The Emergency Planning Society RESILIENCE
the meeting therefore people must carry out their own personal log. This is important especially at the beginning of an incident, as the information known before the incident team is formed could be crucial. Although logging electronically may seem easier it is not very good as evidence because electronic records can be altered after the event therefore they are not recommended as records of evidence. When we are teaching the logging course we suggest companies use preprinted logging sheets. They should be carbonated so that two copies are produced - one for the organisation and one retained by those who wrote it and they should be sequentially preprinted so you can prove an additional sheet was not added into a sequence of sheets. Each entry should contain the key facts, with the date and time clearly stated and most importantly must be legible. The sheets should be used throughout the incident and when the incident is over all log sheets, and any other materials produced during the incident, should be archived. During the incident there will be lots of meetings of the strategic, tactical and operational teams. The teams will be making decisions often in different circumstances than they usually do in day-to-day business. As with individuals, the team may be called to account for the decisions after the event. Given there are many different people involved, perhaps even from different organisations, individuals may have different recollections of the meeting therefore it is important to
carry out defensible decisionmaking. In meetings it is not sufficient for an admin person just to take notes to document the meeting; they should be trained in defensible decisionmaking. This includes noting the full names of those at the meeting, what information was available at the time, the timings of information coming in, what decision was made and on what basis was the decision taken. It is also important to note whether there was a consensus on the decision or whether certain members of the team disagreed. Again, as with personal logging, the information should be captured on the organisation’s official logging sheet. In conclusion, to ensure you are personally protected and that your organisation is protected, personal logging of all information during an incident is essential. Furthermore, logging all actions will ensure you can defend all decisions made during a crisis, which can be used for defence in court should legal action be taken against you or your organisation. Logging incident information and decisions is an essential part of incident management and is required at all levels within an organisation. Charlie Maclean-Bristol is the Director of PlanB Consulting and an active member of the EPS’ Scottish branch. PlanB Consulting have provided a wide-range of organisations with logging and defensive decision training. Details of their courses can be found here: www.planbconsulting.co.uk
In brief... The Wales Civil Contingencies Conference took place on February 28 and was based on some of the recent learning that has emerged from incidents across Wales, namely the Gleision Colliery Incident, Fforestfach tyre fire, Chevron oil refinery explosion and the Brynglas Tunnel Fire. The conference, aimed at Chief Officer / Chief Executivelevel, saw the attendance of more than 80 delegates from across Wales. The event featured presentations from the Gold Commanders involved in the response to these incidents, followed by clinics which explored some of the challenges in more detail. The clinic topics included: media in an emergency, scientific and technical advice and air quality monitoring. Feedback from the event has been very positive with comments from Welsh Government and the Cabinet Office about the quality of the presentations given. A conference report is being prepared that will be fed into the Wales Resilience Partnership Team for recommendations to be allocated. A DVD of the event has been prepared to enable learning to be shared more widely across the resilience community. The event has also been noted by the Emergency Planning College website as an example of good practice. For further information regarding the conference please contact Superintendent Claire Parmenter, Civil Contingencies Co-ordinator for the Welsh Emergency Services, at: Claire. parmenter@dyfed-powys. pnn.police.uk
17