The Exercise Planners Guide - Part 5
This page:
Debriefing
A review of the responses to an exercise by the emergency services and
agencies giving assistance is essential. This provides an opportunity to
evaluate efficiency, to learn from experience gained and also offers a
source of information to assist in future planning, training and
exercising.
This process can be best achieved by a series of debriefings at all levels
within all agencies involved and concluding with a multi-agency debrief.
Hot de-briefs (those which take place immediately after the event) can be a
useful way of capturing instant reaction which may not be revealed by the
cold de-brief (that which takes place after an interval). All actions
identified by the debrief should be taken forward by a nominated
person/agency and given a timescale.
Organisations may wish to consider appointing a neutral debrief
co-ordinator. It is important that a non-threatening atmosphere is created
so that people are not afraid of being honest about their experiences and
problems.
Single Service Debriefing
The methods of debriefing personnel involved in a major incident may vary
within each individual service. It will, however, be beneficial to
debriefing if consideration is given to the following:
-
Debrief as soon after the exercise as is practicable.
-
Everyone involved, including personnel remote from the area of operations
(e.g. control room staff) should be afforded the opportunity to
contribute to debriefing at some stage.
-
The need for additional debriefing sessions for personnel involved in
specific or specialist operations.
NB: Recordings made at the exercise, particularly video
recordings/photographs, along with written reports will assist in
debriefings.
Multi-Agency Debriefing
The debriefing process should culminate in a multi-agency forum which
includes not only the emergency services but also any other agency which
may have assisted in the overall response. It is important that each
service is represented by personnel actually involved in operations, as it
will be necessary to give first hand accounts of events.
Depending on the scale and nature of the exercise it may be advantageous to
hold joint debriefings for specific levels of command, e.g. Incident
Control Team (Tactical level) and/or for personnel deployed on tasks
requiring multi-agency involvement. Such meetings should, of course, be a
pre-cursor to the final multi-agency debriefing and should add to its
content.
NB: Facts emerging from the debriefings should be documented and problems
identified. Lessons learnt should be shared with all who may be required to
respond to major incidents even if they did not participate. Training needs
- individual, organisational and multi-agency - should be identified.
The Emergency Planning College is always
interested to receive exercise reports, details of experiences and lessons
drawn from exercises. These help the College to forward the sharing of
lessons and consider relevant issues for further training.
Exercise Report
A major multi-agency exercise can be both costly and time consuming to
arrange and undertake. It is particularly useful, therefore, to produce an
exercise report after the debrief. This should be well presented and brief
so that the busiest manager has no excuse not to read it. The report should
cover the aim, objectives, scenario, the planning process and both positive
and negative observations from the exercise concluding in recommendations
for the future. It is also important that the recommendations are acted
upon and a follow up report prepared no later than 6 months after the
publication of the Exercise Report noting what action has been taken and
what is planned.
Most organisations involved in emergency preparedness will benefit from
other people's experiences of exercise
-
IF the report is open and honest, and
-
the needs of commercial / service sensitivity are genuinely respected.
Exercise Checklist
-
Agree the scenario, extent and aim of the exercise with senior
management.
-
Assemble a multi-disciplinary exercise planning team and agree the
objectives for each area to be exercised.
-
Sketch out and then develop the main events of the exercise and
associated timetables.
-
Determine and confirm the availability of the outside agencies to be
involved, such as the media or voluntary agencies.
-
List the facilities required for the exercise and confirm their
availability e.g. transport, buildings and equipment
-
Ensure that all communications to be used during the exercise have been
tested at some stage prior to the exercise. If a control post or live
exercise, test radios, mobile phones etc. in the locations in which they
will be used as near to the date of the exercise as possible. Check that
cellular phones are registered under ACCOLC.
-
Check that umpires for each stage of the exercise are clearly identified
and properly briefed.
-
Ensure that directing staff are clearly identified and properly briefed,
and have good independent communications with 'exercise control'
throughout the exercise.
-
If the exercise links a number of activities or functions which are
dependent on each other, confirm that each has been individually tested
beforehand.
-
Ensure that all participants have been briefed.
-
Ensure that all players are aware of the procedures to be followed if a
real emergency occurs during the exercise.
-
If spectators are to be invited, including the media, ensure that they
are clearly identified and properly marshalled, and arrange for them to
be kept informed of the progress of the exercise. Ensure their safety.
-
For the longer exercise, arrange catering and toilet facilities.
-
Ensure that where appropriate outside agencies are indemnified in the
event of exercise accident.
-
Warn the local media, emergency services switchboards/controls and any
neighbours who might be worried or affected by the exercise. Position
"Exercise in Progress" signs if appropriate.
-
Ensure that senior management, directing staff, umpires and key players
are aware of the time and location for the 'hot' debrief, and
circulate a timetable for a full debrief.
-
Agree and prepare a detailed set of recommendations, each one accompanied
by an action addressee and timescale.
-
Prepare a clear and concise summary report of the exercise to distribute
to all organisations and groups which took part, together with major
recommendations.
-
Discuss with senior management the outcome of the exercise and agree the
future exercise programme.
-
Thank all personnel and outside agencies which took part.
Annex A - Guidelines for briefing those taking part in exercise
These Guidelines should form a basis around which a pre-exercise briefing
can be developed. Individual agencies should adapt this for their own use
including additional points relevant only to their organisation and
personnel.
It is essential that all persons who will or could take part in an
exercise, are fully briefed. Failure to do so could lead to the possibility
of litigation should someone who has taken part in the exercise suffer
physical or mental injury, citing poor advanced preparation by the
organisers as a contributory factor. The briefing must be reasonably near
in time to the exercise (i.e. not more than one month beforehand). The
degree to which participants are briefed will vary according to the type of
exercise being held and it is unlikely that the same depth of briefing will
be required for a table top exercise as for a live exercise.
Essential Briefing Points
A verbal and written list of all participants in the exercise should be
presented at the beginning of the briefing. The main briefing will wish to
include the following items:
The exercise will take place between the following dates
_________________and/or the following times __________/________________ The
approximate duration of the exercise is_____________________
The exercise code name is e.g. "Exercise Red Card".The exercise
code name should be used as a prefix on all written, radio and telephone
messages relating to the exercise.
This is/is not a multi-agency exercise. The other agencies involved are
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
_______________________________________________
The exercise scenario will/will not involve the following:
-
A ClMAH/contingency plan site
-
- Simulated casualties
-
- Hazardous substances
-
- Simulated hazardous substances
-
- Fire
-
- Simulated fire/ smoke
-
- Smoke
-
- Effects toxic / harmless
A safety officer will be present, identified by
_______________________________________
Exercise directors will be present, identified by ______________________
Exercise observers will/will not be present identified by
______________________
Any concerns regarding personal health and safety or the health and safety
of others during the exercise should be drawn to the attention of the
safety officer or an exercise director immediately. An assessment will be
made as to whether the exercise can continue.
If a genuine injury is sustained (as opposed to a simulated injury) use and
repeat the code word "_______________________." to attract
attention - under no circumstances should these words be used by role
playing casualties.
Notification of exercise suspension/abandonment / completion will be given
by ______________________
(e.g. code words or audible signals.)
(*) A health and safety
risk assessment has been undertaken and your attention is drawn to the
following (if applicable): Protective clothing/equipment required, over and
above standard issue Areas of the site which are prohibited Physical
hazards on site ________________(sharp points, trip hazards etc.)
All participants in the briefing now have the opportunity to raise
questions relevant to health and safety.
Any participants who wish to raise concerns about their personal health and
safety or to pose questions relevant to health and safety after this
briefing but before the exercise should see ______________________ or their
line manager.
Will all participants ensure that they have signed the briefing attendance
sheet which will be kept on record.
(*) A "health and safety risk
assessment" of the planned exercise is essential good practice. The
method to undertake this should be an early consideration of the Exercise
Planning Group. Each participating organisation must assess whether there
is a the need for an individual assessment or whether one agency (e.g. the
Fire Service along with the site owners) should undertake the risk
assessment and share information with other participating agencies.
These guidelines for pre-exercise briefings are based on those produced by
the Derbyshire Emergency Planning Liaison Group.
