Command Structures within the Emergency Services By Gary

Command Structures within the Emergency Services By Gary Johnson DTTLS Dip. RSA, ICS, SET

Aim The aim of this session is to give the learner an insight and appreciation of the working of the command structure.

Learning outcomes • Under the command structure • Describe the Fire and Rescue National Resilience Arrangements

Nature of Incidents The nature of the incident will determine which agency coordinates the effort. The blue lights services are all different as far as they all have specific purposes, however they all share a common goals. Each agency has specialist capabilities. It is important to understand similarities and differences which each service has and how they can be utilized.

Silver Commander (Tactical) Command Structures Off and on Scene Command Fire, rescue or both • Fire Silver will be at the scene • Police will be at the nominated Silver location Dependent the incident there may be on scene and off scene commander • Ambulance will co-locate with the co-ordinating agency (This may or Some incidents may have Single may not be at the scene) Agency Gold Multi-agency – Strategic Co • Fire will send liaison to the nominated Silver location ordinating Group Strategic Co-ordinating Centre • The Fire Command vehicle will be Establish strategic objectives and showing blue lights overall management framework Look at long term resourcing and Public or firearms expertise • Police present on scene Pre-planned location – usually Police • Incident Liaison Officer (fire & Headquarters ambulance) will liaise with Police Recover and return to a new Silver Plan, coordinate and command through silver commander. On Scene Risk Assessment Each service is required to identify hazards, assess risks and take action to eliminate or reduce risk. Each service has a different model, but Sharing information on hazards, risks and control measures will deliver a more robust outcome, and The shared risk assessment will require monitoring and review due to the dynamic nature of emergency incidents. Information must be shared and amendments made as necessary.

Gold Commander (Strategic) Command Structures On Scene Command Plan, coordinate and command single • Liaise with silver commander assets. • Ensures that Comms are set up and maintained across the board. Identity, manage and mitigate risk to those assets. On Scene Risk Assessment Each service is required to identify hazards, assess risks and take action to eliminate or reduce risk. Each service has a different model, but Sharing information on hazards, risks and control measures will deliver a more robust outcome, and The shared risk assessment will require monitoring and review due to the dynamic nature of emergency incidents. Information must be shared and amendments made as necessary.

Initial Response • Initial response to the incident will be in the operational and tactical levels, this will be immediate utilising on-call staff that will perform the roles of Bronze Commander at the scene, and Silver within the Force Control Room. • Bronze will be the first police officer on scene who will gain a level of control and liaise with Fire and Rescue Service and Ambulance representative. Bronze would contact the Force control room and take guidance from the Inspector. • Silver will be the Force Control Room Inspector who will follow guidance in place for the type of incident. They will contact a qualified Bronze and Silver to instigate a formal Command Structure process. The Gold would be informed via Qualified Silver or Force Control Room dependant on local procedures.

Formal Command Structure will not be immediate and can take between 30 minutes to over two hours dependent on the type of incident. Bronze will be qualified and a specialist in the type of incident being dealt with. They will work from scene and will assume control from the Initial Response Bronze as soon as possible. They will confirm that their counter parts from Fire and Rescue Service and Ambulance representative are updated and also gain a multi agency view on actions taken so far. Bronze will work to the Qualified Silver and Specialist Responses if required. Silver will be qualified and a specialist in the type of incident being dealt with. They will work directly to Gold, taking any specialist advice and guidance from Specialist Responses needed for the type of incident being dealt with. Specialist Responses will cover the full spectrum of police activities from Crime, Firearms, CBRN to Disaster Victim Identification (DVI) to name a few, they will bring specialist knowledge to the incident as well as additional staff and command levels. Gold will be a qualified gold commander normally from the Force area.

British Transport Police A specialist force for the rail industry and understand how this industry works. The initial BTP officer will report to the local Police commander. If BTP have sufficient resources they will take primacy for a rail incident inner cordon and investigation.

Future Developments Work is currently underway to better identify the Police Commander on scene, so that all three emergency services have a common, easily identifiable commander. It is likely that the Police Commander will wear a tabard which identifies them as the senior Police commander on scene. This tabard will be a blue/white checked tabard which will be carried by the Fire & Rescue Service on behalf of the Police Service. .

Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) Command Flow Chart In relation to an escalating incident the UK Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) will sequentially implement a command structure common to all three blue light responders namely Bronze (Operational), Silver (Tactical) and Gold (Strategic) command levels, which is in itself underpinned by the UK FRS Incident Command System (ICS), introduced to ensure that a standard operating framework will be applied to any incident Fire may attend.

Initial Command Response – Bronze The Initial FRS response to an incident will be at the Bronze (Operational) level. This will be implemented immediately with the attendance of the first Fire Appliance and its Officer in Charge and will be augmented by following appliances, whilst still working at Bronze level, who will further implement facets of the UK FRS Incident Command System, namely the initial “sectorisation” of an incident which aims to set up “manageable” spans of control to ensure that deployed crews are managed and lines of communication are not over stretched. Fire Sectors (Bronze when a silver is at scene) maybe geographical, for example front, sides and back of a building, or they maybe functional for example, water or foam supplies.

Main Command Response – Silver Dependant on the nature of the incident and / or its potential to escalate, FRS Command Control Centre may immediately mobilise a Silver (Tactical) Commander to the scene of operations who's role will be to assess the immediate situation and either take command of the incident or support and mentor the Bronze Commander, as appropriate. Fire silver will be at the incident, if police have a remote Silver then Fire should send a liaison officer. If the FRS Command Control Centre does not immediately mobilise a Silver, assistance and informative messages sent to FRS Command Control Centre by the Incident Ground Bronze Commander will rapidly determine if a Silver level officer is required.

Main Command Response – Silver (Continued) FRS Silver Commanders are rostered to ensure a 24/7 availability and should be in attendance at the scene of operations within 30 minutes. Fire Commanders have access to specialist advice on Urban Search and Rescue, Hi Volume pumping, Mass Decontamination events and other responses via the National Co-ordination and Advisory Framework (NCAF) Many FRS have a cadre of Inter Agency Liaison Officers (ILO) whose role is to liaise directly with Police and Ambulance Commanders to ensure that a common understanding of the situation is achieved and “in service” terminology does not cause confusion to other agencies.

Strategic Command Response – Gold As an incident escalates further and draws in more FRS assets the senior level of Command – Gold ( strategic) will be brought into effect, these officers will be Principal Officers / Brigade Commanders and will hold the delegated the authority of the Chief Fire Officer to manage an incident and if necessary make financial commitments on his behalf.

National Co-ordination Advisory Framework (NCAF) for Significant Events NOTE: Please refer to the speaker notes for this slide

Fire and Rescue National Resilience Arrangements Rarely, an incident will escalate beyond the capability of a single Fire and Rescue Service resources OR may involve the requirement for specialist assets not held by that FRS, in this case the National Coordination Advisory Framework (NCAF) will be invoked and National Resilience (NR) assets will be mobilised to support the affected FRS. NCAF is activated by the affected FRS Command Control Centre calling the Fire and Rescue Service National Coordination Centre (FRS NCC) and requesting assets, such as Incident Response Units for a CBRN incident or Urban Search and Rescue for a structural collapse or High Volume Pumps for relaying large quantities of water to fight a wildfire incident affecting a wide area.

Fire and Rescue National Resilience Arrangements (Continued) The NCAF is designed to complement the Bronze, Silver , Gold Command structure and NOT replace it, a key facet of NCAF is the insertion of specialist support staff such as members of the National Strategic Advisory Team (NSAT) to support and advise the Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser, members of the National Resilience Assurance Team (NRAT) to support Silver Commanders and Subject Matter Advisors (SMA) to support Bronze Commanders and operational crews. The SMAs are specialist in their own area, e. g. Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) or Hi-Volume Pumps (HVP). The Fire service also has mass decontamination units known as Incident Response units (IRUs) and Detection, Identification and Monitoring (DIM) units for Hazardous Materials.

Fire and Rescue National Resilience Arrangements (Continued) Whilst initial NR assets may directly attend the scene of operations, dependant on incident type, in the longer term the affected FRS will set up a pre-assessed and designated, Strategic Holding Area (SHA) to which an Enhanced Logistical Support (ELS) Unit will be dispatched to manage the assets as they arrive and then their deployment to the scene of operations. Supporting the Multi Agency Gold Command, who will be managing the incident, the UK Government have a system of pre–designated Lead Government Departments (LGD) who will assume the coordinating responsibility on behalf of the Government sitting within the Cabinet Office Briefing Room (COBR). In the case of a major Fire, the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) will assume this role. However, if NCAF is activated, no matter which Government Department assumes the LGD role, the CLG Emergency Room (CLG ER) will be activated in order to coordinate the NCAF response and an NSAT Officer will be deployed to both support CLG ER and potentially advise COBR.

• The Ambulance Service Command Control Guidance 2012 provides the above example of a command structure for the Ambulance Service. • It should be noted that the most important aspect of command is knowing the structure that is being implemented for the incident response and management. • Not every incident will require every command appointment to be filled, some incidents may require additional roles to be identified. • Each commander and role holder should be focussed on the function that their role is required to achieve • Each function should understand their role and the use of action cards is encouraged • The tabards shown above are Nationally agreed however it is essential that local training and awareness exercising takes place so that commanders can recognise counterparts and functional roles.

Conclusion Greater interoperability will enable the emergency services to: • Provide a co-ordinated response to all emergencies as a matter of routine. • Respond to emerging threats more quickly. • Effectively share and disseminate information between services. • Have an improved awareness of the situation and required actions. • Conduct joint risk assessments leading to effective decision making. • Handle multi-agency incidents irrespective of organisational boundaries. Understanding and acting on what is set out in this presentation will enable you to achieve interoperability in practice.