Agenda item

(1)       Fiona Gaffney (KCC Head of Resilience and Emergency Planning) gave a presentation. The slides are contained within the electronic agenda papers on the KCC website. 

(2)       Ms Gaffney briefly recapped the Exercise Surge scenario. The exercise had taken place between 25 and 27 September 2016.  It had involved County-wide flooding and evacuations.   It had been drawn up in such a way as to involve all the Boroughs and Districts, testing all the relevant agencies’ ability to provide mutual aid. 

(3)       The Multi Agency Group had set itself 47 objectives, all of which had been met.  Some of the key objectives were the testing of the KRF Evacuation and Shelter Plan; the Pan Kent Flood Plan; elements of the multi-agency Flood Plans, the effectiveness of the Bronze (operational) training; the Romney Marsh Diversion and Evacuation Plan; and the validation of the lessons learned in previous exercises.   An entire day had been focussed on the Recovery element. This aspect of the exercise had been led by KCC.  Some 250 people had participated in the Recovery Table Top exercise on the final day.

(4)       Ms Gaffney said that a key element of this exercise was that it involved all the KRF partners. It had been led by the Local Authorities, involving (amongst others) the Emergency Services, the Voluntary Sector, and the Environment Agency. Overall, some 800 people had been involved in some capacity. 

(5)       Ms Gaffney moved on to discuss the three debriefing sessions. The first of these (October 2016) had been for the Exercise Surge Planning Team.  This had identified the need for a communication plan in tandem with the exercise planning, because the wider public had not been made aware that such a large scale exercise was taking place.  If information about the exercise had been made widely available, there would have been tremendous benefits in terms of community resilience. 

(6)       The scoping of the exercise had grown tremendously due to the large number of agencies involved, all of whom wished to test their own priorities.  Although this had not led to any dilution of what needed to be tested, it had stretched resources.  In future, there would be a cut-off point in the scoping process after which the focus would be purely on delivery.  

(7)       Ms Gaffney said that it was not intended to carry out such a resource-intensive exercise every year.  The likelihood was that it would be once (perhaps twice) in a three year cycle. 

(8)       Ms Gaffney continued by considering the legacy of Exercise Surge. The lessons learned would be used to inform the training that was offered in the future.  One of these was that an off-the-shelf training product would be developed which would be given to the Gold Commanders.

(9)       Ms Gaffney said that the Recovery part of the Exercise had focussed on the immediate recovery period a day after the event itself.   This aspect would be tested again in the exercise planned for 207/18, but on this occasion there would also be an element testing recovery at a point six months later.  This would draw on the “soft recovery” elements of the lessons learned in Cumbria such as the social and psychological impacts on the communities.  

(10)     Exercise Surge had tested the social media elements of media management. There were other elements which would be tested during the next exercise such as the use and management of real media.

(11)     Ms Gaffney then said that there were different ways in which table top exercises could be undertaken.   Future exercises would aim to build the scenarios as a whole so that they became more organic.   This would replace the current practice which was for scenarios to be phoned in or provided in writing as the exercise progressed.  It had been found that the latter approach tended to lead to interruptions to the process. 

(12)       Exercise Surge had tested the familiarity of the partner agencies with the national documentation that had to be completed whenever emergencies were being responded to.   This would continue to be a significant objective of future exercises.

(13)     Ms Gaffney explained that communication resources had been stretched because Exercise Surge had taken place in 9 different locations. The lesson derived from this experience was that it was necessary to review the way in which the various Centres had been able to talk to one another in order to identify possible ways in which the available communication technology could be more effectively utilised. 

(14)     Ms Gaffney said that there had been questions about the compatibility of IT technology.  Responders were now being encouraged to test their laptops at the locations where they were likely to be bases and to also be prepared to do without IT altogether if the need arose.  In such circumstances, the value of the incident log, pen and paper should be appreciated. 

(15)     The testing of the KRF Evacuation and Shelter Plan had led to amendments being made in the light of experience.   Ms Gaffney said that improvements could be made to the way in which information was drawn from the public.  For example, messages of advice could be pre-prepared, explaining to potential evacuees where they should go and what they should take with them.  This was particularly important for those who were being re-located to very large evacuation hubs.   She added that the Local Authorities debrief session in November 2016 had confirmed that they would be able to cope with the numbers at the onset but that there were areas for further consideration about the longer term questions of ensuring that they were able to support one another both within the County and with Local Authorities outside.  These questions were being taken forward by the Local Authorities Emergency Planning Group.  

(16)     Ms Gaffney then said that the Multi-Agency Flood Plans would be reviewed following the local lessons learned during the Exercise.  Work would also be undertaken by a Task and Finish Group on the experience gained during the evacuation part of Exercise Surge. It was essential to evaluate the length of time it would actually take for a full evacuation to take place.  The evacuation of 120 people in the Romney Marsh had been successfully achieved within the 5 hour deadline that had been set.  Nevertheless, the use of available resources and the information that was given to the public would be carefully looked at to see what improvements needed to be made.  The Romney Marsh Diversion and Evacuation Plan would also be reviewed by Shepway DC in the light of the evidence gathered.  

(17)     Ms Gaffney said that a Training needs Analysis would be completed for Welfare Centre Managers and staff.  The Local Authority Emergency Planning Group would be examining whether there had been sufficient Welfare Centre training to ensure that they continued to operate through the emergency period and that the staff had the right skills to ensure that they did so.  

(18)     Ms Gaffney said that work would be done on the Information Sharing Protocol to ensure that the right and appropriate information was shared, particularly in respect of vulnerable people.  

(19)     Ms Gaffney concluded her presentation by saying that the Exercise had underlined the importance of the Recovery phase, which was always the longest-lasting.  The success of an emergency response would always be judged by the public on the basis its Recovery phase, as had been the case in the Herald of Free Enterprise disaster.   It was essential to build an understanding of the social and psychological impacts into the planning and training.

(20)     Mrs Brown stressed the important role that the Parishes would play as well as their Plans and experiences.  She was concerned that their role had not been mentioned in the presentation.   Ms Gaffney replied that Lydd TC had been involved in the Live Play evacuation. The Parish Councils would be involved more closely in future through the Community Resilience Group.  

(21)     Mr Bowles commented that the quality of Parish Council Emergency Plans tended to vary greatly. Some were excellent and very detailed whilst in others, they were non-existent. 

(22)     Mr Bird said that extreme weather events could easily bring unplanned -for problems. This had been the case in Yalding in the 2013/14 flood when there had been no power for 4 days.  When this happened, all testing of electronic communications became irrelevant.   Ms Gaffney replied that plans were being developed to cater for communications during a complete power blackout.   This question would also be looked at during the Recovery Exercise scheduled for 17 July.  

(23)     In response to a question from Mr Shonk, Ms Gaffney said that the difference between Resilience Direct (RD) Mapping and Shape Mapping was that the latter was based on the Health Authority, giving contact for GPs, Hospitals, Care Homes and Rest Centres.   RD Mapping would bring about a single point of focus and would be a tool that would be useful for all agencies.   There was also very little if any cost involved because of the national priority that had been accorded to it.     

(24)     Dr Eddy asked how long it would be possible to respond to an emergency before there would be a detrimental impact on the people available.   Ms Gaffney replied that the agencies were asked to be prepared to run 2 rest centres for a 24 hour period (three 8 hour shifts). Ideally, rest centres were not intended to run for longer than this as alternative housing would be sought.   Should an emergency last for longer than this, support to provide larger-scale accommodation would be requested from other Authorities that were less affected.   She added that all Authorities in the County had been trained in the “One Kent” approach.   The lessons had been learned from the very long hours that responders had needed to put in during the 2013/14 event.   The needs of the responders were being given a high priority and mutual aid was a major consideration for Managers and Trainers. 

(25)     Mrs Doyle noted that Kent responders had been involved in discussions with responders in Cumbria about the after effects.  Significant information could also be shared within Kent utilising the experiences in Bridge and Barham

(26)     Mr Hills said that every major flooding event was unique and brought its own problems.  He was pleased to note that the Romney Marsh Diversion and Evacuation Plan had been tested as there would not be any major roads passable in this area if the sea defences were breached.  This would necessitate evacuating some 6,000 people.   The need for better communication with the Parish Councils had been identified.  Another area for more detailed consideration was how to provide the best quality information to the public. As an example, it was now possible to photograph an affected area from a drone and to make the pictures widely available.  Drones had the advantage that they were not reliant on power as they contained their own power packs. 

(27)     Mr Bowles said that the expertise, knowledge and commitment of Local Elected Members should always be utilised.   He added that they should also have some training in and resultant understanding of Emergency Planning.

(28)     RESOLVED that the content of the multi-agency debrief report be noted.