Post-exercise evaluation of evidence
Finding
Report Observations
Report Against Findings - SCC Manager 17 March 2013
The exercise
1 The State Fire Exercise 2012 simulated a major bushfire situation and presented participants with the opportunity to practice and improve state tier emergency management arrangements prior to the main bushfire season.
The evaluators noted the exercise involved more of the state emergency management arrangements, a wider range of agencies and a more sophisticated evaluation process than previous state-level exercises. The exercise was sufficient to simulate a major fire situation, the primary concern of the FSC, and therefore provided a suitable setting for participants to practise state tier emergency management arrangements. In their AARs, exercise participants generally supported the format of the exercise, including supporting the weekly information sessions for key command and control personnel, the readiness activities in the week prior to the main exercise day and the all day exercise.
* The FSC's State Control Centre (SCC) Management Team now includes a full-time Training, Exercising and Briefing Coordinator who is responsible for conducting similar exercises in the future.
* The SCC Management Team is also investigating the possibility of conducting more information sessions throughout the year. These would be for both State and Regional personnel and be of a similar format to the information sessions held as part of the exercise, including having a broad focus and involving the wider emergency management sector.
Reconfigured State Control Centre
2 While most of the exercise participants reported improved working conditions and
collaboration following the SCC reconfiguration, interagency interoperability remained limited due to the different information systems used by the agencies.
In their AARs, exercise participants generally reported improved working conditions and improved interagency and SCC functional section collaboration following the SCC reconfiguration. However, the participants also noted the limitations on interagency interoperability imposed by the use of agency-specific information systems such as Fireweb (DSE) and IMS (CFA).
* The exercise highlighted that staff were confused about whether to obtain incident information from CFA's IMS mapping or DSE's FireWeb, as they often differed.
* Following the exercise the FSC, Chief Officers and SCC Management Team developed and implemented a concept of operations (CONOPs) for bushfire readiness and response in the SCC. The CONOPs identifies the systems to be used for specific purposes e.g. CFA IMS is the only system displaying a listing all incidents managed by the agencies and therefore is to be used to provide a common operation picture of incidents. * Similarly, DSE's Emap incident mapping tool is the only system with a spatial display of all incidents
managed by the agencies and therefore is to be the only mapping display used in the SCC. The CONOPs is reinforced in the SCC morning briefings and will continue to be refined and developed during 2013.
* Additionally, the FSC's Information Interoperability IT blue print will soon be released and will outline the path ahead to achieve full system interoperability.
3 The state-tier bushfire management arrangements demonstrated in the exercise aligned with the arrangements in the State Emergency Response Plan and the State Bushfire Plan 2012.
The evaluators noted the exercise participants demonstrated an understanding of and applied the arrangements in the State Emergency Response Plan and the State Bushfire Plan 2012.
The FSC's SCC Management Team will continue to practice applying the state emergency management arrangements through the use of scenarios, exercises and the training of state, regional, and incident management staff.
Support to the State Controller
4 Although SCC teams and functional sections generally provided sufficient support to the State Controller, they needed to better identify emerging risks and possible consequences during major bushfires.
The SCC teams and functional sections overlooked the consequences of at least one fire during the exercise. This was significant given the control function at the state tier primarily involves the management of the broader
consequences of emergencies. The evaluators identified a number of areas for further work. These included
documentation of the roles and relationships of the SCC functional sections of Intelligence, Planning (Operations) and Strategic Risk, identification of the functional section that develops and provides consolidated advice on the risk and likely consequences of an emergency to the State Controller and the training and exercising of staff to ensure these functions operate effectively during an emergency.
The standard mapping package used by the fire agencies is eMap, which contains spatial data layers relating to impact and consequence and the Victorian Risk Register. eMap was used to develop the exercise scenarios so the evaluators were surprised when it was not used to identify the likely consequences of major fires during the exercise
* The exercise highlighted that staff were confused about whether to obtain incident information from CFA's IMS mapping or DSE's Emap product, as they often differed.
* The CONOPs, developed after the exercise, identifies the systems to be used for specific purposes and includes using DSE's Emap incident mapping tool as the only mapping display in the SCC, as it is the only system that displays information from all agencies.
* Emap is to be used for sourcing critical information, with SCC processes now including using Emap to rapidly map the potential spread and consequences of a fire within minutes of notification of the fire. This spread and consequence information is provided to the State Controller, Regional Controller, and Incident Controller to assist them to issue community information and warnings and to use in developing a strategy for the management of the fire.
5 The support provided to the State Controller by each SCC functional section needed definition.
Of the twenty AARs conducted by the SCC functional sections:
• Thirteen included comments regarding the need for role clarification;
• Nine included comments regarding the need for improved definition of functional section (and unit) outputs; and
• Fourteen included comments regarding the need for clarification of the information gathering and distribution process.
The reports of all the evaluators also raised these issues. Although the SCC website included a vision and a mission, the evaluators noted it did not reflect the current role of the SCC, particularly regarding providing support for the State Controller, and therefore needed updating. Subsequently, the duty statements for the SCC functional section also needed reviewing to ensure everyone working in the SCC was clear about their work outputs and understood how these fitted into the broader flow of information in the SCC.
* The FSC's SCC Management Team is currently undertaking a complete review of the role of each functional section, including their role statements, as a result of the exercise and also the learnings from the 2012-13 bushfire season. Because the SCC is now used to manage a wider range of emergency types, in accordance with the direction of the recently released Emergency Management White Paper, there is a need to ensure all roles can apply more widely than bushfire. To be completed by May 2013.
* During the 2012-13 fire season significant work has been undertaken to improve the products the SCC produces for the State Control Team. This includes identification of the timeframe for delivery and the SCC functional sections involved in their production. Work will continue improving these products throughout 2013. This information is outlined in the SCC CONOP's for fire.
* The FSC's SCC Management Team has revised the SCC Vision, Mission and Role to reflect the learnings from the exercise and 2012-13 fire season. However, these will need to be revised further to reflect the multi agency/multi hazard nature of the SCC and the direction of the recently
released Emergency Management White Paper. To be completed by May 2013 and reviewed as arrangements
6 The purpose of meetings and other activities held in the SCC and the contribution required of attendees needed clarification.
SCC management provided a schedule of meetings and activities for the exercise and this was a modified version of the normal daily timetable for the SCC. The evaluators noted the purpose of each meeting needed clarification, particularly regarding the role of these meetings in supporting the State Controller and in achieving the purpose and objectives of the SCC. Meeting attendees needed notification about their expected contribution so they could prepare in advance. All six evaluator reports and three of the twenty AARs mentioned the need for an improved ‘battle rhythm’.
* Following the exercise the State Control Team reviewed and implemented a revised daily schedule which includes a list of meetings, their purpose, the information required for the meeting and a list of attendees. This has provided functional leaders with greater clarity about their contribution.
* In addition, regular "heads up" meetings are held to ensure all functions have a common operating picture / awareness. These meetings have been well received. The procedures for these 'heads up" meetings are outlined in the SCC CONOPs - Fire. The SCC Duty Manager will schedule a meeting whenever there is a significant change in an incident situation or a warning to the community has been escalated.
7 The State Controller needed to supervise fewer people during the management of major bushfires.
The evaluators noted State Control Centre structural chart showed the State Controller supervising a large number of people (approximately 18) during major emergencies. The evaluators believed this was too many people for the State Controller to supervise effectively and led to the State
Controller receiving piecemeal outputs directly from a number of SCC functional section leaders rather than receiving more strategic and collaborative advice from several senior
sources.
During the exercise, the State Controller recognised the need for better staff supervision and re-allocated some of his supervisory responsibilities to agency command staff. While this addressed the immediate issue during the exercise, a more permanent set of arrangements would have been preferable.
Although AIIMS is not an appropriate structure to manage the state tier of emergency management, the principles of AIIMS reflect general good management practice, for example the supervision ratio of one supervisor to five to seven
subordinates, and could be used as a guide.
Three of the twenty AARs and all the evaluator reports identifie
* Following the exercise the FSC initiated a process for the appintment of a Deputy State Controller for periods identifed as having the potential for or actually having major fire. The Deptuy State Controller is one of the Chief Officers and is responsible for overseeing both Regional Control and SCC Operations during an
emergency. This significantly reduces the number of direct reports to the FSC/State Controller and allows the State Controller to undertake a more strategic role.
* In addition to the above the FSC has appointed functional area subject matter experts to oversee and continuosly improve the processes undertaken by the SCC functional sections.
8 During major emergencies, the SCC needed to develop a common operating picture for sharing across all teams, functional sections and agencies.
A common operating picture would provide a single shared display of relevant operational information for all SCC teams, functions and other agencies. A common operating picture could display fire locations and projected spread, the position and status of impacted communities and infrastructure, weather information, established priorities and the location of resources etc. Without readily being able to view this
information, many people in the SCC had difficulty remaining current with the situation.
Ten of the twenty AARs and four of six evaluation reports identified the need for a shared operating picture to assist with situational awareness.
* Following the exercise the FSC, Chief Officers and SCC Management Team developed and implemented a concept of operations (CONOPs) for bushfire readiness and response. The CONOPs was reinforced in morning briefings for staff and outlines which systems are to be used for sourcing critical information eg. CFA IMS is the only system with all agencies incidents listed and is to be used for a common operation picture of incidents in addition DSE's emap incident mapping tool is the only system with a spatial display of all agencies incidents and should be the only mapping display used in the SCC.
9 To ensure the State Controller continued to receive support during a systems failure, staff in the SCC functional sections needed to know how to activate the contingency arrangements for their roles.
There were a number of instances in the exercise where the fire information systems and processes did not work as planned. Over the history of the SCC, there have been numerous instances of systems failing during major emergencies with subsequent business interruption. To ensure business continuity, the evaluators recommended all staff working in the SCC functional sections be competent in activating redundancy arrangements in the event of a
systems failure.
* Following the exercise the FSC's SCC Management Team has developed and revised business continuity systems and arrangements. These will continue to be refined throughout 2013. The SCC has a redundancy facility at CFA Burwood which was used during the SCC refurbishment in November 2012. The redundancy facility is audited and tested every fortnight as outlined in the SCC Business Continuity Plan 2012. The SCC Management Team will continue to promote the SCC Business Continuity Plan during training and exercise and test regulalry.
* The FSC's SCC Management Team will ensure during 2013 that each function develops back up procedures to ensure business continuity in the event of a significant IT failure.
* The FSC's SCC Management Team is currently upgrading the emergency back up power system at the SCC.
10 SCC teams and functional sections needed greater consistency in their record keeping methodology.
The evaluators reviewed a range of documentary evidence produced by the SCC teams and functional sections during the exercise. This included logs, notes and the minutes of meetings. The evaluators noted there was considerable variation between the method and format used to keep records, and the type of information recorded. They suggested there would be benefit in SCC management providing staff with guidance to ensure consistency in the format and content of records produced during SCC operations.
* The SCC SOPs clearly outline the document management requirements for staff working in the SCC. The SCC Management Team will continue to reinforce these and ensure that staff are aware of the requirements via training, briefing and scenarios during 2013.
