Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council (BCP) Emergency Plan
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Activation of the Council’s Emergency Response: Telephone 01202 733255 in or out of office hours 24/7/365
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Foreword by the Chief Executive
Local authorities have clear legal obligations under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and a duty of care to provide effective emergency arrangements and mobilise resources to deal with a wide range of emergencies.
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council’s Emergency Plan provides a framework and principles for command and control under which the Council would respond to an emergency situation within or affecting the authority. It describes the management structures, procedures and roles and responsibilities of the Council within a coordinated multi-agency context to ensure effective multi-agency working.
I have approved and signed this plan and require relevant staff to familiarise themselves with their responsibilities and corresponding actions. It is important that all relevant managers and staff are fully aware of their role in preparing for, responding to and recovering from the effects of an emergency. By preparing in this way, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council can promote resilience and support our local community in coping during an emergency and subsequently recover effectively.
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Operational, tactical and strategic level responders plus any
additional staff who have a role within Bournemouth, Audience Christchurch and Poole Council response and recovery. This document provides an overview of the risks that shape our plans and procedures, local and national capabilities and Description response structures, and sets out the roles, responsibilities and processes for the management of or recovery from an Legacy emergency plans of the previous legacy councils Cross reference Dorset LRF Major Incident Guide and Dorset LRF response plans. All those with a role to play in responding should be familiar Action required with this plan and attend training as appropriate.
Plan Ownership
BCP Emergency Planning and Resilience Team is responsible
for the compilation, publication and distribution of amendments to this plan. Plan owner [email protected] Plan holders are responsible for maintaining the currency of their copies of the plan.
Ratified by and BCP Programme Board 14th March 2019 date Implementation 1st April date In line with development of the new organisation. Otherwise Review date three years, after an incident or exercise, or following changes to national guidance
Protective Marking This document has been given the marking of ‘OFFICIAL’. This means: Circulation should be limited to those who need to see the document; The document can be sent internally via email;
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The document may be stored electronically; Hard copies should be kept in a locked drawer/cabinet; The document should be disposed of with care to prevent reconstitution, e.g. using a shredder.
Plan Distribution This plan is stored on Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council’s pages on ResilienceDirect (secure website). Access to these pages will generally be restricted to members of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council.
The original document is held by the Emergency Planning and Resilience Team. This plan will be made available to the appropriate staff who require access to it as part of their role. This will be done via internal document sharing systems or plans will be shared electronically with officers. Upon receipt, individuals become fully responsible for document security and dissemination as per its classification.
If appropriate, stakeholders will be given access to the plan through ResilienceDirect, in other cases it may be sent electronically. Upon receipt of the plan, individual agencies become fully responsible for document security and dissemination as per its classification.
Plan Structure and Overview A two-part approach has been taken to the production of this corporate emergency response plan.
Part One – General Principles Part Two – Council Specific Response and Recovery
Part 1 – General Principles Generic emergency planning information and principles and includes: General command and control and an overview of multi-agency roles and responsibilities Part 2 – Council Specific Response and Recovery
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Part Two includes specific details of management and control, including activation and actions to be taken by key staff in the event of an incident. Detailed roles and responsibilities as well as specific documentation to support staff when responding to an incident are included. This includes legal, financial and welfare aspects of response and recovery.
There is a third section, the Emergency Contacts Directory. This section is kept separately as it is marked ‘official sensitive’ in light of the nature of its contents. Contents Foreword by the Chief Executive ...... 2 Plan Ownership ...... 3 Protective Marking ...... 3 Plan Distribution ...... 4 Plan Structure and Overview ...... 4 Part 1 General Principles Introduction ...... 11 Training and Exercising ...... 12 Aim and Objectives ...... 13 Civil Contingencies Act 2004 ...... 14 Associated Regulations ...... 15 Definitions ...... 16 Emergency ...... 16 Council Emergency ...... 17 Major Incident ...... 18 Catastrophic Incident ...... 18 Response ...... 18 Recovery ...... 18 Business Continuity ...... 19 Risk ...... 19 Local Resilience Forum (LRF) ...... 20 Dorset Civil Contingencies Unit (CCU) ...... 22 Corporate Responsibilities ...... 22 Chief Executive ...... 23 Corporate Resilience Champion ...... 23 Tier 2 Directors and Tier 3 Service Directors ...... 23 5 Version 1.0 March 2019
OFFICIAL Emergency Planning and Resilience Team ...... 24 Corporate Resilience Group ...... 25 Service Area Responsibilities ...... 25 Emergency Planning Liaison Officers (EPLOs) ...... 30 Command, Control and Coordination...... 31 Levels of Command, Control and Coordination ...... 32 Tactical Co-ordinating Group ...... 34 Strategic Co-ordinating Group ...... 35 Activation and Alerting ...... 36 Major Incident ...... 36 Op LINK ...... 36 Dorset Prepared Alerting Service (DPAS) ...... 38 Dorset LRF Multi-Agency Management Structure for a Major Incident ...... 39 Scientific and Technical Advice Cell (STAC) ...... 40 Wider-area Incidents and Resilience Structures ...... 40 Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles (JESIP) ...... 41 Joint Decision Making Model ...... 42 METHANE ...... 44 Multi agency roles and responsibilities ...... 44 Dorset Police ...... 45 Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service (DWFRS) ...... 45 South West Ambulance Service (SWAST) ...... 46 Local Authority ...... 46 Environment Agency ...... 47 Acute Hospital Trusts ...... 47 NHS England (South West) ...... 48 Public Health England (PHE) ...... 49 HM Coroner ...... 50 Harbour Authority ...... 50 Utilities ...... 51 Gas and Electricity Companies ...... 51 Water Companies...... 51 Telecommunications ...... 51 Voluntary Sector ...... 52 Welfare ...... 56
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OFFICIAL Aim ...... 57 Evacuation ...... 58 Survivor Reception Centre (SRC) ...... 59 Rest Centre ...... 60 Friends and Family Reception Centre (FFRS) ...... 60 Humanitarian Assistance ...... 60 Casualty Bureau ...... 61 Temporary Mortuary and Mass Fatalities ...... 61 Support to displaced members of the public ...... 62 Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear or Explosive Incidents ...... 63 Control of Major Accident Hazards ...... 64 Part 2 Response and Recovery Strategic Response Objectives ...... 66 Setting Strategy ...... 66 Key Strategic Considerations ...... 67 Activation ...... 69 Standby and Stand Down Arrangements ...... 71 Records ...... 71 Records and Logs...... 72 Debriefing ...... 72 After Action Review ...... 72 Structured Debrief...... 73 Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Command Structure ...... 73 Gold ...... 74 Silver ...... 75 Duty Officer ...... 76 Loggist ...... 76 Operational/Bronze ...... 77 Local Authority Liaison Officer (LALO) ...... 77 Rest Centre Staff ...... 78 Emergency Volunteers* ...... 78 Council Incident Management Team ...... 78 Incident Co-ordination Room ...... 80 BCP Council Incident Response Structure ...... 81 Staff Welfare ...... 82
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OFFICIAL Health and Safety ...... 83 Insurance ...... 84 Mutual Aid ...... 84 Emergency Shelter and Accommodation Guidance ...... 84 Information Management and Communication Systems ...... 86 Warning and Informing ...... 86 Dorset LRF Warning and Informing Plan ...... 87 Customer Services ...... 88 Internal Briefings ...... 88 Elected Member Briefing and Liaison ...... 88 VIP Visits ...... 89 Information Gathering and Situation Reporting ...... 89 Data Protection ...... 90 Resilience Direct ...... 91 Geographical Information Systems (GIS) ...... 91 Teleconferencing ...... 91 Teleconferencing Etiquette ...... 92 Mobile Telephones & Mobile Telephone Privileged Access Scheme (MTPAS) ...... 93 Email ...... 94 Radio Communications ...... 94 Financial Aspects...... 94 Emergency Expenditure Codes ...... 94 Corporate Credit Cards ...... 94 Bellwin Scheme ...... 95 Recovery ...... 95 Background ...... 95 Recovery Coordinating Group ...... 96 Recovery Issues ...... 96 Role of MPs and Elected Members ...... 97 Standing Down ...... 98 Media ...... 98 Funding Recovery ...... 98 Disaster Appeal Funds ...... 99 Memorials and Remembrance ...... 99 Responsibilities and Action Cards ...... 101
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OFFICIAL Duty Gold ...... 101 Elected Members ...... 103 Amendments ...... 105 Plan Consultation Record ...... 105 Templates ...... 106 Meeting Agenda – Incident Management Team ...... 106 Corporate Level Emergency Response Situation Report (Sitrep) Template ...... 108 Service Level Emergency Response Situation Report (SitRep) Template ...... 110 IMARCH Principles ...... 112 Logging Template ...... 117
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Part 1 General Principles
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The aim of any response is to mitigate the effects of an incident on people, infrastructure and the environment and to aid recovery.
The Council’s Emergency Plan outlines Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council’s core response to emergencies and major incidents. The corporate emergency response plan is a generic response plan required by Category 1 responders under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. It has been written to be a flexible reference document to cover most eventualities and should be adapted to suit the situation in conjunction with any other plan(s) relevant to the incident.
An incident could well necessitate the implementation of both an emergency response and a business continuity one, and arrangements for the latter are outlined in the Council’s business continuity plans.
This plan has been produced by the Shared Service Emergency Planning and Resilience Team from Bournemouth and Poole Councils in conjunction with emergency planning colleagues from Christchurch Borough Council and Dorset County Council.
Emergencies, be they with rapid onset (with little or no warning) or rising tide (slow onset), can be divided into five broad categories: Natural such as flooding, storms and snow; Accidental where human error or technical failure causes the emergency such as an aircraft crash; Deliberate where the emergency occurs as a result of terrorist or criminal action (generally referred to as threats); Disruption where, for some reason, essential services are not available for a significant length of time, e.g. gas and electricity outages, transport or emergency services industrial action; Health such as a disease outbreak, e.g. pandemic flu.
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By their nature, incidents can be unpredictable in scale and nature. The response that the Council makes to an incident will vary depending on the type of incident and the extent of its impacts. This plan, or part thereof, may be invoked when an event occurs that is beyond the capacity of the Council to deal with as part of its normal activities. Regardless of the nature of the incident, the emphasis is on consequence rather than cause. This document therefore aims to provide generic guidance and a framework that is flexible enough to deal with a variety of emergencies, as no one plan or set of arrangements can be devised to meet all contingencies.
The overriding principle is to provide guidance and procedures that ensure preparedness and the ability to deliver an effective response.
Plans can only be effective if they are understood by those who are required to use them and are tested and established as fit for purpose. The areas covered by the scope of this document will therefore be backed up by periodic testing and exercising, to increase understanding and to enable continuous improvement. It is vital that staff who have a role in responding to incidents or emergencies are familiar with this plan, and their role within it, and that a training programme is in place to support this.
All staff that may be called upon to assist in the event of an incident should have access to the respective documents for use out of office hours with an ability to access them electronically where practicable.
Training and Exercising
The Kerslake report following the Manchester Arena terrorist attacks in 2017 has recommended that the concept of suitably qualified, experienced and empowered personnel (SQuEEP) be embedded within all responding organisations. Following a significant incident it is likely that the actions of those involved in the response will be examined and the level of their training will be scrutinised and challenged as part of this.
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It is therefore vital that all staff that have a role to play in emergency response and recovery attend periodic training and exercising to ensure that they are trained, familiar and up to date with their role in an emergency.
Staff therefore are required to provide a record to the Emergency Planning and Resilience Team of emergency response and recovery training or other relevant training that they have undertaken. The Emergency Planning and Resilience Team will maintain the corporate emergency planning record on behalf of the organisation.
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council is responsible for delivery of an annual programme of corporate training and exercising. Staff who have roles and responsibilities within this plan are trained and exercised to ensure an effective response. The programme is based on the need to practise generic capabilities and train against specific risks identified in the Community Risk Register and other statutory requirements. Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council also contributes to and participates in the Dorset LRF training and exercising programme. Relevant officers will be required to undertake training/refresher training to ensure they are familiar with the new corporate arrangements.
Aim and Objectives
Aim: To outline the management structures and procedures and to set out the arrangements for an effective and proportionate integrated response to and recovery from an incident in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole geographical area.
Objectives: Describe the Council’s role and responsibilities in responding to and recovering from an emergency or major incident Identify the responsibilities of the Council’s emergency response Identify the responsibilities of services Outline management arrangements and structures
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List call-out procedures Provide action cards and job descriptions for responders Outline administrative and financial arrangements Outline multi-agency command and control arrangements Clarify wider local and national resilience structures for both planning and response Provide information on additional sources of assistance Outline recovery arrangements
Civil Contingencies Act 2004
The Civil Contingencies Act (CCA) 2004 delivers a single framework for civil protection in the United Kingdom. The Act makes provision for emergency powers that may be necessary for serious incidents and divides local responders into two categories, imposing a different set of duties on each.
Category 1 Responders are those organisations at the core of the response to most emergencies (e.g. emergency services, local authorities, NHS bodies). Category 1 responders are subject to the full set of civil protection duties. They are required to: Assess the risk of an emergency occurring and use this to inform contingency planning: Plan for, respond to and lead the recovery from a broad range of emergencies; Be resilient as an organisation, ensuring suitable business continuity management arrangements are in place; Put in place arrangements to make information available to the public about civil protection matters and maintain arrangements to warn, inform and advise the public before, during and after emergencies; Share information with other local responders; Co-operate with other local responders; To promote business continuity and other good resilience practice and to provide advice and assistance to local businesses and the voluntary sector (local authorities only).
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Category 2 Responders are required to cooperate and share information with other responders. These include the main utilities such as gas, electricity and water companies as well as transport operators and telecommunications providers.
Associated Regulations
In addition to the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council, as a unitary authority, also has statutory duties in relation to the following regulations:
COMAH – Control of Major Accident Hazards 2005 - Regulations applying to the chemical industry and to some storage activities, explosives and nuclear sites where threshold quantities of dangerous substances, as identified in the Regulations, are kept or used. The purpose of COMAH Regulations is to prevent major accidents involving dangerous substances and limit the consequences to people and the environment of any accident that do occur. There is a lower tier COMAH site in the BCP geographical area: o Magellan Aerospace on Wallisdown Road and two upper tier COMAH sites in Dorset o Perenco UK Ltd Furzebrook o Portland Bunkers UK
REPPIR – The Radiation (Emergency Preparedness and Public Information) Regulations 2001 - The regulations lay down the basic safety standards for the protection of the health of workers and the general public against the dangers arising from ionising radiation. They establish a framework of emergency preparedness measures to ensure that members of the public are: o properly informed and prepared, in advance, about what to do in the unlikely event of a radiation emergency occurring, and o provided with information if a radiation emergency actually occurs. Under these Regulations, local authorities have the duty to prepare and exercise an off-site plan for any premises in their area where work with
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ionising radiation is carried out within licensed sites. There are no sites in BCP, but Dorset Council is responsible for preparing and exercising the off- site plan for Nuclear Powered Vessels visiting the authorised Operational Berth in Portland Port.
PSR – Pipeline Safety Regulations1996 These regulations require the local authority to prepare emergency plans for pipelines which have the potential to cause a major accident. The regulations also require the pipeline operator to establish emergency procedure for such pipelines. The regulations cover any pipelines carrying dangerous substances which could cause a major accident. Within Dorset the pipelines covered by these regulations are the natural gas pipelines (above 7 bar absolute pressure) operated by the National Grid, Southern Gas Networks and Perenco Wytch Farm.
Within the BCP geographical area there are 0.76 km of High Pressure Gas Pipelines and 2.21 km of pipelines from Perenco Wytch Farm.
Definitions
The following definitions are commonly used during the planning for, responding to or recovering from emergencies. For a full glossary of key emergency planning terms please refer to Appendix 1.
Emergency: an event or situation which threatens serious damage to human welfare in a place in the UK, the environment of a place in the UK, or war or terrorism which threatens serious damage to the security of the UK and which in practice is likely to include one or more of the following: Loss of human life; Human illness or injury; Homelessness; Damage to property or environment; Disruption of money, food, water, energy or fuel supplies; Disruption of telecommunications systems;
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Disruption of transport facilities; Disruption of health services; Alarm amongst the public; Contamination by biological, chemical or radio-active substances; Disruption or destruction of plant or animal life (Civil Contingencies Act, 2004).
Council Emergency: There are two tests for determining whether an event or situation threatening such damage constitutes an emergency for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council: the emergency would be likely to seriously obstruct the Council in the performance of its functions, or it is likely that the Council: o would consider it necessary or desirable to take action to prevent the emergency, to reduce, control or mitigate its effects or otherwise in connection with it, and, o would be unable to take that action without changing the deployment of resources or acquiring additional resources.
This is distinct from business as usual ‘emergencies’. Individual service areas deal with emergency incidents on a day to day basis, and sometimes on a 24hr basis, e.g., assisting with clean-up after road accidents or floods and severe weather such as fallen trees, assessing unsafe structures, problems with Council owned properties, or closing unsafe food premises, etc. These incidents are considered “day to day” emergencies, usually managed by a single service and such activities are factored in to business as usual functions and should not ordinarily warrant the activation of Council emergency planning arrangements. These incidents may, however, have the potential to escalate into an emergency. In this instance, the operational staff aware of the incident should ensure the Duty Officer is made aware and kept informed. This will allow the Duty Officer to have an overview of what is happening across the Council, escalate any issues to the tactical/strategic levels, and mobilise additional resources if required.
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Major Incident: a severe event or situation, with a range of significant impacts, which requires special arrangements to be implemented by one or more emergency responder organisation and: Is beyond the scope of business-as-usual operations, and is likely to involve serious harm, damage, disruption or risk to human life or welfare, essential services, the environment or national security; May involve a single-agency response, although it is more likely to require a multi-agency response, which may be in the form of multi-agency support to a lead responder; The severity of consequences associated with a major incident are likely to constrain or complicate the ability of responders to resource and manage the incident, although a major incident is unlikely to affect all responders equally; The decision to declare a major incident will always be a judgement made in a specific local and operational context, and there are no precise and universal thresholds or triggers. Where LRFs and responders have explored these criteria in the local context and ahead of time, decision makers will be better informed and more confident in making that judgement (Cabinet Office, 2016).
Catastrophic Incident: an incident or emergency that has a high and potentially widespread impact and requires immediate central government attention and support (Civil Contingencies Act, 2004).
Response: encompasses the actions taken to deal with the immediate effects of an emergency. In many scenarios, it is likely to be relatively short and to last for a matter of hours or days – rapid implementation of arrangements for collaboration, co-ordination and communication are, therefore, vital. Response encompasses the effort to deal not only with the direct effects of the emergency itself e.g. fighting fires, rescuing individuals, but also the indirect effects, e.g. disruption, traffic management, media interest. (Emergency Response and Recovery, HM Government).
Recovery: the process of rebuilding, restoring and rehabilitating the community, following an emergency (Emergency Response and Recovery Guidance, HM Government). 18 Version 1.0 March 2019
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Business Continuity: the capability of the organization to continue delivery of products or services at acceptable predefined levels following a disruptive incident (ISO 22301:2012).
Risk
The CCA places a legal duty on organisations that form part of the Dorset Local Resilience Forum (LRF) to carry out a risk assessment and produce a Community Risk Register (CRR). The purpose of the CRR is to assess the risk (likelihood and impact) of an emergency occurring in the LRF area, and to develop plans and responses to reduce these risks and inform the public about how they can prepare. Maintenance of the Community Risk Register includes the production of individual risk assessments that are reviewed and updated as part of a rolling programme of review. These risk assessments are produced on a Dorset wide basis by the LRF Community Risk Working Group and are utilised to inform planning by Category 1 and 2 responder organisations. A public summary of the CRR is available via the Emergency Planning pages on the Council website or the Dorset Prepared website.
The LRF considers hazards (non-malicious events) as part of its risk assessment process. In terms of threats (malicious events), these are reviewed by the South West Regional Threats Group and fed into the LRF Community Risk Working Group to consider from a consequence management perspective.
Whilst the Emergency Planning and Resilience Team, in conjunction with multi-agency partners, plans for a wide range of risks, the key risks across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole are: Flooding – river, coastal, surface and ground water; Severe weather such as storms and snow; Pandemic flu or other disease outbreak; Event related incidents such as an incident during the Air Festival or other big event; Evacuation arising from a fire or other incident making properties unsound;
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Industrial action; Loss of utilities such as gas or electricity; A sudden impact incident, e.g. aircraft crash An incident arising from a COMAH site, REPPIR incident or a pipeline (Major Accident Hazard Pipeline (MAHP)
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council maintain specific plans and arrangements to deal with these risks. Plans from other agencies and multi-agency plans are also available and should be used for specific incidents, or incidents affecting certain areas or sites.
Local Resilience Forum (LRF)
An underlying principle of the Civil Contingencies Act is multi-agency working and Category 1 and 2 Responders are required to come together to form ‘Local Resilience Forums’ (based on police areas) which are intended to help co-ordination and co-operation between responders at the local level. The Dorset LRF covers Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole and the Executive Management Group of the LRF is chaired by the Chief Constable of Dorset Police.
The LRF is not a legal entity, nor does it have powers to direct its members. Nevertheless, the CCA and associated Regulations provide that responders, through the LRF, have a collective responsibility to plan, prepare and communicate in a multi-agency environment. The purpose of the LRF process is to ensure effective delivery of those duties under the Act that need to be developed in a multi-agency environment and individually as a Category 1 responder. The multi-agency LRF partnership serves as a framework within which standard arrangements are made across the county to deal with identified risks. This is achieved through a comprehensive structure of focused standing groups and specialist working groups.
The LRF is a multi-agency partnership made up of representatives from local public services, including the blue-light emergency services, local authorities, the NHS, the
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Environment Agency and other partners. These agencies are known as Category 1 Responders, as defined by the CCA.
The LRF is also supported by organisations, known as Category Two responders, such as the Highways Agency and the public utility companies who have a responsibility to co-operate with Category One Responders and to share relevant information with the LRF. The LRF also works in conjunction with, wider partners such as the military and the voluntary sector who provide a valuable contribution to LRF work in emergency preparedness. The LRF partnership consists of the following types of organisation: Category 1 Responders; Category 2 Responders including utilities and transport providers; Department for Communities and Local Government (Resilience and Emergencies Division); Military; Voluntary Sector.
In particular the LRF process should deliver:
‘The compilation of agreed risk profiles for the area, through a Community Risk Register; a systematic, planned and co-ordinated approach to encourage Category 1 responders, according to their functions, to address all aspects of policy in relation to: risk; planning for emergencies; planning for business continuity management; publishing information about risk assessments and plans; arrangements to warn and inform the public; and other aspects of civil protection duty, including the promotion of business continuity management by local authorities; and support for the preparation by all or some of its members of multi-agency plans and other documents, including protocols and agreements and the co- ordination of multi-agency exercises and other training events.’
(from ‘The Role of Local Resilience Forums: A Reference Document’, Cabinet Office, 2013)
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Dorset Civil Contingencies Unit (CCU)
The Dorset Civil Contingencies Unit exists to provide specialist civil contingencies support to the Dorset LRF to enable collective and individual alignment with the statutory duties outlined in the CCA 2004. The Dorset CCU supports the management and delivery of multi-agency planning, multi-agency response in and out of hours (including set up and administration of Resilience Direct response pages, Tactical Coordinating Group/Strategic Coordinating Group support, multi- agency co-ordination and communication messages) and the provision of an on-call Duty Officer role to take an active role in initiating the multi-agency response and support.
The CCU is funded by and responsible to the following local category 1 responders: Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service Dorset Police The two Dorset unitary local authorities NHS
Corporate Responsibilities
A summary of corporate and service roles and responsibilities are provided below, which relate to both planning and response. There are many Council services directly involved in emergency response activities due to the nature of services they provide. Others are called upon because they are required to provide support to Council emergency responders.
Whilst corporate emergency response structures and procedures are activated by the Emergency Planning and Resilience Team, all Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council service areas have responsibilities under the Civil Contingencies Act.
Scheme of Delegation The scheme of delegation for Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council sets out responsibilities in relation to the execution of the Council’s statutory duties under the
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CCA. It incorporates the roles of Duty Gold, Duty Silver, Duty Officer and Local Authority Liaison Officer (LALO) as well as other responding officers.
Chief Executive
The Chief Executive has overall responsibility for the Council’s compliance with the Civil Contingencies Act (CCA) 2004 and will assume the role of Corporate Resilience Champion, will attend the Dorset Local Resilience Forum Executive meetings and Chair the Corporate Resilience Group. The Director of Environment and Community will be the Vice Corporate Resilience Champion and will act in place of the Chief Executive in attending the LRF and chairing the Corporate Resilience Group on occasions when the Chief Executive is not available. This will provide consistency for the organisation and partners.
Corporate Resilience Champion
The Corporate Resilience Champion will have the responsibility corporate resilience and delivering emergency planning and business continuity for the Council and is to ensure there is a robust command and control structure in place. The plan will be tested by an annual corporate exercise, supplemented by Directorate based exercises as deemed proportionate to the risk by the senior management team.
Tier 2 Directors and Tier 3 Service Directors
Through the Council’s scheme of delegation, Tier 2 Directors and Tier 3 Service Directors have delegated responsibility for planning for and responding to emergencies and ensuring organisational, directorate and service level resilience and compliance with the legislation. All Directors are to ensure that their Directorate carries out at least one business continuity and/or emergency scenario exercise per year.
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Emergency Planning and Resilience Team
The Emergency Planning and Resilience Team is the Council’s corporate team of emergency planning and business continuity specialists. The Emergency Planning and Resilience Manager leads a team of officers responsible for: Provision of professional emergency planning and business continuity advice, support and guidance to the organisation; Ongoing development of corporate plans and arrangements; Provision of a 24/7 on-call duty officer (DO) who is the first point of contact for the authority in an incident or emergency and will coordinate the response. Working with local responders to develop multi agency plans, share information and foster good working relationships and co-operation during emergency response; Ensuring effective multi-agency working including appropriate representation at and participation in Local Resilience Forum standing groups and capability groups and cooperation with the Civil Contingencies Unit in support of the LRF; Working with teams and services across the Council to develop the Council’s response capabilities in line with the risks identified through the Community Risk Register; Provision of specialist advice and support to Council directorates to enable Council wide compliance with the Civil Contingencies Act, 2004; Working with individual service areas to ensure consistency between corporate and service level emergency arrangements; Promotion of business continuity planning and general emergency preparedness to communities, the voluntary sector and businesses; Development and/or delivery of training and exercising programmes both internally and with external organisations; Representing Council resilience related interests at specific risk groups or national resilience structures. Administering the corporate duty gold, silver and duty officer rotas Providing professional subject matter expertise to the Council and the command structure during an incident
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Ensuring the Council is compliant with its statutory duties in relation to REPPIR, COMAH and PSR.
Corporate Resilience Group
This group facilitates the Council’s approach to corporate resilience covering business continuity, emergency planning and resilience related risk. The membership is to consist of the following: Chief Executive - Chair Emergency Planning and Resilience Manager EPLO/champions from each Service or service area Other technical officers from the authority; IT, Insurance, Legal, Customer Services, Corporate Communications etc.
Service Area Responsibilities
In an emergency Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council has a significant role in coordinating the response of a large number of services and voluntary organisations during the response and recovery phases. The table below provides an overview of the key areas and specialist functions of the Council. It is not an exhaustive list and other areas of the Council may become involved in the emergency response and recovery depending on the nature of the incident and what support and resource is required.
Service Area Emergency Response and Recovery Functions Adult Social Care Taking the lead on humanitarian assistance, including co-ordinating the provision of welfare and aftercare support for the public (may be virtual); Set up and management of rest centres; Identifying and assisting the vulnerable.
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Identifying vulnerable locations such as care homes, day centres Safeguarding Bereavement Planning for a mass fatalities incident including the Services running of an emergency/temporary mortuary Planning for excess deaths Building Control Inspecting dangerous structures and co-ordinating their making safe as appropriate. CCTV Access to CCTV footage. Children’s Social Care Taking the lead on humanitarian assistance, including co-ordinating the provision of welfare and aftercare support for the public (may be virtual); Set up and management of rest centres; Identifying and assisting the vulnerable Identifying vulnerable locations such as care homes, children’s centres Safeguarding Coastal Team Knowledge and expertise regarding the coastline and coastal protection Providing professional input in the event of a landslide involving the coastline Community Safety Leading on community safety and implementing the national CONTEST counter-terrorism strategy on a local basis. Coroner’s Office Establishing a temporary mortuary at Holly Tree Lodge (if required) at the request of HM Coroner and the police; Leading on the Coroner’s Service for the county in response to a mass fatalities incident; Providing specific legal advice during an incident; Planning for excess deaths
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Corporate Providing professional communications input, Communications including the potential request to provide premises for and support to a media centre/press conferences; Provision of comprehensive warning and informing mechanisms pre, during and post emergencies/major business disruptions; Keeping the public and staff informed and aware; Public information updates (press releases, social media, Council website). Customer Services Provision of information and advice to the public and a source of information to the Council on what is happening on the ground. Democratic Services Ensuring regular member liaison in the event of an emergency or disruption Co-ordinating and overseeing VIP visits. Economic Act as link to local businesses and economic Development partnerships Support the Council in its duty to promote business continuity to local business Emergency Planning Acting as the first point of contact for the Council in and Resilience an emergency Team/Duty Officer Co-ordinating the Council’s overall emergency response including its Incident Co-ordination Room; Ensuring appropriate staff attend the Dorset multi- agency Strategic Co-ordinating Group and Tactical Co-ordinating Group; Co-ordinating the notification of utility services, transport services and voluntary agencies; Liaising with government departments and other relevant agencies; Co-ordinating loggists and note takers
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Providing specialist subject matter advice and support to the Council’s response Equality & Diversity Equalities team leads on cohesion matters and provides guidance to the emergency response on faith and cultural issues. Events Work with Emergency Planning to ensure that the Council organises safe public events and appropriate contingency arrangements are in place Facilities and Property Property maintenance; Lead on asbestos and legionnaires Fire Safety Lead on fire safety information and advice in relation to Council employees, properties and activities Health and Safety Lead on health and safety information and advice in relation to Council employees, properties and activities Insurance All insurance related matters Flooding & Drainage Flood and drainage knowledge and expertise Team Housing Advice, guidance and temporary accommodation for those made homeless. Provision of officers who can attend an incident to provide Housing input, as above Human Resources Lead on HR information and advice in relation to Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council employees. ICT Disaster recovery, ICT and telecommunications; GIS support Parks Providing manpower, equipment, plant and local knowledge including tree clearance; Assist in matters affecting gypsy and traveller communities.
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Management and/or support of issues involving land under the management of Parks Public Health Working with Public Health England and the NHS to deal with local health protection incidents and breakouts. Procurement & Advice, guidance and procurement support including Finance matters related to corporate credit cards; Co-ordinating emergency expenditure including the setup of emergency expenditure codes, financial monitoring, authorisation and processing of grants / emergency funds, Bellwin claims and cost recovery; Processing of emergency payments Registrars Planning for excess deaths and an increase in demand on the registration service Regulatory Services Advice to public, businesses and rogue traders; Animal health advice and guidance in relation to animal or plant related incidents Access to dog wardens Providing environmental health advice and guidance. Revenue and Benefits Provide guidance in relation to council tax and business rates and administer government relief schemes following an emergency Seafront Services Key role in a coastal pollution incident and any seafront or museum related services; Providing staff, equipment, plant and local knowledge including coastal pollution response. Street Services Providing staff, equipment, plant and local knowledge; Providing waste management, site safety and clearance, and clear up; Monitoring river levels & the issuing of sandbags;
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Assistance on matters relating to highways such as temporary signage for diversion routes and the closure of flooded roads; Provide a winter salting/gritting service. Movement of emergency welfare boxes to rest centres; Leading on matters relating to highways such as temporary signage / closure of flooded roads. Tourism City centre businesses/residents liaison; Assisting in matters within town centres; Assist in business recovery and liaison with Business Improvement Districts. Transport & Traffic Specialist Transport provision; Management Access to public transport providers; Leading on matters relating to highways such as electronic messaging signs
Emergency Planning Liaison Officers (EPLOs)
Each service/service area has an EPLO and one or more deputies. Their function is to be the first point of contact for their service on emergency planning, business continuity and resilience matters. The role of the EPLO is: To work with the Emergency Planning and Resilience Team to ensure that the service is prepared to respond to a range of emergencies including identifying and arranging training for, and exercising of, appropriate staff. Ensure new staff receive a general brief on emergency planning and business continuity when starting. To be aware of the roles and functions of other departments and external agencies in an emergency. To ensure that emergency planning is understood and applied throughout the service and to ensure that senior management is engaged and that sufficient resources are allocated to undertake the tasks identified.
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To follow up with the Emergency Planning and Resilience Team incidents involving the service to identify lessons learned for future actions. To support the service in the recovery process. To ensure that service contact lists are maintained and reviewed on a regular basis. To support managers with their Business Impact Analysis (BIA), encourage detailed business continuity planning via individual service plans and ensure these are updated as necessary. NB* The ultimate responsibility for business continuity planning rests with individual service managers. To be aware of all plans in which the service plays a part and contribute to their review as requested. Attend the BCP Incident Management Team during an internal business continuity incident; Ensuring that their service status is reported via a sitrep during an internal business continuity incident
Command, Control and Coordination Command, control and coordination are defined as follows:
Command is the authority associated with a role or rank in an organisation to give direction in order to achieve defined objectives
Control is the application of authority, combined with the capability to manage resources, in order to achieve defined objectives. It includes the direction of other agencies engaged in the completion of a task
Coordination is the integration of multi-agency efforts and available capabilities, in order to achieve defined objectives
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Each responder agency has arrangements in place for commanding its own resources during the response to an emergency. No single responding agency has command authority over any other agencies’ personnel or assets. The objective is for multi-agency partners to work together in a coordinated manner to make the most effective use possible of the collective resources available to them during the response. The Council’s representative at the Tactical Coordinating Group, Strategic Coordinating Group or response site therefore has to make it clear what the Council can and cannot contribute to the response and agree on a course of action.
Levels of Command, Control and Coordination
There are three management tiers in integrated emergency management: operational, tactical and strategic (see diagram that follows). The terms Bronze, Silver and Gold describe single agency levels of command. The multi-agency levels of command at these levels are Operational, Tactical and Strategic. Emergency management is based on the principle of subsidiarity; that is to say that decisions should be taken at the lowest appropriate level, with coordination at the highest necessary level.
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Operation Level (Bronze)
The operational level is the management of immediate "hands-on" work undertaken at the site(s) of the incident. Operational commanders control and deploy the resources of their respective services on specific tasks within their area of responsibility, implementing the direction provided by the Tactical Commander. As management of an incident becomes complex it may be necessary to establish a number of functional and geographic Bronzes.
Tactical Level (Silver)
The tactical level deals with the overall management, tasking and resourcing of the frontline response in accordance with the strategy set by the strategic level. The Tactical Coordinating Group (TCG) will usually comprise the most senior officers or silver commander of each agency committed within the area of operations, who will assume tactical command of the situation. Certain types of incident may require more than one tactical location or a specific tactical group dealing with a particular function, such as mass evacuation. In most instances the police will co-ordinate the multi-agency tactical level. In the initial stages of a major incident the tactical level will assume the strategic function. The TCG will usually be based at Police HQ in Winfrith, but on occasions, it may be deemed necessary or more effective to operate from a separate nominated centre (e.g. a Police Station), or virtually through teleconferencing.
Strategic Level (Gold)
In those cases where it becomes clear that resources, expertise or co- ordination are required beyond the capacity of the tactical level it may be necessary to invoke the strategic level of management to take overall
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command and set strategic direction. A Strategic Coordinating Group (SCG) will form, bringing together gold commanders from relevant organisations. The purpose of the strategic level is to establish the policy and strategic framework for the response and recovery. Depending on the nature, extent and severity of the emergency, either the sub-national or central government may become involved. The SCG will then become the primary interface with these other levels of response. The SCG will usually be based at Police HQ in Winfrith.
Tactical Co-ordinating Group
The purpose of the tactical level of command is to devise a tactical plan that considers impacts wider than the immediate scene of the incident and co-ordinate operational resources in order to achieve this. Where formal coordination is required local responders may convene a Tactical Coordinating Group (either in response to a rapid-onset emergency or escalation from the RWG) at a suitable location. The TCG usually comprises of the silver commanders of each agency committed within the area of operations. The TCG will: Determine priorities for allocating available resources Plan and co-ordinate how and when tasks will be undertaken Identify and request any additional resources required to deliver the tactical plan Assess significant risks and use this to inform the tactical plan and subsequent tasking of operational commanders Ensure the health and safety of the public and responders
The TCG is required to ensure that actions and priorities reflect the overall strategic intent set by the SCG (which will either meet by teleconference or physically), and that operational commanders have the means, direction and coordination necessary to deliver effective outcomes. This process requires effective communication and consultation between management levels.
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In the initial stages of a no-notice emergency requiring the activation of a TCG it is likely that the tactical level will assume a strategic function until an SCG assumes overall command. Any actions taken should be based on the information available at the time.
Strategic Co-ordinating Group
The role of the SCG is to take overall responsibility for the multi-agency management of the emergency, and to establish the policy and strategic framework within which the tactical level of command will work. It will usually be formed in response to a rapid-onset emergency or as a result of escalation from a PEAT/FASTCON, and it may meet as a teleconference or as a physical meeting.
The SCG does not replace individual agencies’ Gold level management mechanisms, which will continue, but complements them to ensure that policy and approaches are effectively co-ordinated.
The SCG does not have the collective authority to issue executive orders. Each organisation represented retains its own responsibilities and exercises control of its own operations in the normal way.
The SCG, therefore, has to rely on a process of discussion and consensus to reach decisions at a strategic level, and to ensure that the agreed strategic aims and objectives are implemented at the tactical level. The SCG will: Agree a strategic aim and objectives in responding to the incident Determine policy for implementation at the tactical level Assess and arrange for adequate resources Prioritise allocation of resources to tactical commanders Implement adequate financial controls Act as an interface to Central Government Liaise with neighbouring police forces or regional partner agencies Co-ordinate communications internally and to the public Provide liaison to the media at a strategic level
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Consider military assistance Make an assessment as early as possible about the timescale and process of recovery
Activation and Alerting
Major Incident
A major incident may be declared by any emergency responder for its own organisation and request that LRF emergency response structures are activated if required. It is acknowledged that on some occasions what may be a major incident for one agency may not be so for another. The decision as an LRF to declare, however, is usually made by the Strategic Co-ordinating Group and responding agencies automatically take on that status. By declaring a major incident, it may be possible to acquire national assistance and receive additional resources (including the potential activation of the Bellwin scheme) to deal with the incident. The amount of media interest is also likely to increase significantly upon declaration of a major incident. (It should be noted that the NHS sometimes use the phrase ‘major incident’ to also denote internal only severe system pressures at hospitals and partners are not usually notified of these.)
Op LINK
Operation LINK is the name given to methods used to inform members of the Dorset LRF of an incident and the requirement for them to either dial in to a teleconference or to attend a physical meeting of a Tactical or Strategic Coordinating Group.
Operation LINK can also be used to notify partners that a Pre-event Assessment Teleconference (PEAT) has been convened to gather information and intelligence in advance and to identify any gaps in preparedness ahead of an anticipated incident, such as a forecast disruptive weather event or period of planned industrial action.
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A PEAT can also be initiated to allow operational responders to agree roles and responsibilities in the event that contingencies such as road closures, flood barriers etc. need to be established in specific geographic areas.
Operation Link Activation MAJOR INCIDENT OR POTENTIAL Key EMERGENCY
Major Incident declared? Exact location Contact Dorset Police on 01305 Type of incident 227190 to request activation of Hazards present or suspected OPERATION LINK Access – routes that are safe to use Number, type, severity of casualties Emergency services present and Operator obtains key M/ETHANE those required information to begin an and informs Force
Incident Controller (FIC) Any (organisation) of the LRF can request the activation of multi-agency command and co-ordination. This should be through Operation Link.
FIC contacts Dorset CCU to make contact with relevant agencies
Agencies are informed Possible of incident using Op Link contact chart and requested to take appropriate action, Dial into teleconference e.g. meeting/teleconference Refer to Resilience Direct
Form a SCG / TCG
Attend SCC / TCC RESPONSE ACTIVATED
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The Dorset Prepared Alerting Service (DPAS) uses automated software (provided through Send Word Now) to make partners aware using multiple channels such as text messages, emails, phone calls that Operation Link has been activated. This allows for a more effective process for mass notification of incidents and emergencies that can affect all partner agencies within the Dorset LRF.
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Dorset LRF Multi-Agency Management Structure for a Major Incident
Joint Media Centre
Fire & BCP Council Police Ops Other Local Authority Other Ambulance Rescue Ops Incident Room Emergency Centre(s) Agencies Ops Room Reception Room Management Team/ Centres Coordination Room
Humanitarian Assistance SCG - Strategic Command Group Meetings (usually held at Police HQ, Winfrith) Centre
CCU Fire MCA Police Local Authorities Health Services Ambulance DCLG RED Environment Agency Temporary Mortuary Loggist Military STAC Chair Recovery Co-ordinating Group Chair Cat. 2 Responder’s Forum Chair
Humanitarian Assistance Co-ordination TCG - Tactical Command Group Meetings (located away from the immediate incident scene) Group
Fire Police Commander Ambulance Commander Local Authority representatives Other Agencies CCU
Recovery Coordinating Group
Operational Command - Incident scene (inner cordon) Scientific & Emergency Services Other relevant agencies (depending on nature of incident) such as Local Authority Liaison Officer Technical (LALO) Advice Cell (STAC)
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Scientific and Technical Advice Cell (STAC)
Public Health England has responsibility for the mobilisation of staff to and chairing of a Scientific and Technical Advice Cell (STAC). The decision to activate a STAC will be made by the Tactical Co-ordinating Group or Strategic Co-ordinating Group. The STAC is a group of experts, usually chaired by a Director of Public Health (DPH). They represent a range of organisations with responsibilities for health, scientific and technical advice. They are responsible for providing a common source of scientific and technical advice to the SCG and where appropriate the TCG, Recovery Working Group and Mass Fatalities Group. The STAC will pool available information and arrive, as far as possible, at a common view on the scientific and technical merits of different courses of action. The establishment of a STAC is likely to be particularly important when there may be significant wider health and environmental consequences following incidents such as CBRN, wide scale flooding and pollution.
The purpose of the cell is to ensure that, as far as possible, scientific or technical debate is contained within the cell so that the Strategic Co-ordinating Group (SCG) and others involved in the response receive the best possible advice based on the available information in a timely, co-ordinated and understandable fashion. The STAC would be expected to advise on issues such as the impact on the health of the population, public safety, environmental protection and sampling and monitoring of any contaminants. The STAC will also identify agencies / individuals with specialist advice who should be invited to join the cell and liaise with national specialist advisors to ensure the best possible advice is provided. In the event of a STAC being established, refer to the LRF Multi-Agency Scientific and Technical Advice Cell Plan.
Wider-area Incidents and Resilience Structures
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government operates a national network of resilience advisors from the Resilience and Emergencies Division (RED) who work closely with LRFs throughout England, to plan for, respond to and recover
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If an incident covers an area beyond Dorset, then wider area co-ordination may be required. A Multi-SCG Response Coordinating Group (ResCG) may be convened by the Department for Communities Local Government where the local response has been or may be overwhelmed and wider support is required, or where an emergency affects a number of neighbouring SCGs and would benefit from coordination. Agencies from all authorities concerned should liaise to decide where command structures are established, and who leads in certain circumstances.
In some instances, the scale or complexity of an emergency is such that some degree of central Government support or coordination becomes necessary. The level of central Government involvement will vary and could range from advice and support from the Lead Government Department (LGD), determined by the type of incident, to the 24/7 activation of the central Government crisis management machinery. In the most serious circumstances, this could involve the activation of the Cabinet Office Briefing Rooms (COBR), the most senior decision-making body overseeing the government’s response in a national crisis, to facilitate rapid co- ordination and collective decision-making.
The Response Coordinating Group (RESCG) provides support and co-ordination to the LRF, but can also provide assurance to central government and possibly avoid escalation to COBR. A multi LRF Recovery Coordinating Group (RecCG) may also be convened in the recovery phase and follows the same principles.
Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles (JESIP)
The Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Programme (JESIP) was established to address the recommendations and findings from a number of major incident reports, inquests and public enquiries where the emergency services could have worked better together and shown much greater levels of communication, co- operation and co-ordination. The programme has now evolved to become the Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles. Policies and procedures that
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Joint Decision Making Model
The joint decision making model (JDM) shown below, has been developed to enable effective joint decision making in emergencies. The joint decision making model has been based on three primary considerations: Situation – what is happening?
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Direction – what end state is desired? Action – what needs to be decided/done? One of the guiding principles of the JDM is that decision makers will use their judgement and experience in deciding what additional questions to ask, and considerations to take into account to reach a jointly agreed decision.
JESIP Joint Decision Making Model
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METHANE
When providing situational information within the multi-agency context, the following pneumonic has been adopted by all three emergency services as part of JESIP, as a means of conveying key information succinctly. It is used in particular by emergency services at the scene of an incident reporting back their initial assessment of the situation, and helps develop shared situational awareness.
Dorset LRF and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council have adopted these principles, METHANE reporting and the Joint Decision Model in its plans, agendas and supporting documentation.
Multi agency roles and responsibilities
This section outlines the roles, responsibilities and capabilities of the main agencies and sectors that are likely to become engaged in the response to, and recovery from, emergencies at the local level.
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Dorset Police Save and preserve life Notify responding agencies of incident Co-ordinate the activities of responding agencies at and around the scene Co-ordinate the multi-agency response at the TCG and SCG as required Establish outer cordon, rendezvous and assembly points Secure, protect and preserve the scene(s) Initiate evacuations of properties and areas as required Co-ordination of media response Investigation of incident Primary responsibility for recovery of the dead and identification of victims on behalf of HM Coroner Collection and dissemination of casualty information Provision of Family Liaison Officers Development of community impact assessments In Dorset Police HQ is located at Winfrith
Dorset and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service (DWFRS) Fire fighting Protecting life and property Search and rescue operations Initial decontamination of people on behalf of the health service Detection, identification and monitoring of hazardous materials Initial management of hazardous materials and protecting the environment at incidents Effective casualty retrieval, liaising with ambulance service as necessary Salvage and damage control at fires Safety management of the inner cordon Fighting fires and/or providing assistance in inland waterways, non-tidal and tidal rivers, estuaries and off shore Responding to incidents involving firefighting, hazardous materials and rescue operations at sea In Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue HQ is located at Salisbury
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South West Ambulance Service (SWAST) Saving and preserving life Operational responsibility for NHS resources at an incident site Provision of appropriate ambulance resources Identification and alerting of receiving hospital(s) and provision of liaison officers Alerting of other NHS resources Provision of triage at the scene Provision of Treatment at the scene where appropriate Management of transportation of casualties Decontamination of casualties and responders in accordance with service protocols
Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) Initiate and co-ordinate search and rescue Mobilise, organise and dispatch resources to assist people in distress at sea, or in danger on the cliffs or shoreline, or in certain inland areas Assist with civil emergencies, such as flooding, at the specific request of the police or local authority The Counter Pollution and Response Branch are responsible for dealing with pollution at sea and assisting local authorities with shoreline clean-ups HM Coastguard and Search and Rescue HQ are based at Southampton
Local Authority In 2 tier areas the provision of emergency response services is divided between the County Council and district and borough authorities as per service level agreements. Unitary councils provide all services and are upper tier authorities in their own right. Support to the emergency services and other agencies involved in the response Provide and manage humanitarian assistance o Rest Centres o Humanitarian Assistance Centres o Assistance at Survivor Reception Centres/Friends and Family Reception Centres o Welfare support
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Provide specialist assistance such as building control, environmental health and waste management officers Provide temporary mortuary and body storage as requested by the coroner Coordinate clean-up operations following a chemical or oil pollution spill Accommodate residents whose homes are rendered uninhabitable as a result of the emergency Use resources to mitigate the effects of an emergency. Traffic management and highways issues Co-ordinate the activities of the voluntary and faith communities Continue to deliver critical services to the community during an incident Provide warning and informing advice to the public Lead recovery and restoration activities
Environment Agency Prevent or minimise the impact of an incident Investigate the cause of an incident and consider enforcement action Seek remediation, clean-up or restoration of the environment To regulate and provide advice and support on waste disposal issues In a flood event, issue flood warnings and operate its flood defence assets In a pollution incident, prevent/control and monitor the input of pollutants to the environment In incidents involving air pollution, co-ordinate a multi-agency Air Quality Cell to provide interpreted air quality information
Acute Hospital Trusts Provide a 24-hour emergency management and clinical response. Provide a clinical response including provision of general support and specific/specialist health care to all casualties, and victims and responders. Where possible, support to any designated receiving hospital that is substantially affected including provision of effective support to any neighbouring service. Provide limited decontamination facilities and personal protective equipment to manage contaminated self-presenting casualties.
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Trusts will have a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Fire and Rescue Service on the provision of a decontamination service. Liaise with activated health emergency control centres Maintain communications with relatives of existing patients and with the Casualty Bureau
NHS Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) Take the tactical lead in acquiring an overview of the impact, resulting health requirements and the effect on the acute hospitals that it commissions. Represent the NHS at any Tactical Co-ordinating Group meetings. Provide an information flow between acute trusts (operational) and NHS England South West Area Team Incident Director (strategic). Access to out of hours pharmacies (requested by local authorities via Dorset Healthcare).
Dorset Health Foundation University Trust (Dorset Healthcare) Responsible for: Both hospital and community-based care All mental health services and many physical health services in Dorset Dorset's 12 community hospitals and minor injuries units Adult and children's community health services (physical and mental) Specialist learning disability services Community brain injury services On the request of the local authority they will deploy a Health Dispatch team to the incident site or rest/reception centre – this can include general practitioners, community nurses, health visitors, mental health services, trauma trained staff. Long-term health monitoring of those involved in an incident.
NHS England (South West) Co-ordinate the NHS response to a major incident Gain situation reports from acute trusts and their commissioning CCGs. Co-ordinate hospital bed capacity
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Together with Public Health England, provide support, advice and leadership to the local community on health aspects of an incident. Work with the local authority and community to support the recovery phase. Assess the medium to long term impact on the community and priorities for the restoration of normality.
Public Health England (PHE) Provide national leadership and coordination for the public health elements of the emergency preparedness, resilience and response system. Provide health protection services, expertise and advice and co-ordinate the PHE response to major incidents; Provide risk analysis and assessment of emerging diseases, natural extreme events, chemical, radiological and Chemical Biological Radiological Nuclear and Explosive (CBRNE) threats to inform the Department of Health and other government departments and agencies, health and multi-agency EPRR; Ensure provision of high quality and timely public health data to the Secretary of State and NHS CB, local authorities and across Government, in preparedness and response; Communicate with Devolved Administrations to coordinate investigation and management of cross-border public health incidents; Provide guidance to professionals in health and local government and other sectors; Communicate with the public by providing information and advice relevant to PHE’s responsibilities.
Local Authority Public Health Provide public health advice locally following advice from PHE Support PHE with the chairing of STAC
Port Health Authorities Port health authorities are usually the UK local authority where a port or airport is located.
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They have responsibility to protect the public, environmental and animal health of the UK. The Port Health Authorities in Dorset are Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council (Poole Port and Bournemouth Airport) and Dorset Council (Weymouth Port).
Met Office Provide a range of services through Hazard Manager that help authorities prepare for and respond to emergency incidents that are caused or influenced by the weather. Flood Forecasting Centre issues extreme weather warnings for flooding and storms & gales. In the event of an incident involving hazardous materials the Met Office will provide meteorological guidance and a plume prediction as a chemical meteorology (CHEMET) report. FireMet provides fire and rescue service responders with the latest weather information to help them identify a safe approach.
HM Coroner Has the legal responsibility for investigating the cause and circumstances of death arising from an incident. Determines who has died and how. Determines when and where the death took place. Authorises the moving of a body, post-mortem and the release of a body to relatives.
British Transport Police Deal with the policing of an incident affecting the rail network. Harbour Authority To co-ordinate vessel movements and broadcast navigation safety information in relation to the incident
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To respond to pollution within the harbour authority statutory area and to assist adjacent harbour authorities and relevant local authorities with clean-up operations where possible To deploy assets and personnel as appropriate to the incident To liaise with all relevant parties to ensure a cohesive response to the incident
Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) The Air Accidents Investigation Branch investigates civil aircraft accidents and serious incidents within the UK, its overseas territories and crown dependencies. AAIB works with the Department for Transport.
Rail Accidents Investigation Branch (RAIB) The Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB) independently investigates accidents to improve railway safety, and inform the industry and the public. RAIB works with the Department for Transport.
Utilities Gas and Electricity Companies To maintain electricity and gas supplies To receive emergency calls from the public and emergency services To assess calls and implications to the electric and gas supply and ensure public safety To provide advance notification to Local Authorities of any problem or potential problems which could lead to major disruption of supply Water Companies Provide water supplies Liaise with other water companies, local authorities and utility companies To provide advance notification to local authorities of any problem or potential problems which could lead to major disruption of supply Provide expertise, as required during an emergency. Telecommunications To provide and maintain public telecommunication services
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To provide emergency call service via 999 to facilitate public contact with emergency services Provide 24-hour contact for organisations for alerting and emergency requirements To protect the telecommunications services against adverse effects of an emergency, directly (for example power failure) or in directly (for example overloading by the public) To provide management expertise to liaise with responders and supply information on networks state To provide information on emergency contact arrangements for Casualty Bureau and other public enquiry points To provide any relevant expertise in the handling of an emergency including necessary resources
Health and Safety Executive Investigates industrial incidents
Voluntary Sector The voluntary sector can provide support in a number of generic areas specifically: Welfare Social and psychological aftercare Medical support Animal welfare Transport Communications Documentation Disaster relief fund management Physical donation management
In Dorset, many voluntary organisations contribute towards the successful outcome of an incident. This support at an incident can often alleviate some of the pressure on the statutory bodies by providing humanitarian services. This is especially so during the
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consolidation and recovery phases when fire, police and ambulance personnel are fully deployed elsewhere.
These organisations may be called upon during the incident but also during the recovery stage to provide support to the other agencies responding to an incident. This could include helping to staff reception centres, providing refreshments at the incident scene, giving first aid, providing psychological and spiritual support and assisting with communication systems. Voluntary agencies will directly engage in the post incident recovery phase and can assist in the setting up of a suitable Disaster Relief Fund, in providing the mechanism for donations and in implementing a transparent grant disbursement process.
Voluntary agencies will not self-deploy; in an incident Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Borough Council will notify and call-out voluntary agencies if assistance is required. See the table for more information about the roles of each agency. Further information is available via the legacy councils’ welfare plans and documentation, the Dorset LRF recovery framework and the Voluntary Agency Capability Matrix, LRF documents being available on the Dorset LRF pages of Resilience Direct.
Agency Capabilities British Red Cross First aid/special needs/routine medical healthcare support Provision of transport/wheelchairs/commodes and other home nursing items and emergency clothing. Assist with the staffing of rest centres General comfort and support as appropriate Mobilisation of the Fire and Emergency Support Service Vehicle. Dorset Search & Provision of trained search and rescue personnel for land Rescue (DorSAR) based search operations with staff trained for flood rescue. Plymouth Brethren Provide general comfort and support to emergency services (Rapid Relief Team) and the public Provide refreshments and meals as requested.
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Agency Capabilities Radio Amateurs Provide emergency radio communications and data transfer to Emergency Network the emergency services, local authorities, communities and (RAYNET) central government departments Can advise on communications, handling, capacity and other radio services. Royal National Actively monitor and assess current flood risk and associated Lifeboat Institution risk to life (RNLI) Save lives put at risk by flood water by the provision of strategically located rescue teams and have the capabilities to provide boats and personnel for flood rescue. Royal Society for the Assist with transport and boarding of evacuated animals. Prevention of Cruelty Assist with the registration of animals arriving and reported at a to Animals (RSPCA) rest/reception centre Set up feeding regimes for animals left behind in an evacuation. Liaise with other RSPCA areas for animals/pets whose owners are away from home and are involved in the evacuation. Salvation Army Assist in the care of people who have been made temporarily homeless Assist with the registration of individuals at emergency centres, using forms supplied by the police and/or the local authority Provision of pastoral care including people with skills in counselling and who speak other languages Distribution of clothing and bedding Serve meals provided by the local authority Provide and serve light refreshments if requested Provide comfort and support.
Samaritans Provision of emotional support to the victims of an emergency and to response personnel. St John’s Ambulance Provision of trained welfare, health care and first aid members Provision of ambulance transport for minor medical problems Supports the health services in mass casualties incidents
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Agency Capabilities Provide trained and experienced personnel to assist those with special needs e.g. diabetics, asthmatics and those needing regular dressings or prescribed medicines. Wessex 4x4 Provision of logistical support, achieved through the Response management and deployment of people and 4x4 vehicles to enable responders to meet the needs of residents. Royal Voluntary Provide welfare support during the recovery phase of an Service (RVS) incident (not during response)
Armed Forces Military Aid to the Civil Authorities (MACA) might be provided, if requested, to support the local authority in responding to an emergency, but is subject to availability at the time. It should be noted that the armed forces provide this support from spare capacity, so it is subject to the availability of resources, without affecting core MOD objectives. The MOD does not generate and maintain forces specifically for this task. In response to an emergency incident the military are able to provide search and rescue, bomb disposal and counter terrorism capabilities. There are four types of military aid: 1. MAGD – Military Aid to Government Dept: • Urgent work of national importance • Maintaining supplies • Maintaining essential services 2. MACP – Military Aid to the Civil Power: • Assistance in the maintenance of law, order and public safety under the direction of the police 3. MACC – Military Aid to the Civil Community: • Emergencies • Special Projects • Events of Value 4. TLACP – Training and Logistics Assistant to the Civil Power: • The provision of defence estate to enable government department operations.
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The provision of MACA is guided by four principles: 1. There is a definite need to act and the tasks the armed forces are being asked to perform are clear. 2. Other options, including mutual aid and commercial alternatives, have been discounted; and either 3. The civil authority lacks the necessary capability to fulfil the task and it is unreasonable or prohibitively expensive to expect it to develop one; or 4. The civil authority has all or some capability, but it may not be available immediately, or to the required scale, and the urgency of the task requires rapid external support from MOD. 5. Making a MACA Request The Military Liaison Officer, and the Government Liaison Officer (GLO) on behalf of the relevant government department, will help the SCG to decide whether to make a request for military support under one of the four MACA categories. MACA is initiated by a request from the Chair of the SCG to the MOD and ministers via the relevant UK government department or agency.
Welfare
The type of support required is determined on the nature of the incident, impact it has on the community and demographics of the people affected. During an incident the public are likely to require: Shelter and welfare Information Financial and legal advice Advice on where to get help Longer term support and advice Those affected by an incident normally include: Those directly involved in the incident, either suffering injuries or becoming displaced from homes or businesses. They may be local to the area or may be visitors and short-term residents.
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Families and friends who have concerns for people who may have been involved in the incident and require support Emergency responders, local authority staff, voluntary agency staff and witnesses In some cases incidents in other parts of the world may impact relatives in the UK, or people returning from overseas involved in an incident may require support.
Aim There are 3 identified stages that have been identified when providing humanitarian assistance during an incident
First 24 Hours Provide people with safe facilities where they can shelter and recover Record names and addresses of those affected Provide single point of information Put in place publicity strategy to promote help available
The First 72 Hours Set up Humanitarian Assistance Centre to provide more comprehensive welfare support Consider establishment of a Friends and Family Reception Centre Consider immediate financial support for individuals
Days and weeks that follow
Maintain Humanitarian Assistance Centre Bring additional resources required Establish long-term support
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Evacuation
During an incident there may be a requirement to evacuate a specific location due to a threat or potential danger. Evacuation will always be the last resort. In the first instance the public should be advised to “stay in, tune in”. Planning and implementing an evacuation is highly complex and requires an effective management framework. It is recommended that for any medium or large scale evacuation the responding agencies set up an Evacuation Management Group (EMG) reporting direct to the SCG and chaired by the police. Types of evacuation No Notice Events The public spontaneously evacuate First responders decide to evacuate people immediately based on risk
Escalation of an incident already underway Multiple calls are received by the emergency services Operational deployment is made to the scene Multi-agency command and control mechanism is in place Risk assessment is made at the tactical level by deployed incident commanders, based on circumstances, likelihood of escalation and potential impact.
Indication or pre-warning of disruption Calls are received providing information, including from a third party No initial deployment is made Assessment undertaken by Force Control Room, based on current guidelines, national threat levels, political situations, code words and likelihood of potential targeting of individuals or property. Planned events where properties need to be empty to allow work to proceed safely Weather and flood warnings indicate life-threatening flooding is expected.
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Displaced Members of the Public The Emergency Services will provide the initial response however, using well established methods of joint working, incidents are likely to require other agencies to support individuals affected.
Immediate shelter and care will be provided initially by the emergency services as the first responders. To provide shelter and care to persons involved directly in the incident Police may establish a Survivor Reception Centre, located near to the scene.
Members of the public who find themselves displaced because they have been evacuated from their homes or businesses may require temporary shelter. A Rest Centre may be established to provide a place of safety for displaced people. This is sometimes referred to as an evacuation centre.
A Friends and Family Reception Centre may be established to allow the public to make enquires about loved ones and report missing persons. Reports of people involved, casualties and missing persons is coordinated by the Police Casualty Bureau.
Following an incident those affected may require support in areas such as housing, bereavement support, financial and social care. The range and scope of support required will vary depending on the type, scale and duration of the incident. A Humanitarian Assistance Centre provides a single location where representatives from support and voluntary services provide information, support and signposting.
Survivor Reception Centre (SRC) A Survivor Reception Centre (SRC) is a location where survivors not requiring acute medical care can be taken in the immediate aftermath of an incident and acts as a way of; Documenting survivors for Police Casualty Bureau Interviewing survivors for evidence and information The SRC may be established and initially run by the Police; Police will provide a documentations team who will pass details of survivors to the Casualty Bureau.
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Rest Centre A Rest Centre is a building in a strategic location that can be used to provide shelter and care to evacuees that are unable to return to an affected area. A Rest Centre normally provides short-term support (24-48 hours) until people are able to return home or alternative accommodation is found.
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council has pre-prepared locations supported by plans explaining how to use and manage a facility. The Council acts as the lead organisation but may receive support from other agencies such as the voluntary sector or police.
A SRC may also evolve in to a Rest Centre. This will depend on the level of facilities available at the SRC and whether moving survivors to a new location is appropriate.
Friends and Family Reception Centre (FFRS) A Friends and Family Reception Centre (FFRS) is a location established following an incident to act as a focal point for family and friends whereby they can make enquires and report people missing. Friends and family are able to register their concerns for people who may have been involved in an incident Details of missing people are recorded and relayed to the Casualty Bureau Police interviews and initial investigation can be instigated Family and friends are reunited with survivors in a private, secure environment. Humanitarian Assistance A Humanitarian Assistance Centre provides a single location where organisations and voluntary agencies can provide information and support to anyone affected by an incident and provides; A focal point where information and assistance is given Private interviewing area Telephone and internet services Welfare Food and refreshments Childcare facilities
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First aid provision Police Casualty Bureau Liaison Police family and survivor liaison Local Authority Services for example; o Adult and Children Services o Housing Transport Finance Voluntary Services
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council would assume the lead in establishing a Humanitarian Assistance Centre supported by other service providers including the voluntary sector. The length a Humanitarian Assistance Centre will remain open will vary depending on the needs identified following an incident. Further information on humanitarian assistance is located in the Dorset LRF Human Aspects Framework.
Casualty Bureau The Casualty Bureau is a facility set up through the Police and acts as a central information point for all records and data relating to people who have, or are believed to have been involved in an incident. The Bureau takes information from hospitals, the scene of the incident and telephone enquiries from the public. The Casualty Bureau focuses on the following 1. To obtain relevant information on those involved, or potentially involved and process that information 2. To provide accurate information to relatives and friends 3. To provide accurate information to the Senior Investigating Officer and HM Coroner
Temporary Mortuary and Mass Fatalities A mass fatalities incident is defined as an incident where the number of those who have died or the circumstances in which they have died, require an activation of special arrangements by HM Coroner and other responding agencies. Mass fatality incidents
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In the event of a mass fatalities incident occurring in Dorset a temporary mortuary will be set up at either Holly Tree Lodge Mortuary (Boscombe), by augmenting the existing mortuary facilities, or possibly at a designated temporary site in Bovington. A Temporary Mortuary is a location providing additional post-mortem identification and body storage facilities from an incident to support existing mortuary facilities.
The decision as to which site to use will be made at the time by the Mass Fatalities Coordinating Group. In the event of a temporary mortuary being established, regard should be given to the Local Resilience Forum Mass Fatalities Response Plan and operational appendices which details the arrangements more fully.
In the event of fatalities, or likely fatalities, HM Coroner should be informed at the earliest possible stage, particularly if the incident is of a cross-border nature so that Coroner’s Officers can be deployed to the scene to support the necessary legal processes and to provide support to families.
Support to displaced members of the public
When providing support to evacuees they should be enabled to function themselves. Initial emergency response - initially evacuees will be accommodated in a rest centre for up to 24 - 48 hours. Evacuees may also choose to stay with family or friends, but must still be considered as part of those evacuated as their needs will include information.
Longer-term Support - Residents who are unable to return home for the foreseeable future (24 - 48 hours) are deemed homeless and therefore the responsibility of the Housing Teams for temporary accommodation. Evacuated residents may also have
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Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear or Explosive Incidents
An incident, whether deliberate or accidental, involving chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear or explosive (CBRNe) materials or major hazardous materials (HazMat) can potentially lead to harm to the public’s health, loss of life, contamination of the built and open environment, disruption of society and consequential damage to the UK economy.
It is therefore important that plans are in place to minimise the effects of such an event and to plan for recovery following this type of incident. The scale and nature of any CBRNe contamination will vary and as such require a variety of responses, ranging from the relatively simple to the more complex. For more information about the local response please refer to the LRF Strategy for Dealing with CBRNe Emergencies.
Local authorities have responsibility to: Lead on the recovery phase in most cases and co-ordinate multi agency support for the decontamination process; Lead on contaminated waste management planning; As necessary assess the structural stability of affected buildings, and if they appear to be dangerous exercise powers under the Building Act 1984 (for England and Wales) and the Building (Scotland) Act 1959; Advise on the development control implications of any proposed work and supporting infrastructure (for example, temporary buildings and other structures); Organise and manage the decontamination of the affected area and restore the environment to normal use, invoking any existing mutual aid arrangements with neighbouring authorities and contractors as appropriate; Manage risks to the health and safety of workers undertaking decontamination of the environment and processing hazardous wastes;
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Under the Health and Social Care Act 2012, be responsible for protecting and improving the health and wellbeing of their residents; Consider wider regeneration opportunities; Have a vital role in local, public and media communication.
Control of Major Accident Hazards
The purpose of the Control of Major Accident Hazards Regulations 2015 (as amended) (COMAH) are to prevent major accidents involving dangerous substances and limit the consequences to people and the environment of any which do occur. COMAH applies mainly to the chemical industry, but also to some storage activities, explosives and nuclear sites, and other industries where threshold quantities of dangerous substances identified in the Regulations are kept or used. A key feature of the COMAH Regulations is that they will be enforced by a competent authority (CA) comprising the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Environment Agency (EA) in England and Wales. There are two thresholds, known as lower-tier and top-tier: Lower-tier operators are required to prepare a document setting out their policy for preventing major accidents; this is known as a major accident prevention policy or Major Accident Prevention policy (MAPP); Top-tier operators must prepare an emergency plan to deal with the on-site consequences of a major accident and provide safety information to all those residents and businesses within the Public Information Zone (PIZ) surrounding the site. The Regulations also state that an Off-site Emergency Response Plan must be prepared and tested every three years by the local authority to cover areas that may be affected outside of the site’s boundaries. Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council does not currently have any upper-tier COMAH sites although there are two in Dorset: Perenco Wytch Farm near the Studland peninsula and Portland Bunkers. There is a lower-tier COMAH site, Magellan Aerospace, on Wallisdown Road.
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Part 2 Response and Recovery
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Strategic Response Objectives
In common with all organisations and agencies involved in the response to an emergency, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council will work towards the following strategic response objectives: To save life; To prevent escalation of the situation; To relieve suffering; To safeguard the environment; To protect property; To facilitate investigation or other inquiries; To maintain normal services at an appropriate level; To inform the public; To promote self-help and recovery; To restore normality as soon as possible.
Setting Strategy
The Duty Gold will be required to set the strategic direction for the organisation during the response to the incident. Duty Gold will need to clearly articulate the strategy so that Duty Silver and those supporting Silver can develop tactical plans and operational actions. The Duty Gold strategy will also be recorded as all decisions will be based upon this direction.
Strategy needs to: Be short and concise Be easily understood Fit the organisation, its culture and beliefs, and at the same time ensure it fits with the Council’s responsibilities towards residents and visitors. What to avoid: Getting too involved in detail, too hands on. Not communicating the strategy clearly Not recording the strategy.
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Not monitoring the outcome of the strategy and evaluating.
Example strategies: “To warn and inform residents of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole especially those that are vulnerable of the risk to health from the (insert details of incident e.g. Upton Heath Fire) and what actions to take”.
“To support our emergency service colleagues in the response phase of this emergency (insert details of incident e.g. Upton Heath Fire)”.
“To provide resources (detail resources) to support (insert Local Authority e.g. Dorset Council) as per the Memorandum of Understanding Local Authority Mutual Aid Provision until their normal service can be maintained”.
Key Strategic Considerations
The following table provides a list of some of the main strategic areas for consideration in emergency response, but is not exhaustive. Other subject specific plans, flood response for example, contain additional considerations specific to flooding.
Social and community consequences
Public information Vulnerable people Vulnerable locations, e.g. schools, care homes Community leadership, engagement and reassurance Community tensions Key events; arrests, funerals, inquiries, anniversaries Recovery Technical (operational response) Humanitarian assistance, physical and emotional support Care of disabled people/people sheltering in homes, housing services Highways and community transport
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Waste management, site clearance, clean-up, graffiti removal Children’s services, liaison with schools, safeguarding issues Adult’s services Public safety, inspection of dangerous buildings Public health CCTV Media and communication Economic Risks to businesses Risks from business processes e.g. COMAH sites Risks to critical local and national infrastructure Financial and material donations, possible disaster fund Ethical Protect life, alleviate suffering Equality and diversity Political Elected Members COBR MPs/Lead Government Department Legal Use of local authority powers Licensing Enforcement action Environmental Clean-up including contaminated waste Iconic and historic sites Protection of the environment Cross-border liaison, wide-area consequences
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Activation
Incident occurs
Council’s Operation Centre takes initial call, triages and contacts the appropriate Duty Officer
DO will carry out an assessment on the scale of the Council’s response*
If no requirement If incident requires for Duty Silver or Duty Silver or Duty Duty Gold then DO If a TCG or SCG is called Gold involvement, will deal with the DO will brief the duty then DO will contact incident and inform Silver/Gold officer and the appropriate them of actions may act as their advisor officer taken
Depending on the Incident the Duty Silver or Gold will decide on the level of the Council’s response, e.g. deployment of operational (bronze) level staff convening the Incident Management Team
* In practice, in office hours the Emergency Planning Team may take over from the Duty Officer or support the corporate response in place of the Duty Officer.
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Whilst the Council Operations Centre may be the first point of contact, the mobilisation of 24/7 emergency support from Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council is initiated by the Duty Officer*. Initially while legacy command arrangements are in place for the Duty Officer, the Council Operations Centre will take details of the incident, triage the call based on geographical area, i.e. Poole, Bournemouth or Christchurch, and then contact the relevant Duty Officer: Poole – Poole Duty Officer Bournemouth – Bournemouth Duty Officer Christchurch – via the Bournemouth Duty Officer
Upon notification of an incident, the Duty Officer* will ascertain the nature and extent of the incident and the type of assistance required, make an assessment of the situation, gathering further information if required, and will then take action accordingly. If the matter can be dealt with at an operational level, the Duty Officer will mobilise the required resources and keep the Duty Silver briefed on the situation. A decision to deploy a Local Authority Liaison Officer may be made at this stage
If a more tactical or strategic level response is required, the Duty Officer will contact the Duty Silver. If appropriate, a decision will be taken, in conjunction with Duty Gold, to set up the Incident Management Team (IMT), and members of this meeting will be notified by the Duty Officer. Operational staff may also be deployed by the Duty Silver or Duty Officer at this point, including a Local Authority Liaison Officer (LALO). The IMT will convene either physically in the most appropriate location, e.g. legacy Council’s Incident Co-ordination Room, another nominated room, the backup centre at Vale Road, or via teleconference if this is deemed more appropriate at the time.
If it is not deemed to be appropriate to establish a full Incident Management Team and/or set up the Incident Co-ordination Room, particularly if out of hours, the response will be managed by the Duty Officer in conjunction with the appropriate level of command.
In practice, in office hours the Emergency Planning Team may take over from the Duty Officer or support the corporate response in place of the Duty Officer.
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Standby and Stand Down Arrangements
It may be necessary to put operational staff on standby until the full extent of the response required is determined. For example, staff may be on standby to attend a rest centre or to assist in a potential evacuation during a flooding incident where the full extent of the emergency is not yet known. Putting staff on standby ensures the Council can respond in an effective way as staff are fully prepared to respond if required.
Depending on the type of emergency, it may be that a heightened period of activity may be followed by a lengthy period of monitoring activity. Following on from the end of an incident, Duty Gold, Chief Executive or Duty Silver, as appropriate in consultation with the Duty Officer/Incident Management Team, will make a decision as to the incident being ‘over’ and the emergency plan can be deactivated. Once this decision has been made, a stand-down message must be passed on to all officers who have been responding or put on standby.
Records
It is essential to maintain accurate records and logs of all aspects of an incident including actions and decisions made. All staff responding to an incident are required to ensure that they maintain a log of the information they receive, options considered, their decisions, actions and justification. The log will support staff in keeping track of the incident; facilitating the completion of tasks and supporting staff in the handover process. The actions and decisions made during an incident may become subject to scrutiny at a subsequent public enquiry, inquest, criminal or civil proceedings. Good record keeping also allows lessons to be identified and assists in the debriefing process where lessons directly drive future planning and help improve future responses.
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Records and Logs
Logs must be recorded and retained, signed and dated by the person making them. As far as practical records should be made at the time whilst the information is fresh in the mind. When recording decisions made it is important to log the decision made, with the options and rational as to why that particular decision was made. Logs may ultimately need to be referred to in the event of a public inquiry following an incident. All documentation following an incident should be sent to the Emergency Planning and Resilience Team within two days of the incident ending to be stored securely for future reference and in line with Council retention schedules. Records of an incident should be kept indefinitely.
Debriefing
Debriefing is a key part of any incident. A ‘hot debrief’ should be organised immediately following an incident and a further formal debrief session is organised at an appropriate time following an incident. Every individual involved in the incident should provide a handover at the end of their shift/working day so that any lessons identified and improvements can be gathered and documented at the earliest opportunity.
After Action Review
Consideration should be given to use of the following debriefing process. An After Action Review (AAR) is a simple process used by a team to capture the lessons learned from past successes and failures, with the goal of improving future performance.
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Structured Debrief
Alternatively, a structured debrief can be held. This is a structured debriefing process designed to identify organisational learning. The Emergency Planning Team is trained and can facilitate and lead on the internal debriefing process.
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Command Structure
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council has arrangements in place where a list of on-call managers, technical professionals and volunteer staff are available to be called upon in the event of an incident. The nature, severity and duration of an incident will impact the level of response required. When referring to levels of command within a single-agency the terms Bronze, Silver and Gold are used. These correspond to the terms Operational, Tactical and Strategic, which are used when referring to multi-agency levels of command.
Strategy
The Emergency Planning and Resilience Team is responsible for the initial production of the duty gold, silver and duty officer rotas. However, if any changes to these are required, it is the responsibility of the relevant officer to find a solution and notify the Emergency Planning and Resilience Team of the changes.
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Gold
The role of Duty Gold during an emergency is to provide clear leadership, clear communication, bring the right people together and to lead on recovery.
Duty Gold is available via an on-call rota 24/7 to make strategic decisions on behalf of the council for response and recovery arrangements. The pool of Duty Golds comprises the Chief Executive and 5 Tier 2 Directors plus the Section 151 Officer and Statutory Monitoring Officer (7 in total). The period of duty lasts a week and runs from Thursday to Thursday. The Chief Executive will not be on the weekly rota, but will be available for escalation and may decide to assume responsibility from the Duty Gold for the strategic management of the incident.
In the event of an incident, the Duty Gold (or their representative) will attend the Local Resilience Forum (LRF) Strategic Coordinating Group (SCG) either via teleconference or in person at the Strategic Coordination Centre (SCC).
As Duty Gold the following training must be undertaken by April 2020: Strategic Emergency Management training delivered by the Emergency Planning College Multi-agency Strategic Command training – delivered locally by the Dorset LRF Internal emergency planning induction from the Emergency Planning and Resilience Team Media training It is incumbent on those undertaking the Duty Gold role to ensure that they undertake periodic training in order to ensure skills and knowledge remain up to date. They are also required to provide a record of relevant personal training and exercising to the Emergency Planning and Resilience Team. Duty Golds will be provided with the following equipment/tools: Duty Gold smart phone with access to the Duty Gold inbox Corporate tablet Duty bag with phone charger and copies of relevant plans
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Logbook Decision log Hi-vis tabard Duty Golds will also be required to have their own individual account on Resilience Direct.
Silver
The role of Duty Silver is to lead and coordinate the Council’s tactical response and recovery to an emergency/disruptive challenge with the support of the Emergency Planning Team/the Duty Officer and other officers from across the council. In addition, Duty Silver will represent the Council at the designated multi-agency Tactical Coordinating Group by assessing and making decisions on the tactical elements of incident response. This may be in person at Police HQ in Winfrith, another nominated location or via teleconference. Ultimately the pool of Duty Silvers will comprise 11 managers taken from the Tier 3 level of management. The period of duty lasts a week and runs from Thursday to Thursday. However, in the short term, legacy duty silver arrangements from the three former Councils will continue to operate until effective, new arrangements can be put in place.
Duty Silvers are available 24/7, on a weekly on-call rota running from Thursday to Thursday. As Duty Silver the following training must be undertaken by April 2020: Tactical Emergency Management training delivered by the Emergency Planning College Multi-agency Tactical Command training – delivered locally by the Dorset LRF Internal briefings from the Emergency Planning and Resilience Team It is incumbent on those undertaking the duty silver role to ensure that they undertake periodic training in order to ensure skills and knowledge remain up to date. They are also required to provide a record of relevant personal training and exercising to the Emergency Planning and Resilience Team. Duty Silvers will be provided with the following equipment/tools:
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Duty Silver smart phone with access to the Duty Silver inbox Tablet Duty bag with phone charger and copies of relevant plans Logbook Decision log Hi-vis tabard Duty Silvers will also be required to have their own individual account on Resilience Direct.
Duty Officer
The primary role of the Duty Officer is to respond to a call and ensure appropriate officers are alerted and support the response to an incident. In the longer term the Council will move towards having one duty officer to cover the whole of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole. However, as an interim arrangement separate legacy duty officer arrangements will continue to operate. Poole – Poole Duty Officer rota Bournemouth – Bournemouth Duty Officer rota Christchurch – via the Bournemouth Duty Officer
Duty officers are available 24/7, generally on a weekly on-call rota running from Thursday to Thursday. Before taking on the role of Duty Officer appropriate training will need to be undertaken and ongoing training attended to ensure skills and knowledge remain up to date. They are also required to maintain a personal record of relevant training and exercising.
Loggist
The loggist role is to record the decisions taken by Duty Gold, Duty Silver or Incident Management Team as required.
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Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Councils maintain a list through legacy arrangements of trained loggists who could be called on in an emergency to support the corporate response.
Operational/Bronze
The Operational/Bronze level response will be dependent on the nature, severity and duration of an incident. Some incidents will require a Local Authority Liaison Officer to be deployed to the scene as the Operational/Bronze response (see below for more information). However depending on the incident it may require a variety of Council resources to be deployed to the scene of an incident to support a response. Council officers may also be involved in operation/bronze level away from the scene such as rest centres, media centre or temporary mortuary.
Local Authority Liaison Officer (LALO)
The role of the Local Authority Liaison Officer (LALO) is to act as the ‘eyes and ears’ on the ground for the Council and can relay messages/requests between the Duty Officer/Duty Silver and the incident commander. The LALO provides a focal point for the other responders on scene who require liaison with the local authority.
Legacy arrangements will continue to be used for this. Bournemouth - a list of trained officers who can be called upon based on a reasonable endeavours basis Christchurch - a list of trained officers who can be called on on a reasonable endeavours basis Poole - 24/7 on-call rota of officers on a contractual basis In the longer term a new single arrangement for LALOs will be developed.
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Rest Centre Staff
One of the Council’s key responsibilities is being able to provide humanitarian assistance by way of reception centres (see page 56 on human aspects) typically for those who have had to be evacuated in response to an incident. Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset legacy Councils all have legacy arrangements for the provision of rest centres. Support to a Survivor’s Reception Centre and/or Friends and Family Reception Centre, if established in response to an incident at Bournemouth Airport, is a new responsibility that will transfer to BCP Council.
Emergency Volunteers*
In addition to officers who respond based on their substantive ‘day-job’, Bournemouth (legacy) Council has over recent years recruited a number of emergency volunteers. These are staff who have agreed to assist during an emergency. The activities this group undertakes will be determined by the type of incident but could involve things like door knocking, facilitating at a rest centre (e.g. administration, refreshments) and staffing an information hotline; basically wherever some additional resource may be required. It is intended to expand this and to recruit further staff in the new BCP Council to increase resilience. These staff may be required to attend training to ensure they are able to fulfil their role and therefore corporate support is required so that they can be released from their day job to do this. Overall terms are set out in an emergency volunteer document. If deployed out of hours, volunteers are recompensed in line with the hourly-rate set out within the job-evaluated Duty Officer role. * The term volunteer in this context means the individual has volunteered to be part of the Council’s incident response team, it does not mean unpaid.
Council Incident Management Team
The Incident Management Team (IMT) will take responsibility for co-ordinating the response to an incident, ultimately under the direction of Duty Gold or any member of the Gold Team. The Duty Gold or Chief Executive may choose to chair the IMT or may delegate this to Duty Silver or other appropriate officer. The Incident
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Management Team provides the link between the Council’s strategic decision making and the operational response to the incident.
In the event of a more localised incident affecting one location across the authority, legacy arrangements for the convening of an IMT may be used. However, if the incident is widespread across the authority area or has widespread corporate implications then a corporate IMT will need to be convened. The team may meet physically or via teleconference depending on the circumstances. The Emergency Planning Team/Duty Officer can facilitate the convening of the IMT if required. The following Incident Management Team members would be required upon activation of the Council’s Emergency Plan: Duty Gold (or Chief Executive if assuming command) Duty Silver (who may chair if delegated by Gold) Emergency Planning and Resilience Team /Duty Officer Administrative support including Decision Loggist and a Note Taker Corporate Communications In addition to the above, the following may also be required upon activation of the emergency plan:
Housing Traffic Management Social Care – welfare support Finance Customer Services Legal Street Services HR Regulatory Services – Environmental Flooding Team Health, Trading Standards, Port Health Building Control Recovery lead, once appointed Parks
The above list is not exhaustive and a decision will need to be made at the time to include other experts from across the organisation as appropriate to the incident. A draft agenda is available in the Templates section of this plan.
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Incident Co-ordination Room
The purpose of the Incident Co-ordination Room is to provide a central hub for the Council’s incident co-ordination and response. The IMT will determine whether an incident co-ordination centre is required, and they will determine the most appropriate location.
The Council has a number of Incident Co-ordination Room options. Any suitable office may be chosen, such as the Chief Executive’s office. Room 64 in the Bournemouth Town Hall can be vacated and set up if required. The Council Chamber at Christchurch Civic Centre is a designated incident co-ordination room, but does not have equipment in situ. Rooms 29 and 31 in the Civic Centre in Poole are a good option if the incident is likely to be a major/protracted incident as it is an established facility.
The Incident Co-ordination Room can be invoked by any member of the command through the Emergency Planning and Resilience Team/Duty Officer.
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BCP Council Incident Response Structure The diagram below sets out the full incident response structure detailing both the internal and multi-agency response and how they operate in parallel.
Emergency Planning Multi-agency Strategic Team to support Co-ordinating Group Duty Gold (Strategic Lead) Member liaison (SCG) (Duty Gold to attend)
Disaster recovery Multi-agency Tactical Incident Management Team site & alternative Emergency Planning Co-ordinating Group (IMT) Team to support working sites (The IMT includes the Duty (TCG) (Duty Silver to Officer/Emergency Planning and Resilience attend) Service units Team)
LALO may be deployed to Multi-agency Operational staff (Bronze) incident site responders at incident site
Reception Media Temporary Humanitarian centres centre mortuary assistance centre
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Staff Welfare
The Council has a general duty of care to its staff involved in responding to emergencies. Emergency situations can place staff under unusual levels of stress and expose them to extraordinary circumstances. It is therefore vital that due consideration is given to the health, safety and welfare of all staff as a key part of its overall emergency response. The Council’s command structure/Incident Management Team will need to collectively ensure that these issues are addressed. The following table highlights staff welfare areas for consideration but is not exhaustive, as particular situations may call for different factors to be considered.
Staff Welfare Considerations Risk Risk assessment should underpin and inform activity. assessment (See Dynamic Risk Assessment: Template E) Working hours Limiting of shift lengths – 4-6 hours; Intense working environment – this will affect hours that can be worked; Consider impact on day-to-day business. Rotas/shifts Consider the potential duration of response; Drawing up of staff rotas early on in response; Consider that staff may self-mobilise or be reluctant to leave their post; Does it require a 24/7 response or can the response be scaled back out of hours? Staff capacity What is the actual staff capacity on the day? – resilience Consider mutual aid and other agencies to help fill required response roles; Regular review of staff requirements and ongoing dialogue with all services to provide staff. Nature of What are staff being exposed to, directly or indirectly e.g. incident distressed people, upsetting information? Consider that the incident may have impacted on employees whose family, friends or property have been affected.
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Staff Welfare Considerations Post-incident Ensure staff are aware of support available; support Maintain records of staff deployments; Use of HR/Occupational Health to arrange appropriate support e.g. counselling; Internal informal support networks; Dependent on the nature of the incident, consider post- incident monitoring of those involved in the response. Debriefing Effective handovers between outgoing and incoming staff; Immediate ‘hot’ debriefs at the end of duty/incident; Internal/multi-agency post incident debriefs; Focus on operational rather than psychological debriefing. Catering Ensure adequate provision of food and drink for all responding staff; Ensure adequate meal breaks. Rest area Provision of a designated rest area for staff away from operational areas and safe area for staff belongings. Personal Ensure that correct PPE has been made available; protective Staff should not be sent to environments for which they are equipment not adequately protected / trained. (PPE)
Health and Safety
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council recognises its responsibility to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable the health, safety and welfare of all its employees and to conduct its undertaking in such a way as to prevent the public and others not employed by the Council from being exposed to risks to their health and safety. In addition, it is recognised that all employees have a responsibility for ensuring their own health, safety and welfare and identifying any risks during their work. All Council services involved in the deployment of staff or resources as part of emergency response / recovery activities retain responsibility for compliance with Council health and safety policies and procedures.
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Insurance
There is a combined insurance policy providing cover for a range of liability claims made against the Council. The policy covers members, employees, school governors and volunteers undertaking activities on behalf of the Council.
Mutual Aid
A mutual aid protocol for the shared use of resources in an emergency has been agreed by legal representatives and the Chief Executives of the local authorities across Dorset. This protocol is based on national guidance and is a non-legally binding agreement. Whether Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council is involved with the emergency or not, if requested to do so, the Council will endeavour to provide aid to other local authorities in Dorset. Such assistance will be subject to recompense of appropriate costs. Support could be in the form of finance, equipment or staff. The Emergency Planning and Resilience Team holds a copy of the Dorset Local Authority Mutual Aid agreement.
If wider, cross-border mutual aid is required, this may be requested by an approach directly to neighbouring authorities or through the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). The Local Government Association has been working with MHCLG to introduce a process for assisting local authorities broker mutual aid. Any such assistance will be subject to recompense of appropriate costs.
Emergency Shelter and Accommodation Guidance
The following guidance is to be used in the event that the Council receives a request to arrange emergency shelter and accommodation following an evacuation/incident. Every situation should be assessed in light of the circumstances and this guidance is to aid decision making and is not set in stone.
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What Type of Shelter? A decision has to be taken regarding the most appropriate form of shelter. There are two main options available:
Incident resulting in Rest centre? evacuation and the B & B / hotel? need for shelter
The decision will need to be based on the information available at the time: How many people are affected – is it 3 or 30 people? The profile of those affected e.g. adults, children, families, foreign students, specific health or care needs or vulnerability The likely duration of the incident – e.g. a few hours or a couple of days The time of day – is it the middle of the night, day time, early evening? Do they have friends and family that can accommodate them? What is the primary requirement: do people need a bed to sleep in or do they need shelter and refreshments? Will there potentially be longer term ‘homeless’ people as a result?
An early decision will have to be made regarding the most appropriate course of action. To assist with this, the speedy dispatch of an officer from Social Care and a Housing Officer to where the evacuees are being temporarily held to help make an initial assessment of need should be considered.
For obvious cases where the requirement is simply for immediate overnight accommodation, if possible it is better to use B & B/ hotel accommodation rather than try to accommodate people overnight in a rest centre. As a guideline, a rest centre will only be established if there are more than 20 people and it becomes impossible to
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Information Management and Communication Systems
Warning and Informing As Category 1 Responders Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council has a duty under the CCA (2004) to ensure arrangements are in place to make information available to the public on civil protection and maintain arrangements to warn, inform and advise the public.
Public Communications Timeline There are several elements to a communications timeline Public Awareness (pre-event) – informing and educating the public about risks and preparedness Public Warning (at the time of an event or when one is likely) – Alerting, by all appropriate means, the members of a community whose immediate safety is at risk Informing and Advising the Public (immediate and long term post event) – Providing relevant and timely information about the nature of the unfolding event Recovery period (immediately and long term post event) – Providing information about the end of the incident and return to normal arrangements. Corporate Communications Officers will lead on all Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council communications using legacy arrangements where possible. (legacy Bournemouth and Poole shared Corporate Communications has an Emergency Incident Communications Plan).
Out of hours, a member of Corporate Communications will always be available to provide corporate support in the event of an incident.
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In the event of an incident, Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council will appoint a senior officer to act as its spokesperson. Other officers should also be nominated to act in this role should the incident continue for sufficient length to necessitate shift patterns being introduced. In practice, during an external emergency where a multi- agency TCG or SCG is established, the communications strategy will be developed by the multi-agency media cell.
Upon activation of a Strategic Coordinating Group (SCG), a media cell will be formed by senior communications officers from relevant category 1 and 2 responders. The media cell will ensure there is a coordinated approach to the media and consistent information provided to the public following an emergency. The multi-agency media response will be led by the most appropriate agency.
It is important to agree an initial holding statement/ public message to reassure communities and those affected that plans are in place to tackle the incident. This needs to be carried out as soon as possible after the incident occurs. It is vital that as the incident progresses people are kept informed about the situation. To ensure this happens, it is recommended that messages are time-limited and updated on a regular basis, even if there is no change in the basic advice.
It is vital that the media are given proper facilities and clear, regular and accurate information to report events fairly, accurately and effectively. With events that could attract local, national and international media attention, the steady flow of up-to-date information will be of primary importance. It will be necessary to reassure the people of Bournemouth that the incident is being managed effectively.
Dorset LRF Warning and Informing Plan Further specific detail on communications, warning and informing is located in the Dorset LRF Warning and Informing Strategy (available on Resilience Direct) which describes the multi-agency management structures in place to provide a coordinated response to the public and media during an incident. Some of the site and subject specific LRF plans also have a warning and informing element to them.
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Customer Services It is essential that Customer Services/Contact Centre are provided with regular information updates throughout the incident so they can answer any public enquiries in relation to the incident. Customer Services//Contact Centre are also responsible for ensuring that those responding are regularly updated with queries they are receiving or public concerns so this can be considered within the communications strategy. It is the responsibility of the member of the IMT form Corporate Communications to ensure this flow of information.
Internal Briefings It is important to ensure that staff and other internal stakeholders are kept aware of what is happening in the event of a significant incident, particularly a protracted response and recovery. The Duty Silver/Duty Gold/IMT is responsible for ensuring that appropriate internal briefing is undertaken.
Elected Member Briefing and Liaison Initially legacy arrangements will be used for Elected Member briefing and liaison and this will need to be coordinated effectively. Once the new Councillors have been elected following the elections in May, the following arrangements will be used.
Updates will be issued to Elected Members, as appropriate, which will be determined by the size, scale and circumstances of the emergency. As a starting point, this should include the relevant ward councillors. In more serious incidents, consideration should also be given to notifying the following: Leader of the Council; Deputy Leader of the Council; Chair of Audit and Governance Committee; Vice Chair of Audit and Governance Committee; Relevant Cabinet portfolio holder.
It is the responsibility of the Duty Gold to ensure the relevant Elected Members are briefed. If there is a need to engage more formally and fully with all Councillors, Democratic Services can be approached to lead on this. Elected Members, as spokespeople for their communities, are also highly likely to be nominated as ‘Talking
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Heads’ during an emergency. This must be done through liaison with Corporate Communications. For more information on the role of elected members during an incident refer to the role and action card on page 103.
Similarly, it is the responsibility of the Duty Gold to ensure MPs are briefed where relevant or when information is requested. There may well be increased media interest related to the incident and a request for VIP visits.
VIP Visits VIPs may wish to visit affected areas, often at short notice. The visits are likely to involve the scene, the people affected, and those involved in a response. Visits will be coordinated by the police and will be communicated with agencies via the normal command structures established for the incident. Democratic Services will act as liaison for VIP visits.
Information Gathering and Situation Reporting Situational awareness and having up-to-date information is fundamental to emergency response and one of the 5 principles of JESIP. During the response and recovery phases of an incident, there will be a need to gather information from the Council’s various services regarding their response in order to provide an effective, coordinated Council-wide response. In addition to this there will be a requirement to provide ‘sitreps’ regarding the situation across the authority’s area and what the Council is doing in response to this as part of the multi-agency response. Services need to understand the importance of provided this information.
During an incident a reporting schedule is likely to be established, and the Emergency Planning and Resilience Team/Duty Officer will usually request updates from those officers and services responding in order to pull together a situation report (sitrep). A service level template for providing these service level sitreps in included as Appendix X of this plan. These sitreps will be used by the Council’s Incident Management Team to gain a common picture of the incident, and also form the basis of the sitrep provided to the multi-agency Tactical and Strategic co-ordinating groups in order to pull together a multi-agency common operating picture (COP). The Council’s contribution to the
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Data Protection The following key principles have been taken from the H M Government document Data Protection and Sharing in Emergencies – Guidance for Local Authority Responders: Data protection legislation does not prohibit the collection and sharing of personal data – it provides a framework where personal data can be used with confidence that individuals’ privacy rights are respected; Emergency responders’ starting point should be to consider the risks and the potential harm that may arise if they do not share information; Emergency responders should balance the potential damage to the individual (and where appropriate the public interest of keeping the information confidential) against the public interest in sharing the information; In emergencies, the public interest consideration for sharing data will generally be more significant than during day-to-day business. Always check whether the objective can still be achieved by passing less personal data; Category 1 and 2 responders should be confident in asserting their power to share personal data when lawful in emergency planning, response and recovery situations; The consent of the data subject is not always a necessary pre-condition to lawful data sharing. Copies of the documents referred to and additional guidance on data protection and emergency planning issues are held by the Emergency Planning and Resilience Team. Within Dorset a data sharing protocol, the Dorset Information Sharing Charter (DISC), has been developed across a wide range of public services and those involved in delivering services on behalf of the public sector. A personal information
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Resilience Direct Resilience Direct is the Cabinet Office’s online private network which enables civil protection practitioners to work together, across geographical and organisational boundaries, during the preparation, response and recovery phases of an event or emergency. It has been accredited to Official Security classification allowing documentation to be shared securely.
Resilience Direct can be accessed via any internet connections through the following webpage: https://www.resilience.gov.uk/. The Emergency Planning and Resilience Team, duty officers and key officers with response roles have access to Resilience Direct. Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, the legacy Councils and the Dorset LRF all have pages on Resilience Direct where plans and other useful information are stored. Resilience Direct is also used during emergency response for sharing information and actions relating to the response.
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Dorset Explorer, a web-based GIS tool, is the common multi-agency GIS platform and the GIS team at Dorset County Council will provide mapping support to the multi- agency response at a TCG/SCG, but only in office hours.
The legacy councils have made use of GIS to greater or lesser degrees and legacy arrangements will continue to be used for internal response. A mapping capability is available via Resilience Direct.
Teleconferencing It may be necessary for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council responders to convene remotely via teleconference, rather than face to face, if this is deemed more suitable at the time.
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Legacy councils have arrangements for teleconferencing in place and details are documented in their response plans. An LRF protocol on conduct during a multi-agency teleconference is in use across Dorset (see below). Access details for multi-agency teleconferences will be shared at the time.
Teleconferencing Etiquette Call into Conference: NO EARLIER than 10 minutes and NO LATER than 2 minutes BEFORE start. Identify yourself: state your organisation and role as you enter the teleconference. Locking: 2 minutes before the scheduled start, the teleconference may be locked by the chair. Recording: unless directed otherwise by the Chair, the teleconference will be recorded. Roll call: so everyone is aware of who else is on the call, a register of attendees will be roll called. Chairperson – remember to ask who else is on the line. Silence is an act of agreement/acknowledgement. Stay on the line: Each time a phone is disconnected, it generates an announcement that interrupts whoever is speaking and causes disruption. Use the mute button: and stay somewhere quiet when participating in a teleconference. Never put the call on hold: whether you think you have music on hold or not, do not put the conference call on hold. There are many different features in phone systems that will kick in right away or after a call has been on hold for a while. These features will disrupt the conference call. Avoid mobile and cordless phones: If you must use a mobile phone, find a location that has excellent service and is quiet. Use the mute button when you’re not speaking. Don’t move around during the call. Turn off your call waiting: everyone on the teleconference will hear the beep as someone tries to reach you. This is annoying and distracting. Identify yourself: each time you speak.
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Address people by name when you speak to them: again, because you have no visual cues, if you simply ask a question or make a remark without indicating to whom you’re speaking, other participants may have trouble determining who is being addressed. Avoid stepping away from the call: it creates a problem when people try to address you without realizing you’re not there. The most polite thing to do is to let the other participants know that you need to leave the call momentarily. However, you should leave only in an absolute emergency. Exceptional Reporting: to keep meetings running at a steady pace, consider reporting by EXCEPTION only.
Mobile Telephones & Mobile Telephone Privileged Access Scheme (MTPAS) The Council’s key emergency response staff have mobile telephones which can be used in the event of an incident. Additionally, a number of mobile telephones across the Council are registered on the Mobile Telecommunication Privileged Access Scheme (MTPAS). The MTPAS system is a Government authorised scheme whereby the mobile phone companies can assist the emergency services and local authorities at the scene of a major incident, by continuing to enable their mobile phones at times of very high demand. Using an agreed protocol, the Police Gold Commander, in charge of the response, will notify all network operators if a Major Incident has been declared.
As a result of the incident, mobile telecommunications networks may experience an abnormally high concentration of calls. If networks become congested, handsets with a privileged access SIM will stand a much higher likelihood of being able to connect to their network and make calls than other customers. Only those with correctly enabled mobile phones may be able to make calls while the system is operating, so it is essential that appropriate key personnel are identified, that they have this facility, and that a monitoring procedure is in place to ensure this is kept up to date. The Emergency Planning and Resilience Team maintains the list of Council mobile phones that have been registered and these numbers are available in the respective emergency contact details for the legacy councils.
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Email Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole Council has a designated emergency planning email account which is shared with neighbouring authorities and external agencies. The email address is [email protected] Legacy email accounts, where they exist, will be auto-forwarded to the above email address from ¼/2019, legacy email accounts are: [email protected] [email protected] Christchurch Borough Council did not have a generic email account Arrangements may be subject to evolution Radio Communications In the event of a communications failure, assistance may be provided by RAYNET, the Radio Amateurs’ Emergency Network.
Financial Aspects All expenditure activity by any Council service area must be logged and monitored to ensure compliance with corporate procurement and finance procedures. It is important that accurate records are kept of any expenditure during an emergency. This ensures that there is an up to date overview of the extent of the expenditure, but also aids in the event that costs can be recovered afterwards. Emergency Expenditure Codes Financial Services have established a corporate wide emergency expenditure code which will be shared with teams at the time of a disruption, which will allow every service/team to spend against its routine codes but with the addition of the relevant emergency project code. This will make the reporting of what has been spent in relation to the emergency across services and the wider organisation much easier and also facilitate potential cost recovery or claims under the Bellwin or other scheme. Financial Services will provide details and support to services about the project code and how to use it at the time of a disruption. Corporate Credit Cards A number of officers across the Council have corporate credit cards that can be used for the immediate purchase of goods and services in an emergency. Legacy arrangements will be used initially and will evolve as Council structures and systems are put in place.
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Bellwin Scheme The Bellwin scheme is an arrangement where emergency financial assistance to Local Authorities in an emergency may be obtained from Central Government. The scheme is managed by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and the thresholds employed are published each year. The scheme is not available during the recovery phase of an incident. There isn’t an automatic entitlement to financial assistance through the Bellwin scheme. Ministers are empowered by Section 155 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 to determine if the scheme should be activated on the circumstances of each individual case. Expenditure incurred in the taking of immediate action to safeguard life or property, or to prevent suffering or severe inconvenience is eligible within the parameters of the scheme. The basic principles of the scheme are: 1. Expenditure should be on immediate works to safeguard life and property or to prevent suffering or severe inconvenience (rather than long-term repair or reconstruction). 2. There is an expenditure threshold up to which local authorities are expected to have budgeted. All expenditure in line with the scheme above that threshold will be reimbursed. 3. Normally insurable expenditure is not covered. 4. Expenditure will be cumulative for the purpose of the threshold if the Bellwin Scheme is activated more than once per year in any local authority area. Only the Chief Financial Officer may instigate a Bellwin claim.
Recovery
Background The overall aim of the recovery process is to facilitate a return to normality as far as practicably possible. It is a complex and long running process that usually takes years rather than months to complete as it seeks to address the enduring human, physical, environmental, and economic consequences of major incidents.
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Effective recovery will inevitably involve many more agencies and participants than the response phase. Recovery is best achieved when the affected community can exercise a high degree of self-determination. Recovery is an integral part of the emergency management process, as any actions taken can influence the longer-term outcomes for communities. Management, co- ordination and the ongoing momentum of the recovery phase is as important as for the immediate emergency response. The Dorset LRF Recovery Framework (available via Resilience Direct) provides generic, scalable structures and tools for the management of the recovery process. The Council will have an important role in the multi-agency response to recovery and will be expected to work within the framework set out within the Dorset LRF Recovery Framework. It is vital that an officer is appointed at a very early stage to concentrate on recovery issues for the Council. This could be one of the Council’s Golds or Silvers or other appropriate officer. This lead officer will also form part of the Council’s Incident Management Team as well as taking a leading role in the multi-agency Recovery Co- ordinating Group (see below for more details). This officer may well be supplemented by a team of staff dedicated to recovery.
Recovery Coordinating Group The work of the Recovery Coordinating Group (RCG) will begin at the strategic level and in the early part of the recovery phase (both when the RCG is running in parallel with the SCG, and after the lead is handed over from the SCG chair to the RCG chair). There is much merit in agencies being (and remaining) co-located, if possible, to establish communication links and ensure ready interaction between agencies can be maintained. Recovery Issues During the recovery process there are likely to be a number of issues that the RCG will have to face. These are likely to include: Generic
Coroner Inquests Mutual aid Data protection and sharing VIP visits Impact assessments Communication strategy
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Public enquires and social media Dealing with regional and central Military aid government
Humanitarian
Commemoration Financial support Community cohesion Health needs and monitoring Community engagement Welfare support Support to displaced communities Mass fatalities Housing
Economic
Business recovery Business and employee support Tourism Financial impact on Local Recovery Grants Authority
Infrastructure
Access and security Insurance Damage to public buildings Environment Repairs to domestic properties Site clearance Transport Utilities
Environment
Animal Health and Welfare Waste Pollution and Decontamination
Role of MPs and Elected Members MPs and elected members have an important role in the recovery process. They can feed back areas of concern to the recovery groups and disseminate credible advice and information back to the community. Often they are involved with many other aspects of community life and can be a valuable source of help and specialist advice. Key roles include: A focus for community concerns Identifying problems and vulnerabilities that may require priority attention
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Support to recovery teams working in their area Enhancing community liaison Visiting affected people Consultation on rebuilding and restoration work Assisting with VIP visits Focal point for messages to the public and media Liaising with other elected members Assisting with public meetings and consultations Scrutiny process
Standing Down The length of time that the RCG needs to meet will vary depending on the nature and scale recovery activity required to mitigate the impact of an incident. For example, some emergencies will have long-term issues to consider, such as re-construction works and health monitoring. In general, the RCG will close once there is no longer the need for regular multi-agency co-ordination, and the remaining work can be dealt with by individual agencies as part of business as usual.
Media During the recovery phase the Local Authority is likely to become the lead authority in the process of returning to normality and therefore the Local Authority will assume responsibility for media arrangements.
Funding Recovery The RCG will develop a financial management system for any restoration of regeneration. In general Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council will seek to recover costs from the ‘polluter’ where possible. Recovery activity may create a re- generation opportunity, which attracts funding through regional grants. It is important to remember that the Bellwin scheme does not cover recovery activity. Individual government departments will consider what, if any, financial support can be provided.
Elements of the Council employed on recovery work will stand-down on a progressive basis once it has been decided the situation can be dealt with under normal working
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Suggested targets/milestones for recovery could include some of the following: All utilities are restored and fully functional; Demands on public services returned to manageable levels; Transport infrastructure is running normally; The supply chain and local businesses are trading normally; Vulnerable people have been identified and are being supported; Environmental issues including waste clearance have been identified; Tourism in the area has been re-established.
Disaster Appeal Funds Following a large-scale emergency, there may be a strong drive from members of the public to donate money to support those affected. Disaster appeal funds may be established by agencies involved in the response (for example voluntary sector organisations), or may appear spontaneously, especially if established by a member of the public through social media platforms. They provide a means of raising and distributing money, which can be of great benefit to the individuals and communities affected, and provide an opportunity for those not directly affected to demonstrate their support. Appeal funds can, however, present challenges and cause additional distress to affected individuals if not managed correctly. When establishing a fund, an organisation(s) should be prepared to take advice from others, who are experienced in setting up similar funds.
Poole (legacy) Council had an MOU with British Red Cross to set up and manage a disaster appeal fund which can be used.
Memorials and Remembrance In the first few days after an emergency, particularly where individuals have been killed or injured, it is likely that those affected by the incident, as well as the wider community, will leave tributes near the incident site or at other significant locations (for example, at an airport or embassy following an incident overseas). Some locations may not be suitable for such tributes, but moving them once they have
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It is important that those affected by an incident, as well as the wider community, are given the opportunity to come together to remember what happened and those who have died. In the long term, those affected may want anniversaries to be publicly acknowledged, particularly where a large-scale incident has occurred. It may also be appropriate to install a permanent memorial at a suitable location. Again, the wishes of survivors and the families and friends of those involved in the incident should be considered, but it will be important to manage expectations of those being consulted, since funding and location may limit the possibilities.
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Responsibilities and Action Cards Duty Gold
Strategic (Gold) Internal Role: To provide strategic direction to the Incident Management Team, chairing if appropriate, and to provide the framework in which operational and tactical managers work in responding to and recovering from emergencies. External Role: To represent the Council at multi-agency Strategic Coordinating Group (SCG) meetings. This may be in person at Police HQ in Winfrith or via teleconference. Note: The internal and external actions may be completed by a single officer or these may be split into two different roles if required. Internal Actions: 1. Upon notification of the incident via the Duty Officer/Duty Silver, consider if there are any strategic implications of the incident for the Council. 2. Start a log and record decisions. 3. If around, touch base with the Chief Executive and ascertain whether he wishes to assume command or whether he is happy for Duty Gold to continue to manage the incident at a strategic level. 4. Set the Council’s strategy and ensure this ties in with the LRF strategy. 5. If the Incident Management Team is convened, decide whether to act as chair or whether to delegate this to Duty Silver. 6. Maintain liaison with, and provide instructions and advice to, the Council’s Duty Silver, Emergency Planning and Resilience Team/Duty Officer and Incident Management Team. 7. Ensure the relevant Elected Members and the rest of the Senior Management are kept informed throughout the incident. 8. Authorise appropriate expenditure and mobilisation of resources. 9. Consider the long-term implications for the Council, community and/or the environment. 10. Ensure the welfare of staff responding to the incident. 11. Ensure an effective handover to any replacement Gold using the handover form. 12. Ensure any decision logs are fully completed and passed on to the incoming Gold. Ensure that all logs are handed over to Emergency Planning at the close of the incident for retention. 13. Participate in debriefing sessions and performance reviews to assist in the gathering of learning, its incorporation into plans and procedures and for dissemination to a wider audience.
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External Actions: 14. Represent the Council at Strategic (Gold) Co-ordinating Group meetings (usually held at Police HQ, Winfrith) and on occasions chair this meeting. 15. Consider taking a loggist (mobilise through Duty EPO) and a member of the Emergency Planning Team to provide support at the SCG. 16. Lead on recovery for the LRF if required and ensure that recovery issues are taken into consideration and acted upon as appropriate. If BCP is leading on recovery, ensure an appropriate recovery lead is nominated for the organisation. 17. Ensure that the Council’s views are considered when preparing the strategy for the multi-agency response to the media. 18. Consider any other requests from the Strategic Coordinating Group and ensure these are passed on to the Duty Silver/Emergency Planning Team/Duty Officer for action. 19. Update the Duty Silver/Emergency Planning Team/Duty Officer following the conclusion of the SCG meeting. 20. Maintain close liaison with the Council’s Internal Gold. 21. Ensure the welfare of staff responding to the incident. 22. Ensure an effective handover to any replacement Gold using the handover form. 23. Ensure any decision logs are fully completed and passed on to the incoming Gold. Ensure that all logs are handed over to Emergency Planning at the close of the incident for retention. 24. Participate in debriefing sessions and performance reviews to assist in the gathering of learning, its incorporation into plans and procedures and for dissemination to a wider audience.
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Elected Members
Response During the response to an emergency, councillors, whose wards have been impacted by the emergency have a key role in: providing community leadership in their own wards being there to identify the needs of individuals and the wider community and feeding them in to the appropriate part of response organisation via officers representing the council signposting members of the public towards the right agency to get the support they need communicating information to the public and media as required by the communications team supporting and assisting those affected in how they engage with the media.
Recovery As community representatives and figureheads in their local community, councillors for the affected community have an important role to play in assisting with the recovery process. Although they have a limited role in the operational response phase, the role of councillors is vital to rebuilding, restoring, rehabilitating and reassuring the communities affected and speaking on their behalf. As civic leaders, elected members are usually involved with many other aspects of community life through such things as School Governing bodies, local charities and various community groups. They can be a valuable source of help and specialist advice. Through their normal duties as committee members, elected members give the authority strategic direction and decide policy. They will scrutinise decisions of officers and other committees and suggest improvements. They will ultimately authorise actions affecting the local authority’s functions, so they will need to be kept well informed with accurate and up to date information to enable them to make credible and well-informed judgements. Roles in which elected members can play a crucial part in the recovery process: Listening to the community – be the eyes and ears ‘on the ground’ by providing a focus for and listening to community concerns; Gathering the views and concerns of the community, and feed them into the recovery process, through the recovery sub-groups;
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Providing support and reassurance to the local community, by listening or visiting those affected and acting as a community champion and supporter; Using local knowledge to provide information on local resources, skills and personalities to the relevant recovery sub-group; local community groups which can also be an important source of help and specialist advice; Alongside the leader of the council / cabinet, bring emergency committee together to create / prepare emergency finances or budgets; Providing support to those working on recovery through: Providing encouragement and support to recovery teams working within the community; and Working with the communications team to communicate key messages, from the RCG and its sub-groups, to local and national press and to disseminate credible advice and information back to the community, keeping community members involved, including potentially assisting in debrief sessions with the community and managing community expectations along with the wider council actively engaging with community members involved in the recovery efforts. Assisting with VIP visits; and Liaising with other elected representatives (MPs/MEPs/other LA representatives, etc.)
For the remainder of the responsibilities and action cards for emergency response and recovery roles please see the emergency plans of the legacy Councils. These will be consolidated in due to course as structures evolve to one single action card for each role for the new authority.
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Amendments
Version Date By Amendment 0.1 August 2018 Alyson First draft Whitley 0.2 November Alyson Update following initial proof read and to 2018 Whitley reflect the development of arrangements 0.3 December Alyson Further updates to reflect internal 2018 Whitley resilience arrangements and first attempt editing /formatting. (Contents page numbering not amended, in light of future probable changes) 0.4 February 2019 Alyson Updates following review by incoming Whitley BCP Chief Executive and confirmation or command structure arrangements 1.0 March 2019 Alyson Final version for sign off by Corporate Whitley Board and BCP Programme Board
Plan Consultation Record
Officers/Organisations Consulted Date Consulted Bournemouth and Poole shared Emergency First draft shared September Planning and ResilienceTeam 2018 Jonathon Ross, Emergency Planning, Christchurch and East Dorset Council Nigel Stannard, Head of Audit and Management Assurance Jane Portman, Managing Director, Bournemouth Borough Council and Interim Head of Paid Service, BCP Shadow Authority Andrew Flockhart, Chief Executive, Borough of Poole Sam Crowe, Director Public Health Graham Farrant, Chief Executive, Bournemouth, January 2019 Christchurch and Poole Council Lynda Andersen and Andrea Barnes, combined February 2019 Borough Operations Room
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Templates
Meeting Agenda – Incident Management Team
Meeting to be chaired by the Duty Gold or Silver (most appropriate level) Have a clear purpose Keep things on track Reach clear decisions Ensure appropriate actions result
1. Introductions and roles & responsibilities including Chair Loggist 2. Purpose of meeting Chair 3. Urgent items requiring immediate decisions All (Note: If required break after this to deal with and communicate internally & externally) 4. Current strategy from Gold (LRF and BCP) Chair 5. Actions from last meeting if applicable Chair 6. Situation report (SITREP) and impact assessment All Gather shared situational awareness What has happened? Scale, impact and duration What do we know? What have we done so far? What are the risks? What is the impact/potential impact for the Council/services? 7. Staff welfare – address any issues Chair/Incident Room Coordinator 8. Tactical plan – what do we need to do and when? Chair Consider options and contingencies 9. Media/Communications – what warning & informing Chair & have we done, need to do, plan to do? How will we Corporate notify the public, staff and members? Communications
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10. Agree current situation report to feed into the LRF All multi-agency common operating picture (COP)
11. Decision log and action review Chair and Loggist 12. Look forward – set battle rhythm for future updates Chair and communication to the organization and partners 13 A.O.B. All
Chair to: Summarise key points – decisions Reaffirm priorities and actions (turning the strategy into a plan) Agree future meeting requirements Consider additional support and guidance Consider other agencies outside BCP
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Corporate Level Emergency Response Situation Report (Sitrep) Template To be used to compile the corporate overview from the individual service/team situation reports. An editable version is available on Resilience Direct.
All Updates Highlighted in yellow
Incident Name: Date: Time: SitRep No.: Completed By:
Overview of current Situation Major incident (Declared) Yes / No Time Declared: HH:MM Exact Location Type of Incident Hazards Access Number of Casualties Emergencies Service (or other agencies) involved
Strategy from Gold
Current Situation
Actioned Completed
Outstanding Actions
Horizon scanning (any information that the incident is likely to change/develop)
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Incident impact on services RED Incident having significant impact AMBER Incident having moderate impact GREEN Limited or not impact Unknow Unknown currently n N/a No impact
Updates from Service Areas RAG Comments and additional information Adult Social Scare Children Emergency Planning Housing Public Health Street services/ Highways Environmental Health Communications Other
Additional information
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Service Level Emergency Response Situation Report (SitRep) Template Template to be circulated to services/teams/functions in order to compile a corporate overview to inform the Incident Management Team (using previous template). An editable version is available on Resilience Direct. All Updates Highlighted in yellow
Incident Name: Date: Time: SitRep No.: Completed By:
Service Information Service Director: Service Name: Incident Lead for service (if any):
Situation Overview for the Service (Headlines of the emergency on the service)
Incident impact on service (please highlight) RED Incident having significant impact AMBER Incident having moderate impact GREEN Limited or not impact Unknow Unknown currently n N/a No impact
Comments with additional information (if red/amber)
Additional information
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Issues Identified
Horizon scanning (any information that the incident is likely to change/develop)
Request of services or resources
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IMARCH Principles (from JESIP)
The IIMARCH template below may help commanders in preparing a brief. When using IIMARCH, it is helpful to consider the following: Brevity is important - if it is not relevant, leave it out Communicate using unambiguous language free from jargon and in terms people will understand Check that others understand and explain if necessary Consider whether an agreed information assessment tool or framework has been used
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Element Key questions and considerations Action
Information What, where, when, how, how many, so what, I what might? Timeline and history (if applicable), key facts reported using M/ETHANE
Intent I Why are we here, what are we trying to achieve? Strategic aim and objectives, joint working strategy
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Element Key questions and considerations Action
Method
How are we going to do it? M Command, control and co-ordination arrangements, tactical and operational policy and plans, contingency plans
Administration
What is required for effective, efficient and safe implementation? A Identification of commanders, tasking, timing, decision logs, equipment, dress code, PPE, welfare, food, logistics
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Element Key questions and considerations Action
Risk assessment
What are the relevant risks, and what measures are required to mitigate them? R To reflect the JESIP principle of joint understanding of risk. Use the ERICPD hierarchy for risk control as appropriate.
Communications How are we going to initiate and maintain
communications with all partners and interested
parties? C Means of communication, understanding of inter- agency communications, information assessment, media handling and joint media strategy, social medai
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Element Key questions and considerations Action
Humanitarian issues What humanitarian assistance and human rights
issues arise or may arise from this event and H the response to it? Requirement for humanitarian assistance, information sharing and disclosure, potential impacts on individuals’ human rights
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Logging Template
INCIDENT DECISION LOG
INCIDENT:
DATE COMMENCED: DATE CONCLUDED:
Once the incident has concluded, please return Incident Decision Log to the Emergency Planning Team for retention.
Book Number: ......
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Decision Logging What is a decision incident log? A detailed written record of your involvement in an incident produced at the time including: • Date and time • Key decisions made • Rationale behind the decisions Why is log keeping necessary? recording information retaining information in a durable manner debriefing of incidents learning from experience best practice public inquiry When should a log be started? As soon as you are notified of an incident if you are logging your own decisions or when instructed by a Tactical (Silver) Officer or Strategic (Gold) Commander if you are logging on behalf of the decision maker. How should a log be finished? Write a concluding statement such as ‘incident closed’ and draw a ‘Z’ across the remaining blank space (‘Z’ off). Who needs to keep a log? Decision maker – Tactical/Strategic (often log will be written by a loggist on behalf of the decision maker) Emergency Planning Officer How should a log be written? The start of each log should begin with the commander’s name you are logging on behalf of and your name as the incident loggist. To mark the end of an entry, a signature is required by both the commander and the incident loggist. All logs should be written in a manner that is: – Clear – Intelligible
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– Accurate In order for a log to be C.I.A., how should information be recorded and what should it include? How What
• Recorded in an official log book; • Includes time, date, place and people
• Numbered pages must be used; present (consider a seating plan); • Notes made in permanent (black) • Time of key incidents and time record
ink with corrections made in red made; and any follow on corrections • Note any non verbal communication made in green; relating to key decisions;
• Notes made at the time, or as • Note all decisions as instructed by the soon as reasonably practicable decision maker;
• No assumptions, comment, opinions; afterwards; • New log book for each incident; • No abbreviations or shorthand – • Chronological entries. sketches CAN be included.
Decision maker’s log to include...
• Date, time, serial number, commander name, loggist name Rules ... ELBOW • What was the key decision? • What was the rationale behind the decision? • No Erasures (if a mistake • Why was this decision made instead of a is made cross through it different one? with a single line and • What were the available options? initial) • Advantages and disadvantages of these options; • No Leaves torn out • Thought process to eliminate options and select • No Blank spaces most reasonable option; • No Overwriting • The final decision – which option was selected • No Writing between the and why? lines
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Serial No Date / Time Decision Rationale
Commander signature: ...... Date: ...... Loggist signature: ......
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Serial No Date / Time Decision Rationale
Commander signature: ...... Date: ...... Loggist signature: ......
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Serial No Date / Time Decision Rationale
Commander signature: ...... Date: ...... Loggist signature: ......
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