P1 | Describe how emergency incidents are graded by a selected public service
My chosen public service is the Police Force, the Police have 4 grades to classify an emergency that they'll be deployed on, these grades are 1-4; 1 being of the highest priority and 4 the least important.
Grade 4 | Grade 4 is known as 'Resolution Without Deployment', resolution without deployment comes across when the call handler can resolve the incident adequately enough to meet the callers need; this can be over the phone, written advice or being put through to a more suitable agency or service.
Grade 3 | Grade 3 is known as a 'Scheduled Response', this arises when the call handler assesses the needs of the caller can be met through a Scheduled Response because;
- The response time isn't critical to the incident
- The matter is service orientated and a better quality of initial police action can be taken if it is dealt with by :
- A pre-arranged police response by a Police Officer or by other appropriate resource
- Attendance at a police clinic or surgery
Grade 2 | Grade 2 is known as a 'Priority Response', unlike it's name suggests, a Priority Response doesn't need an emergency response, but requires a resource deployment by the call room; a E.T.A (Estimated Time of Arrival) is given to the caller.
A Priority Response arises when the call handler acknowledges that there is some importance or urgency with the incident reported, but a emergency response is not required.
A Priority Response may be named in circumstances such as:
- There is concern for someone's safety
- An offender has been detained/arrested
- A key witness is likely to disappear
- At a road collision, there are minor injuries or a serious obstruction
- A person involved feels vulnerable or upset
- Hate crime is being committed
Grade 1 | Grade one is known as an 'Emergency Response', as it's name clearly points out, grade 1 needs an immediate Emergency Response.
An Emergency response will be used in circumstances where:
- Danger to life
- Use, or immediate threat of use of violence
- Serious injury to a person(s)
- Serious damage to property
- The crime is, or is likely to be serious and in progress
- An offender has been disturbed at the scene
- An offender has been maintained and poses, or is likely to pose a risk to other people
Where the caller relates to an allegation to a traffic collision, it will be dealt with as an Emergency Response if
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P2 | Identify the initial actions, roles and responsibilities of attending at the scene of an emergency Incident
When attending an emergency accident, there is a simple acronym to remember that will help; this is S.A.D.C.H.A.L.E.T.S. Which stands for:
S | Summon Assistance - Via 999
A | Assess The Situation
D | Disseminate The Previous To The Call Handler
C | Casualty or Casualties - Their condition and the nature of their injuries
H | Hazards - Natural or man made and the weather conditions at the site
A | Access - Suggest best route to the site and identify obstructions
L | Location - Precise grid reference - 2 letter 100km square and 6 figure reference
E | Emergency - Urgency of situation
T | Type
S | Safety - Of all concerned
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P3 | Describe the importance of responding safely to emergency incidents as an emergency response driver
As a emergency response driver, your are required to arrive at the scene of the incident in minimal time, however, emergency response drivers are no different to ordinary drivers, and although they have specialist lessons in driving; accidents still occur.
In the U.k between April 2006 and March 2009 there were appropriately 1,398 accidents involving 512 Police vehicles , this consequently lead to bill and compensation that costed over £400,000; however these numbers are declining.
Most of these incidents were caused when the officers were in pursuit of an offender, or driving to an emergency.
So it is key that a emergency response driver, drives safely to the incident, plus considering the Government's spending cuts on emergency services, the last thing that Police need; is to be sued for driving accidents.
Furthermore, when driving to a major incident, there will almost certainly be casualties, and if the emergency response team are driving without care for others, the last thing they need is more casualties caused by themselves.
- It involves or is likely to involve serious personal injury
- The road is blocked or there is dangerous or excessive build up of traffic
(Source - Gloucestershire Police)
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P2 | Identify the initial actions, roles and responsibilities of attending at the scene of an emergency Incident
When attending an emergency accident, there is a simple acronym to remember that will help; this is S.A.D.C.H.A.L.E.T.S. Which stands for:
S | Summon Assistance - Via 999
A | Assess The Situation
D | Disseminate The Previous To The Call Handler
C | Casualty or Casualties - Their condition and the nature of their injuries
H | Hazards - Natural or man made and the weather conditions at the site
A | Access - Suggest best route to the site and identify obstructions
L | Location - Precise grid reference - 2 letter 100km square and 6 figure reference
E | Emergency - Urgency of situation
T | Type
S | Safety - Of all concerned
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P3 | Describe the importance of responding safely to emergency incidents as an emergency response driver
As a emergency response driver, your are required to arrive at the scene of the incident in minimal time, however, emergency response drivers are no different to ordinary drivers, and although they have specialist lessons in driving; accidents still occur.
In the U.k between April 2006 and March 2009 there were appropriately 1,398 accidents involving 512 Police vehicles , this consequently lead to bill and compensation that costed over £400,000; however these numbers are declining.
Most of these incidents were caused when the officers were in pursuit of an offender, or driving to an emergency.
So it is key that a emergency response driver, drives safely to the incident, plus considering the Government's spending cuts on emergency services, the last thing that Police need; is to be sued for driving accidents.
Furthermore, when driving to a major incident, there will almost certainly be casualties, and if the emergency response team are driving without care for others, the last thing they need is more casualties caused by themselves.
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P4 | Describe the necessity for scene preservation and the service provisions of specialist units
The importance of scene preservation is monumental, as it could decide the guilty party for the crime! If scene preservation is discarded, then there is no evidence to who/what committed the crime!
For example, if a person were to be murdered on the streets, people would crowd round the body; spreading their DNA all over the it making DNA evidence invalid; as there will be too many subjects, so this in turn makes it harder to find the criminal.
This is why forensic teams have specialist clothing and equipment, to make sure the crime scene remains untarnished, such as full body clothing to make sure no hair or skin falls onto the crime scene, they also have face masks to stop saliva from contaminating the crime scene.
The first Health and Safety measures for Public Servicemen/women is P.P.E (Personal Protective Equipment), the equipment aid the Servicemen/women, whilst insuring their safety.
Starting with the Police Service, usually a Police Officer at the scene of an R.T.C, will wear a High Visibility jacket; this will keep him/her seen to the public to ensure his/her safety on the road
Also, but not quite P.P.E, road signs are put out to divert, or slow down road users.
However, if the emergency was say a Riot, they would be wearing a lot more P.P.E; such as a riot shield, fire proofs, stab proof vest and riot helmet with visor.
Secondly the Paramedics, don't use much P.P.E at the scene of an emergency incident; apart from High Visibility jacket.
Lastly the Fire Brigade, these wear virtually the most P.P.E out of all the Public Services, however they wear most of their P.P.E when they are attending the stereotypical emergency that they were created for... a fire.
In the incident of a fire, the Fire Brigade may wear, a helmet, fire proofs, goggles, gloves, steal toecaps and oxygen tanks.
M1 | Explain the roles and responsibilities of the key services attending an emergency incident
Police |
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M2 | Explain how scene prevention and the service provision of specialist units contribute to an accident/incident investigation
The crime scene is a highly important source of evidence and is where forensic science investigations begin. From the point of collection to the time of filing, evidence must be kept within a strict chain of custody to ensure no possible contamination with any other subjects.
The methods employed to collect and preserve evidence are crucial and it is important that fundamental practices are followed.
Upon arrival at the scene of the crime, the first officer must record the time, date and weather conditions and take action to preserve and secure the area to the maximum extent possible.
Any unauthorised access must be disallowed as any individual present poses the risk of contaminating or destroying physical evidence, and once the scene has been secured, the investigating officer must evaluate the scene and decide on the system for examination to be employed by the crime-scene investigators.
Immediate action must be taken to protect items of evidence, which may be destroyed by weather conditions or fire etc. Any persons present at the scene of the crime who may be witnesses should be removed and their details taken. It is also necessary to record all movements at the scene and any items moved or touched by individuals.
Recording the scene in its original state is highly important both as an aid for the investigation and also as evidence in court when the details of the crime scene and location of evidence must be provided. The three methods of recording the crime scene include photography, sketches and written notes. Thorough recording usually requires that all three methods to be used.
A systematic search of the crime scene is highly important so that no evidence is left unrecorded and for maximum information to be obtained; the more evidence gathered, the stronger the case.
The investigator in charge of the crime-scene generally co-ordinates the search for evidence to ensure that all necessary areas are covered but also to ensure there is no duplication of effort. A forensic scientist is not usually present at the scene of a crime, unless the evidence is very involved.
One thing that I learnt on Forensic Day is that physical evidence must then be properly packaged and labelled, with different samples requiring different methods of packaging. For example, while hairs and fibres can be contained within plastic containers, any items containing biological evidence such as blood must be air-dried before packaging and placed in paper bags to remove the problem of moisture build-up and contamination from bacterial growth.
The importance of scene preservation is monumental, as it could decide the guilty party for the crime! If scene preservation is discarded, then there is no evidence to who/what committed the crime!
For example, if a person were to be murdered on the streets, people would crowd round the body; spreading their DNA all over the it making DNA evidence invalid; as there will be too many subjects, so this in turn makes it harder to find the criminal.
This is why forensic teams have specialist clothing and equipment, to make sure the crime scene remains untarnished, such as full body clothing to make sure no hair or skin falls onto the crime scene, they also have face masks to stop saliva from contaminating the crime scene.
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P5 | Identify the statutory and voluntary agencies who may work together at the scene of a emergency incident
A statutory agency is provided by law, plus is the responsibility of the Local Authority or Central Government; an example of a statutory agency is the Police, careers agency and primary care trusts
A voluntary agency is usually provided by either a charity or a grant funded body, they are created to help meet a particular need; an example of one is S.t Johns Ambulance and the RNLI.
The first obvious three statutory agencies, that would attend at a Major Incident, would be the Police, the Paramedics and the Fire Brigade.
However depending on what occurs at the incident, determines what agencies will be involved, for example, if a container truck were to crash, and spilt it's load onto the road; the environmentalist agency would have to be contacted.
Another example, if a family were to crash, and sadly only a child were to survive, child services would have to be contacted later.
The first two voluntaries that I can think of, that would help at a major incident are, S.t Johns Ambulance and Police Specials; as these act as extra Public Services.
They will have had similar, if not the same training as regular Public Servicemen/women.
A statutory agency is provided by law, plus is the responsibility of the Local Authority or Central Government; an example of a statutory agency is the Police, careers agency and primary care trusts
A voluntary agency is usually provided by either a charity or a grant funded body, they are created to help meet a particular need; an example of one is S.t Johns Ambulance and the RNLI.
The first obvious three statutory agencies, that would attend at a Major Incident, would be the Police, the Paramedics and the Fire Brigade.
However depending on what occurs at the incident, determines what agencies will be involved, for example, if a container truck were to crash, and spilt it's load onto the road; the environmentalist agency would have to be contacted.
Another example, if a family were to crash, and sadly only a child were to survive, child services would have to be contacted later.
The first two voluntaries that I can think of, that would help at a major incident are, S.t Johns Ambulance and Police Specials; as these act as extra Public Services.
They will have had similar, if not the same training as regular Public Servicemen/women.
(Text Relevant To The R.T.C)
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P6 | Describe the health and safety measures when attending an emergency incident
The first Health and Safety measures for Public Servicemen/women is P.P.E (Personal Protective Equipment), the equipment aid the Servicemen/women, whilst insuring their safety.
Starting with the Police Service, usually a Police Officer at the scene of an R.T.C, will wear a High Visibility jacket; this will keep him/her seen to the public to ensure his/her safety on the road
Also, but not quite P.P.E, road signs are put out to divert, or slow down road users.
However, if the emergency was say a Riot, they would be wearing a lot more P.P.E; such as a riot shield, fire proofs, stab proof vest and riot helmet with visor.
Secondly the Paramedics, don't use much P.P.E at the scene of an emergency incident; apart from High Visibility jacket.
Lastly the Fire Brigade, these wear virtually the most P.P.E out of all the Public Services, however they wear most of their P.P.E when they are attending the stereotypical emergency that they were created for... a fire.
In the incident of a fire, the Fire Brigade may wear, a helmet, fire proofs, goggles, gloves, steal toecaps and oxygen tanks.
(Text Relevant To The R.T.C)
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Police |
The saving of life together with the other emergency services
The co-ordination of the emergency services, local authorities and other organisations acting in support at the scene of the incidentFire Brigade |
To secure, protect and preserve the scene and to control sightseers and traffic through the use of cordons
The investigation of the incident and obtaining and securing of evidence in conjunction with other investigative bodies where applicable
The collection and distribution of casualty information
The identification of the dead on behalf of Her Majesty’s (HM) Coroner;
The prevention of crime
Short term measures to restore normality after all necessary actions have been taken
Life-saving through search and rescueAmbulance |
Fire fighting and fire prevention
Rendering humanitarian services
Management of hazardous materials and protecting the environment
Salvage and damage control
Safety management within the inner cordon
To save life together with the other emergency services
To provide treatment, stabilisation and care of those injured at the scene
To provide appropriate transport, medical staff, equipment and resources
To establish effective triage points and systems and determine the priority evacuation needs of those injured
To provide a focal point at the incident for all National Health Service and other medical resources
To provide communication facilities for NHS resources at the scene, with direct radio links to hospitals, control facilities and any other agency as required;
To nominate and alert the receiving hospitals from the official list of hospitals to receive those injured
To provide transport to the incident scene for the medical incident officer (MIO), mobile medical/surgical teams and their equipment;
To arrange the most appropriate means of transporting those injured to the receiving and specialist hospitals
To maintain emergency cover throughout the area and return to a state of normality at the earliest time.
(Text Relevant To The R.T.C)
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M2 | Explain how scene prevention and the service provision of specialist units contribute to an accident/incident investigation
The crime scene is a highly important source of evidence and is where forensic science investigations begin. From the point of collection to the time of filing, evidence must be kept within a strict chain of custody to ensure no possible contamination with any other subjects.
The methods employed to collect and preserve evidence are crucial and it is important that fundamental practices are followed.
Upon arrival at the scene of the crime, the first officer must record the time, date and weather conditions and take action to preserve and secure the area to the maximum extent possible.
Any unauthorised access must be disallowed as any individual present poses the risk of contaminating or destroying physical evidence, and once the scene has been secured, the investigating officer must evaluate the scene and decide on the system for examination to be employed by the crime-scene investigators.
Immediate action must be taken to protect items of evidence, which may be destroyed by weather conditions or fire etc. Any persons present at the scene of the crime who may be witnesses should be removed and their details taken. It is also necessary to record all movements at the scene and any items moved or touched by individuals.
Recording the scene in its original state is highly important both as an aid for the investigation and also as evidence in court when the details of the crime scene and location of evidence must be provided. The three methods of recording the crime scene include photography, sketches and written notes. Thorough recording usually requires that all three methods to be used.
A systematic search of the crime scene is highly important so that no evidence is left unrecorded and for maximum information to be obtained; the more evidence gathered, the stronger the case.
The investigator in charge of the crime-scene generally co-ordinates the search for evidence to ensure that all necessary areas are covered but also to ensure there is no duplication of effort. A forensic scientist is not usually present at the scene of a crime, unless the evidence is very involved.
One thing that I learnt on Forensic Day is that physical evidence must then be properly packaged and labelled, with different samples requiring different methods of packaging. For example, while hairs and fibres can be contained within plastic containers, any items containing biological evidence such as blood must be air-dried before packaging and placed in paper bags to remove the problem of moisture build-up and contamination from bacterial growth.
(Text Relevant To Forensic Day)
(Source - Hull Crime Scene Investigators)
On arrival at an emergency incident, the first Officer must dismiss any civilians to insure that they themselves do not become injured and become another thing on the service's mind, he/she then must asses the incident to look for any hazards, this in turn will benefit the next arriving service as they'll know what to expect.
All the services attending the incident must acknowledge the Health and Safety Act, as they don't want cause harm to themselves or anyone near the incident, furthermore so the incident scene itself does not get contaminated by more subjects; thus creating more work for the specialist units required.
Attending any major incident such as an RTC brings hazards and dangers to all servicemen/women, thus to insure servicemen/women's safety, all services attending must follow the PPE Regulations at Work Act 1992. This means that the services at the incident must wear the correct equipment to ensure their safety. To insure even greater safety all equipment is tested before use to ensure it is suitable, it must be stored correctly to suit it, come with instructions on how to use safely and services must wear it correctly.
A final act that must be followed when at a major incident is the RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations Act 1995), this must be done because it is illegal not to report any injuries ect that were obtained from the incident, it also gives the HSE (Health and Safety Executives) a insight on how risks come across, that way they can then give advice on how to prevent incidents from happening.
Incidents such as deaths, major accidents and work related diseases should be reported.
Cooperation in public services is key to success, and could decide the fate of civilians and other servicemen/women involved in the incident, so this is why services are trained on teamwork so much!
I will now write my own made up scenario, and conclude the ending on good and bad cooperation between services; the incident will be an R.T.C.
3 vehicle's are involved in an R.T.C, the first car was driven by a middle aged male who is fatal, the second car has a trapped couple who are in a critical state and need urgent treatment; the third car was driven by a young female who escaped with minor injuries.
Good Cooperation | The first priority of the services is to preserve the life of those involved, so the couple in the car will need to be tended to first, as quickly and as efficiently as possible.
So strait away, the ambulance service would cooperate with the fire brigade to help them to rescue the endangered couple, if done efficiently; the perfect ending would be that the fire brigade cut the trapped couple out of the car and the ambulance service stabilise them and treat them at hospital.
Whilst the couple were being tendered to, the Police would be cordoning off the incident and covering up the dead, and registering the dead on behalf of HM coroner.
Effective cordoning insures that civilians and the press/media don't get too close to the incident scene, as this could cause more complication, as they could endanger themselves or other people and to insure pictures or videos aren't being taken of the scene.
Next the ambulance service would treat the young female with minor injuries and take her to hospital for further examination.
After all casualties have been seen to and removed from the scene, the Police and Scene Investigators, would start examining the scene, by taking photos and using other equipment to show how the cars could have collided.
Then the scene would have been cleared up, of the three cars and any debris caused by the collision and the road would have been opened as usual.
Poor Cooperation | An example of poor cooperation within services would be that, the ambulance service are fire brigade could be arguing about who goes in first to see to the critically injured couple, whilst they're arguing, the couples condition would be deteriorating and they would die of their injuries.
Next the Police would fail to cordon the area properly and people, press/media would be able to enter the incident scene, put themselves in danger, see the fatalities and get pictures and videos; leaking how poor the services are at dealing with emergencies.
Next, as the young female is not yet being seen to, she is left vulnerable on the busy motorway; and could be hit by fast moving vehicles as the police have yet to cordon the area.
Lastly, as the police have been delayed, the road will still have to remain closed; this could delay HGV's delivering their good's, thus losing profit for the businesses.
So, to conclude, bad cooperation sees to two more fatalities that could have been avoided, and the road being delayed in opening.
(Source - Hull Crime Scene Investigators)
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M3 | Explain the need for measures to be taken, to ensure personal safety when attending an emergency incident
The Police Service follow a specific Health and Safety at Work Legislation (Police Health and Safety Act 1997 (Additions Made In 1974 To insure that Officers could not put themselves or the public in danger)).
The Police Service follow a specific Health and Safety at Work Legislation (Police Health and Safety Act 1997 (Additions Made In 1974 To insure that Officers could not put themselves or the public in danger)).
All the services attending the incident must acknowledge the Health and Safety Act, as they don't want cause harm to themselves or anyone near the incident, furthermore so the incident scene itself does not get contaminated by more subjects; thus creating more work for the specialist units required.
Health and Safety whilst driving, states that all servicemen/women required to drive to an emergency must undertake an "advanced driving course", this sees that the driver has a better understanding and skill at driving under pressure at high speeds.
Another health and safety act that is used when at work is the COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Act 2002). COSHH is a law that requires employers to control any substances that are or can be hazardous to health.
Attending any major incident such as an RTC brings hazards and dangers to all servicemen/women, thus to insure servicemen/women's safety, all services attending must follow the PPE Regulations at Work Act 1992. This means that the services at the incident must wear the correct equipment to ensure their safety. To insure even greater safety all equipment is tested before use to ensure it is suitable, it must be stored correctly to suit it, come with instructions on how to use safely and services must wear it correctly.
A final act that must be followed when at a major incident is the RIDDOR (Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations Act 1995), this must be done because it is illegal not to report any injuries ect that were obtained from the incident, it also gives the HSE (Health and Safety Executives) a insight on how risks come across, that way they can then give advice on how to prevent incidents from happening.
Incidents such as deaths, major accidents and work related diseases should be reported.
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D1 | Evaluate the co-operation of the emergency response services
D1 | Evaluate the co-operation of the emergency response services
I will now write my own made up scenario, and conclude the ending on good and bad cooperation between services; the incident will be an R.T.C.
3 vehicle's are involved in an R.T.C, the first car was driven by a middle aged male who is fatal, the second car has a trapped couple who are in a critical state and need urgent treatment; the third car was driven by a young female who escaped with minor injuries.
Good Cooperation | The first priority of the services is to preserve the life of those involved, so the couple in the car will need to be tended to first, as quickly and as efficiently as possible.
So strait away, the ambulance service would cooperate with the fire brigade to help them to rescue the endangered couple, if done efficiently; the perfect ending would be that the fire brigade cut the trapped couple out of the car and the ambulance service stabilise them and treat them at hospital.
Whilst the couple were being tendered to, the Police would be cordoning off the incident and covering up the dead, and registering the dead on behalf of HM coroner.
Effective cordoning insures that civilians and the press/media don't get too close to the incident scene, as this could cause more complication, as they could endanger themselves or other people and to insure pictures or videos aren't being taken of the scene.
Next the ambulance service would treat the young female with minor injuries and take her to hospital for further examination.
After all casualties have been seen to and removed from the scene, the Police and Scene Investigators, would start examining the scene, by taking photos and using other equipment to show how the cars could have collided.
Then the scene would have been cleared up, of the three cars and any debris caused by the collision and the road would have been opened as usual.
Poor Cooperation | An example of poor cooperation within services would be that, the ambulance service are fire brigade could be arguing about who goes in first to see to the critically injured couple, whilst they're arguing, the couples condition would be deteriorating and they would die of their injuries.
Next the Police would fail to cordon the area properly and people, press/media would be able to enter the incident scene, put themselves in danger, see the fatalities and get pictures and videos; leaking how poor the services are at dealing with emergencies.
Next, as the young female is not yet being seen to, she is left vulnerable on the busy motorway; and could be hit by fast moving vehicles as the police have yet to cordon the area.
Lastly, as the police have been delayed, the road will still have to remain closed; this could delay HGV's delivering their good's, thus losing profit for the businesses.
So, to conclude, bad cooperation sees to two more fatalities that could have been avoided, and the road being delayed in opening.
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