promise of confidentiality and restrictions on data use must be made clear to those contracting research and those who may be the subject of such work.