Planning & community

Your household emergency plan. Useful details, on paper.

The checklist tells you what to check. A household emergency plan records who will do what, where useful things are kept and how you will find reliable information.

By Be Readyford2 min readSources checked 12 Nov 2026

Write a plan another person can follow.

An effective note does not rely on one person remembering the explanation. Use plain descriptions for useful equipment, storage locations and contact arrangements. Start with the tasks your household actually needs to coordinate.

For each task, write down the first step and one alternative. If you normally message someone, what would you agree to do when that is unavailable? If one person normally collects a child or checks on a relative, who else knows the arrangement? Confirm the answer with the people involved.

A BLANK SHEET / YOUR OWN PRIVATE NOTES

My household plan.

Print this sheet and fill it in privately. Nothing you write on your paper copy is sent to this website.

Important contacts and who checks on whom

Where useful supplies and instructions are kept

Agreed meeting or alternative contact arrangements

Individual support, pets and provider instructions

Make contact arrangements specific.

Decide which contacts belong on a paper list and how you will keep it current. Include the relevant utility or service provider, household contacts and any agreed support arrangements. Store sensitive details somewhere appropriate rather than displaying them publicly.

The printable sheet below is deliberately blank: write private information on your own paper copy. Be Readyford does not ask you to submit names, addresses, medical details or emergency contacts. You can also adapt an official household-plan template to your circumstances.

Think beyond the front door.

Work, school and journeys can create dependencies that are easy to miss in a home-only checklist. Check the arrangements of the organisations you rely on and plan how you would respond to a cancellation or disruption.

If you travel regularly, use the campaign’s transport advice to consider suitable vehicle supplies and current operator updates. Do not assume you should travel during a warning simply because a journey is part of the usual routine. Follow the advice issued for the conditions.

Include people, pets and the things only you know.

Add arrangements for anyone who needs support with communication, movement, medicines or equipment. Discuss them with that person and the appropriate providers. Include pets in any agreed arrangements for staying at home or moving to safety.

Keep practical actions distinct from clinical decisions. A list of equipment or first aid products cannot replace advice from the people responsible for someone’s care. Record questions to ask those providers, then add the agreed answers to your private plan.

Try the plan and revise it together.

Ask someone else to explain the plan back to you. Can they find the relevant contact? Do they know which light or cable is meant? Are there tasks that depend on an unavailable phone, internet connection or vehicle?

Use any uncertainty to simplify the wording. Keep an accessible copy in a place your household agrees, and review arrangements when routines change. The value is in a plan that people understand and can use, rather than the number of pages you print.

Sources & editorial notes

This is Be Readyford’s independent planning and shopping guidance. Sources were checked on 12 Nov 2026; use the official publisher for current instructions. Equipment links are shopping information, not medical advice.

Contains public-sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Government source material: © Crown copyright.

For immediate danger, call 999. Be Readyford is not an emergency alert service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the UK government.