Gold Standard Exercises
SELEX Systems
Integration, in partnership with the Cabinet Office, delivers a
variety of Gold Standard training exercises
simulating emergency situations in order to enable the
following to take place - Plan validation; Staff development; and
Testing of procedures and decision-making processes.
Each exercise is unique, with Gold Standard
using a combination of simulation and software tools, combined with
processes and a delivery team, to create a realistic environment in
which senior personnel from different agencies come together and
rehearse their response to major incidents. The types of situations
that are covered include:
- Pandemic Flu
- Flooding
- Air Accidents
- Mass Fatalities
- Severe Weather
- CBRN
Planning a Gold Standard exercise
In order to develop and prepare for an exercise, the Gold
Standard training team will work closely with a dedicated
planning group of representatives from the client organisation –
known as the Exercise Planning Team – who provide the Gold
Standard team with the following critical pieces of
information:
- Community Risk Register/Regional Risk Assessment – this
contains a list of the hazards and threats that could affect the
local community/region, along with an assessment of the likelihood
and impact of that event
- Single and Multi-Agency plans – these are the existing plans
that would be used by the different agencies during a real
emergency of the type being exercised
- Core modelling and script data – this data varies from exercise
to exercise, but would typically include information regarding the
resources available for each agency, and local information such as
hospitals capacities, and blue light response capabilities
Using this information, the Gold Standard team will then create
the following:
- Master Events List – this is the exercise “script”, containing
all the information for the day, including emails, situational
reports, and fake media reports
- Decision Support Model – this mathematical model helps the team
evaluate the impact of the event on the local area and population,
and create a realistic response for the client. For example,
the Decision Support Model can model the path of a plume (such as a
smoke plume or toxic cloud) to determine the number of people who
may be affected, based upon geographical information combined with
population statistics. The Decision Support Model is dynamic,
and is used during the exercise to also determine the affect of
critical decisions made by the exercise participants (for example
the effect on casualty numbers as a result of the evacuation of
towns and villages in the predicted path of a chemical
plume).
Delivering a Gold Standard exercise
Gold Standard exercises are delivered at the client's location –
normally using the facility that the client would use in the event
of a real emergency. The Gold Standard team arrives the day before
the exercise, and sets up the IT network, and media capture
and delivery systems, ready for the participants to use when
they arrive on the exervise day.
On exercise
day, the participants arrive and are split into two groups – those
working together as the Strategic Co-ordinating Group (this is the
multi-agency body responsible for co-ordinating the joint response
to an emergency at the local strategic level, also often referred
to as the 'Gold Group'); and those providing support to members of
the Strategic Co-ordinating Group (known as the 'Gold Support
Team').
The Gold Support Team receives information
contained in the Master Events List, and the output from the
Decision Support Model via the exercise simulation system –
supported by live injects which are provided by the Gold Standard
team including telephone calls and free-play emails. This
information is collated and assimilated by the Gold Support Team
and passed onto the Strategic Co-ordinating Group, in order for
strategic decisions and direction to be made in accordance with the
response plans that have been established for the type of
emergency.
A key
part of any Gold Standard exercise is consideration of the short,
medium and long-term consequencesof a disaster. Therefore,
scenarios are designed to test the full range of the agencies'
response to the emergency situation. An exercise typically lasts
between 8 and 18 hours, during which time the participants from the
various organisations and agencies involved may exercise handover
arrangements to deputies, just as they would in a real crisis
or emergency. Participants' responses are captured and recorded
throughout the day as a combination of email responses, telephone
calls, minutes of meetings and status reports, which the SCG
meetings are also recorded on video.
Following up a Gold Standard exercise
Following a Gold Standard exercise, all the information gathered
during the day is collated and analysed by the Gold Standard
training team, who then produce a report highlighting the
multi-agency team's performance and identifiying areas for
improvement and change. The participants subsequently take
ownership of the report and act upon the lessons identfied. Any
subsequent changes can then be validated at the next periodic
exercise event as confirmation of lessons learned.
Contact SELEX Systems Integration for more
information about Gold Standard exercises