14 | ESTNATIONAL RESILIENCE
Water rescue and flooding response guidance gets timely update The National Operational Guidance Programme recently published newly updated guidance on water rescue and flooding. Originally published in June 2014, this new version includes the latest update to the multi-agency agreed survivability model and incorporates the use of tactics throughout. Words: Catherine Levin This new guidance is one of a suite of documents being published by the National Operational Guidance Programme. The intention is to provide fire and rescue services and their partners both from the other emergency services and the wider community, with the latest best practice drawn from a range of sources. This timely publication comes after a tough period for many fire and rescue services that have dealt with the consequences of extensive flooding. While the update to this guidance is not a response to the extreme weather events of the Christmas period, the inclusion of detailed tactics aimed at incident commanders is to be welcomed as part of future planning.
Assisting future incidents The debriefs that are due to take place to look at the response to the recent floods will provide a forum to look at the guidance and see that it is still the most current advice and, where it is not, to suggest some real practical additions to assist future incidents. DCFO Dave Walton from West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service provided Gold command for the floods and is a lead player in this debrief. It is helpful that DCFO Walton is also the Chair of the Operational Guidance Group, which is part of the governance of the National Operational Guidance Programme. So what’s new here? The first major change is the inclusion of the survivability model.
This is a great example of how the collaboration between emergency services looking at scenarios from their respective perspectives can lead to a common model being adopted. In this case it has been led by the fire and rescue service and is now used by police and ambulance services responding to water rescue incidents.
“The fire and rescue service does not have a statutory duty to respond and consequently does not have the funding to pay for it.” Throughout this version of the guidance new sections have been added to reflect a four-stage approach for incident commanders. Starting from the strategic level guidance that informs the pre-planning for all fire and rescue services, policy writers are now able to incorporate activities, hazards, control measures and the tactics required into local procedures. Like all National Operational Guidance, the national approach can be incorporated at a local level as part of a community risk management process.
Consultation is key Consultation is a key part of developing each piece of guidance. Central to the water rescue and flooding guidance is the advice and contributions from the CFOA Tactical Inland Water Technical Response Group. Comprising members of the emergency services and specialist non-blue light organisations like Mountain Rescue and the Association of Lowland Search and Rescue (ALSAR), the group is able to influence and shape the guidance that impacts its staff every day in carrying out their duties in these challenging environments. The guidance does not stand-alone: it is heavily informed and guided by the DEFRA Flooding Concept of Operations. It is also written with a view to meeting the requirements in the National Operational Standards owned by Skills for Fire. It is important that the content of operational training evolves to take account of any changes here so that firefighters’ knowledge and understanding about water rescue and flooding is up to date. Prior to the National Operational Guidance Programme reviewing water rescue and flooding guidance and publishing it first in June 2014, there was
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little to guide fire and rescue services in their work. Local policies and procedures had been developed over the years with limited national views taken on how to respond to what seems to be increasingly frequent extreme weather events covering vast swathes of the UK in water. The public has an expectation that the fire and rescue service will, along with others, respond to incidents in water, whether that is inland water, quarries, docks and so on. The fact of the matter is that the fire and rescue service does not have a statutory duty to respond and consequently does not have the funding to pay for it. The guidance references duties under the Emergencies Order and the Civil Contingencies Act, but these will not generally apply.
Train and prepare Despite this, the fire and rescue service continues to train and prepare for water rescue and flooding and will be in a better position to provide the high quality expected response because of the investment at a national level in best practice guidance. The Government’s current consultation on the resilience of the UK to respond to the consequences of flooding provides an ideal forum to consider how the fire and rescue service can, along with the other emergency services, assist in the development of resilient communities, both part of the response but also impacted from doing their normal duties when the floods come.
“Throughout this version of the guidance new sections have been added to reflect a four-stage approach for incident commanders.” There was considerable discontent on social media channels from many in the fire and rescue service that the media and others did not recognise their role in the response to the floods over the Christmas period. Labelling fire and rescue personnel as ‘emergency workers’ reduced skilled firefighters to a homogeneous group and diminished their vital role. There is an opportunity here to raise the profile of the fire and rescue service and the newly refreshed guidance is an important tool to support that work going forward.
www.ukfrs.com The guidance can be found at www.ukfrs.com
February2016