OPINION: Testing Australia's emergency management capabilities
There has been an increase in the number of exercises held to test emergency management outcomes. ASM's specialist contributor, Peter Murphy believes too many of these exercises are focused on training personnel rather testing capabilities.
It has been long recognised by Australia’s emergency services that an important element in obtaining good public safety outcomes is through the use of exercises.
There is a wide range of exercise types used to support the development of capability in emergency services. These range from simple ‘desk top’ exercises to complex real-time simulations, which can last from a few hours to several days.
Such exercises allow organisations to either practice or test procedures, command and control, logistics solutions and plans.
Exercises can be used to test individuals or small teams all the way through to whole organisations. Consequently, exercising provides an excellent, cost effective method of developing the capability of emergency services. This is borne out in practice where, it is widely acknowledged that much of the first class response by London’s emergency services to the 2006 bombings was due to the extensive exercising program prior to the tragic event.
Successful exercises are characterised by good preparation. This includes ensuring participants (and the team to which they belong) have the basic skills needed to complete the exercise.
Clear set of objectives is crucial
A clear set of objectives is crucial to a successful outcome and participants should be aware of the expectations of the exercise. A key factor is that the exercise scenario and its development during the course of the activity should be realistic.
In exercises where the aim is evaluation of a capability, there is a strong case for the use of external support and evaluation. Such support ensures that ‘players’ can concentrate on their part and working with other participants. It also allows clear sighted evaluation and assessment of all involved.
Finally, successful exercises allow for the capture of lessons as they emerge and ensure that they are fed back into plans and procedures.
In recent years, the number of exercises undertaken by Australia’s emergency services has increased substantially and they have also become more complex. This increase in number has come about through a variety of factors and one of the major drivers is that of the increasing expectations of emergency services by the public and government.
However, the most important driver is perhaps the impact of the terrorist attacks in the United States in September 2001. This highlights one of the strengths of exercises in that they allow the response to low frequency, high impact events to be practiced and tested.
Examples of this include exercises to test chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear (CBRN) response capabilities and other potential threats such as that posed by the Avian Influenza pandemic (Exercise Cumpston being the most notable example).
Multiple agency responses
Exercises also allow the practicing of plans and players to low frequency events where multiple agency or jurisdictional responses are required. Such exercises allow participants to learn about the roles and capabilities of other agencies, better understand their own role and to enhance their own capabilities.
There is little doubt that exercises deserve their status as a key tool in the enhancement of Australia’s emergency management. There are, however, a number of concerns with the proliferation of exercises in recent times.
The increase in the number of exercises places pressure on agencies and in particular, key personnel to participate in exercises. This appears to be partially the result of a range of agencies seeking to prepare and test for a variety of contingencies.
The scheduling of these exercises is often uncoordinated and results in a degree of duplication of effort for relatively little benefit.
The increasing frequency of larger exercises means that too many exercises are not about testing the capability of responses but are rather about training. As noted previously, the most successful exercises are those where participants and their teams are well trained in their underpinning skills. It would appear that there is a case for Australia’s emergency services to ‘train more and exercise less’, and in doing so continue to build their growing capability.
About the author: Peter Murphy is the CEO of Noetic which provides a range of high-level analytical and support services to federal, state and local government clients and to private sector organisations.