Make a practical plan for a power cut

If the electricity went off while you were making tea, what would you need first? Perhaps a light to move around, a way to contact someone or power for medical equipment. Begin with those needs before choosing any backup equipment.

Think beyond things with an obvious plug. Heating controls and your internet connection can depend on electricity too. A power-cut plan is useful when it tells you what to do about the things that matter in your home; it doesn't need to keep every appliance running.

1. Write down your immediate priorities. Separate essential care needs from things that can wait, and discuss the care needs with the people responsible for the equipment or treatment.
2. Keep a working battery or wind-up torch somewhere you can find it in the dark. Check it and its batteries. Using your mobile as the only torch uses charge you may need for calls or information.
3. Ask your phone provider what happens to your particular landline during a power cut. Digital landlines need power, and an emergency pendant or other connected device may need its own arrangements.
4. If you depend on a digital landline and have no reliable mobile alternative, tell your provider. Ofcom says providers must offer an appropriate free solution to customers who depend on their landline for emergency calls.

In England, Scotland and Wales, ask both your energy supplier and electricity network operator about their Priority Services Registers. They are free and can provide help such as accessible information and advance notice of planned interruptions where possible. Support is based on your circumstances, including some temporary needs; you don't have to decide your own eligibility before asking.

Explain the help you would actually need. If you change supplier, register with the new one as well. In Northern Ireland, ask about the relevant Customer Care Register. Registration provides support, not a promise that your electricity cannot fail.

Use the boxes while you read, or tick them on a printed copy. This site doesn't save your ticks.

• Record the power-cut reporting number on paper: 105 in England, Scotland and Wales; 03457 643643 in Northern Ireland.
• Keep your agreed equipment-support contacts alongside it, where the people helping you can find them.
• Confirm the arrangements for your phone and any connected care alarm with their providers.
• Keep registration details current so support providers have the right contact information.

Once those essentials are covered, work through how you would stay in touch without home broadband. The communications guide takes that question further. If regular care depends on equipment or medicines, use the health guide to organise the conversations and contacts around it.