Training and Exercising

Training and Exercising

The Tyne and Wear Emergency Planning Unit (TWEPU) has devised and delivers a training program for relevant local authority personnel in order to enhance their emergency preparedness capability. Once officers have an understanding of the basic concepts of emergency planning, an awareness of their role as detailed in the Major Incident Plan (MIP), and they are reasonably comfortable with their role, they may be involved in an exercise.

Exercises have three main purposes:

a) To validate plans (validation)
b) To develop staff competencies and give them practice in carrying out their roles in the plans (training); and
c) To test well-established procedures (testing).

An important aim of an exercise should be to make people feel more comfortable in their roles and to build morale. An important point to note is that exercising tests procedures, not people.

Exercises bring together those that may be involved in incident response and allow them to scrutinise decisions made around a fictitious scenario. Scenarios are usually based upon local risks and reflect reality as far as is practicable.