NIMS Overview for Senior Officials: Understanding the National Incident Management System, Study notes of Logistics

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Resources for Senior Officials

G 0402 NIMS O VERVIEW FOR SENIOR O FFICIALS (E XECUTIVES, E LECTED, AND APPOINTED)

Resources for Senior Officials

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• Introduction Table of Contents
  • Frequently Asked Questions........................................................................................
  • Emergency Management Reference Guide.................................................................
• National Incident Management System
  • NIMS Management Characteristics
  • Common Terminology
  • Modular Organization
  • Management by Objectives
  • Incident Action Planning
  • Manageable Span of Control
  • Incident Facilities and Locations
  • Comprehensive Resource Management
  • Integrated Communications
  • Establishment and Transfer of Command
  • Unified Command
  • Chain of Command and Unity of Command
  • Accountability
  • Dispatch/Deployment.................................................................................................
  • Information and Intelligence Management
• ICS History and Features
  • Incident Command System........................................................................................
  • Incident Complexity, Complex Incidents and Incident Complex
  • Position Titles
  • ICS Organizational Structure and Elements
  • Overall Organizational Functions
  • ICS – Who Does What?.............................................................................................
  • Incident Commander
  • Incident Management Team
  • Command Staff
  • General Staff
  • Public Information Officer Responsibilities.................................................................
  • Safety Officer Responsibilities Resources for Senior Officials
  • Liaison Officer Responsibilities
  • Assistants
  • Additional Command Staff
  • Operations Section Chief Responsibilities
  • Planning Section Chief Responsibilities.....................................................................
  • Logistics Section Chief Responsibilities.....................................................................
  • Finance/Administration Section Chief Resposibilities
  • Intelligence/Investigations Function
  • Deputies
  • Assistants
  • Technical Specialists
  • Agency Representatives
  • Incident Action Planning Process
• Unified Command..........................................................................................................
  • Shared General Staff Sections
  • Coordinated Resource Ordering
  • Responsibilities of the Incident Commander and Unified command
  • Authority
  • Advantages of Using Unified Command
• ICS Readiness Checklist
• ICS Incident Checklist
• After-Action Review Tips and Process Steps
• Sample Delegation of Authority Letter
• Glossary

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INTRODUCTION

Any incident can have a mix of political, economic, social, environmental, and cost implications with potentially serious long-term effects. Also, more and more incidents are multiagency and/or multijurisdictional. As the Senior Official, you need to be aware of how ICS and interagency (regional) multiagency coordination systems can work to ensure cooperative response efforts.

This document attempts to acquaint Senior Officials with the National Incident Management System (NIMS), the Incident Command System (ICS), Unified Command, and your specific role within those constructs.

At the end of this document, you will find an ICS Readiness Checklist, ICS Incident Checklist, information about the After-Action Review as well as a sample Delegation of Authority letter.

Frequently Asked Questions

• How do I maintain control when an incident occurs? As the Senior Official, you establish the overall policy, and provide guidelines on priorities, objectives, and constraints to a qualified Incident Commander. In many agencies, this is done as a matter of policy through a written delegation of authority. (Refer to sample at the end of this document.) A delegation of authority is a statement that the authorized jurisdiction/organization official provides to make such delegations to the Incident Commander. It assigns the Incident Commander specific responsibilities and authorities. The delegation of authority typically describes priorities, expectations, constraints, and other considerations or guidelines. Many agencies require the delegating authority to provide a written delegation of authority to the Incident Commander before the Incident Commander may assume command.
• Where do I fit in the incident management process? ICS has a well-defined hierarchy of command. After you have clearly articulated the policy you wish followed and delegated certain authorities, the Incident Commander who reports to you will have the necessary authority and guidance to manage the incident. The Incident Commander is the primary person in charge at the incident. In addition to managing the incident scene, he or she is responsible for keeping you informed and up to date on all important matters pertaining to the incident. Your continuing role is to ensure that you are informed and that your Incident Commander is functioning in a responsible manner.
• Where can I get more information about NIMS and ICS? Located on FEMA’s Emergency Management Incident website, the ICS Resource Center houses a wealth of information that serves as guidance and reference before, during, and after an incident. https://training.fema.gov/emiweb/is/icsresource/index.htm

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Resources for Senior Officials

Common Terminology

NIMS establishes common terminology that allows diverse incident management and support organizations to work together across a wide variety of functions and hazard scenarios. This common terminology covers the following:

• Organizational Functions: Major functions and functional units with incident responsibilities are named and defined. Terminology for incident organizational elements is standard and consistent.
• Resource Descriptions: Major resources—including personnel, equipment, teams, and facilities—are given common names and are typed to help avoid confusion and to enhance interoperability.
• Incident Facilities: Incident management facilities are designated using common terminology.

Modular Organization

ICS and EOC organizational structures develop in a modular fashion based on an incident’s size, complexity, and hazard environment. Responsibility for establishing and expanding ICS organizations and EOC teams ultimately rests with the Incident Commander (or Unified Command) and EOC director. Responsibility for functions that subordinates perform defaults to the next higher supervisory position until the supervisor delegates those responsibilities. As incident complexity increases, organizations expand as the Incident Commander, Unified Command, EOC director, and subordinate supervisors delegate additional functional responsibilities.

Management by Objectives

The Incident Commander or Unified Command establishes objectives that drive incident operations. Management by objectives includes the following:

• Establishing specific, measurable objectives;
• Identifying strategies, tactics, tasks, and activities to achieve the objectives;
• Developing and issuing assignments, plans, procedures, and protocols for various incident management functional elements to accomplish the identified tasks; and
• Documenting results against the objectives to measure performance, facilitate corrective actions, and inform development of incident objectives for the subsequent operational period.

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Incident Action Planning

Coordinated incident action planning guides incident management activities. IAPs represent concise, coherent means of capturing and communicating incident objectives, tactics, and assignments for operational and support activities.

Every incident should have an action plan; however, not all incidents need written plans. The necessity for written plans depends on incident complexity, command decisions, and legal requirements. Formal IAPs are not always developed for the initial operational period of no-notice incidents. However, if an incident is likely to extend beyond one operational period, becomes more complex, or involves multiple jurisdictions and/or agencies, preparing a written IAP becomes increasingly important to maintain unity of effort and effective, efficient, and safe operations.

Staff in EOCs also typically conduct iterative planning and produce plans to guide their activities during specified periods, though these are typically more strategic than IAPs.

Manageable Span of Control

Maintaining an appropriate span of control helps ensure an effective and efficient incident management operation. It enables management to direct and supervise subordinates and to communicate with and manage all resources under their control. The type of incident, nature of the task, hazards and safety factors, experience of the supervisor and subordinates, and communication access between the subordinates and the supervisor are all factors that influence manageable span of control.

The optimal span of control for incident management is one supervisor to five subordinates; however, effective incident management frequently necessitates ratios significantly different from this. The 1:5 ratio is a guideline, and incident personnel use their best judgment to determine the actual distribution of subordinates to supervisors for a given incident or EOC activation.

Incident Facilities and Locations

Depending on the incident size and complexity, the Incident Commander, Unified Command, and/or EOC director establish support facilities for a variety of purposes and direct their identification and location based on the incident. Typical facilities include the Incident Command Post (ICP), incident base, staging areas, camps, mass casualty triage areas, points-of-distribution, and emergency shelters.

Comprehensive Resource Management

Resources include personnel, equipment, teams, supplies, and facilities available or potentially available for assignment or allocation. Maintaining an accurate and up-to- date inventory of resources is an essential component of incident management. Section II, the Resource Management component of this document, describes this in more detail.

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Accountability

Effective accountability for resources during an incident is essential. Incident personnel should adhere to principles of accountability, including check-in/check-out, incident action planning, unity of command, personal responsibility, span of control, and resource tracking.

Dispatch/Deployment

Resources should deploy only when appropriate authorities request and dispatch them through established resource management systems. Resources that authorities do not request should refrain from spontaneous deployment to avoid overburdening the recipient and compounding accountability challenges.

Information and Intelligence Management

The incident management organization establishes a process for gathering, analyzing, assessing, sharing, and managing incident-related information and intelligence. Information and intelligence management includes identifying essential elements of information (EEI) to ensure personnel gather the most accurate and appropriate data, translate it into useful information, and communicate it with appropriate personnel.

Note that in NIMS, “intelligence” refers exclusively to threat-related information developed by law enforcement, medical surveillance, and other investigative organizations.

ICS HISTORY AND FEATURES

Incident Command System

ICS is a standardized approach to the command, control, and coordination of on-scene incident management that provides a common hierarchy within which personnel from multiple organizations can be effective. ICS specifies an organizational structure for incident management that integrates and coordinates a combination of procedures, personnel, equipment, facilities, and communications. Using ICS for every incident helps hone and maintain skills needed to coordinate efforts effectively. ICS is used by all levels of government as well as by many NGOs and private sector organizations. ICS applies across disciplines and enables incident managers from different organizations to work together seamlessly. This system includes five major functional areas, staffed as needed, for a given incident: Command, Operations, Planning, Logistics, and Finance/Administration. A sixth ICS Function, Intelligence/ Investigations, is only utilized when the incident requires these specialized capabilities.

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Incident Complexity, Complex Incidents and Incident Complex

Incident Complexity as the combination of involved factors that affect the probability of control of an incident. Many factors determine the complexity of an incident, including, but not limited to, area involved, threat to life and property, political sensitivity, organizational complexity, jurisdictional boundaries, values at risk, weather, strategy and tactics, and agency policy. Incident complexity is considered when making incident management level, staffing, and safety decisions.

Incident complexity is assessed on a five-point scale ranging from Type 5 (the least complex incident) to Type 1 (the most complex incident).

Various analysis tools have been developed to assist consideration of important factors involved in incident complexity. Listed below are some of the factors that may be considered in analyzing incident complexity:

• Impacts to life, property, and the economy
• Community and responder safety
• Potential hazardous materials
• Weather and other environmental influences
• Likelihood of cascading events
• Potential crime scene (including terrorism)
• Political sensitivity, external influences, and media relations
• Area involved, jurisdictional boundaries
• Availability of resources

Complex Incidents are larger incidents with higher incident complexity (normally Type 1 or Type 2 incidents) that extend into multiple operational periods and rapidly expand to multijurisdictional and/or multidisciplinary efforts necessitating outside resources and support.

According to NIMS 2017 Incident Complex refers to two or more individual incidents located in the same general area and assigned to a single Incident Commander or Unified Command.

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• Command Staff: The staff who report directly to the Incident Commander, including the Public Information Officer, Safety Officer, Liaison Officer, and other positions as required.
• Section: The organizational level having responsibility for a major functional area of incident management (e.g., Operations, Planning, Logistics, Finance/Administration, and Intelligence/Investigations (if established)). The Section is organizationally situated between the Branch and the Incident Command.
• Branch: The organizational level having functional and/or geographical responsibility for major aspects of incident operations. A Branch is organizationally situated between the Section Chief and the Division or Group in the Operations Section, and between the Section and Units in the Logistics Section. Branches are identified by the use of Roman numerals or by functional area.
• Division: The organizational level having responsibility for operations within a defined geographic area. The Division level is organizationally between the Strike Team and the Branch.
• Group: An organizational subdivision established to divide the incident management structure into functional areas of operation. Groups are located between Branches (when activated) and resources (personnel, equipment, teams, supplies, and facilities) in the Operations Section.
• Unit: The organizational element with functional responsibility for a specific incident planning, logistics, or finance/administration activity.
• Task Force: Any combination of resources assembled to support a specific mission or operational need. A Task Force will contain resources of different kinds and types. All resource elements within a Task Force must have common communications and a designated leader.
• Strike Team/Resource Team: A set number of resources of the same kind and type that have an established minimum number of personnel, common communications, and a designated leader. In the law enforcement community, Strike Teams are sometimes referred to as Resource Teams.
• Single Resource: An individual, a piece of equipment and its personnel complement, or a crew/team of individuals with an identified work supervisor that can be used on an incident.

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Overall Organizational Functions

ICS was designed by identifying the primary activities or functions necessary to effectively respond to incidents. Analyses of incident reports and review of military organizations were all used in ICS development. These analyses identified the primary needs of incidents.

As incidents became more complex, difficult, and expensive, the need for an organizational manager became more evident. Thus, in ICS, and especially in larger incidents, the Incident Commander manages the organization and not the incident.

In addition to the Command function, other desired functions and activities were to:

• Delegate authority and provide a separate organizational level within the ICS structure with sole responsibility for the tactical direction and control of resources.
• Provide logistical support to the incident organization.
• Provide planning services for both current and future activities.
• Provide cost assessment, time recording, and procurement control necessary to support the incident and the managing of claims.
• Promptly and effectively interact with the media, and provide informational services for the incident, involved agencies, and the public.
• Provide a safe operating environment within all parts of the incident organization.
• Ensure that assisting and cooperating agencies’ needs are met, and to see that they are used in an effective manner.

ICS – Who Does What?

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General Staff

The General Staff represents and is responsible for the functional aspects of the Incident Command structure. The General Staff typically consists of the Operations, Planning, Logistics, and Finance/Administration Sections. In some incidents the General Staff may also include the Intelligence/Investigations Function, either operating under a staff section, or as a stand alone section.

General guidelines related to General Staff positions include the following:

• Only one person will be designated to lead each General Staff position.
• General Staff positions may be filled by qualified persons from any agency or jurisdiction.
• Members of the General Staff report directly to the Incident Commander. If a General Staff position is not activated, the Incident Commander will have responsibility for that functional activity.
• Deputy positions may be established for each of the General Staff positions. Deputies are individuals fully qualified to fill the primary position. Deputies can be designated from other jurisdictions or agencies, as appropriate. This is a good way to bring about greater interagency coordination.
• General Staff members may exchange information with any person within the organization. Direction takes place through the chain of command. This is an important concept in ICS.
• General Staff positions should not be combined. For example, to establish a "Planning and Logistics Section," it is better to initially create the two separate functions, and if necessary for a short time place one person in charge of both. That way, the transfer of responsibility can be made easier.

Public Information Officer Responsibilities

• Determine, according to direction from the IC, any limits on information release.
• Develop accurate, accessible, and timely information for use in press/media briefings.
• Obtain IC’s approval of news releases.
• Conduct periodic media briefings.
• Arrange for tours and other interviews or briefings that may be required.
• Monitor and forward media information that may be useful to incident planning.
• Maintain current information, summaries, and/or displays on the incident.
• Make information about the incident available to incident personnel.
• Participate in planning meetings.

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Safety Officer Responsibilities

• Identify and mitigate hazardous situations.
• Ensure safety messages and briefings are made.
• Exercise emergency authority to stop and prevent unsafe acts.
• Review the Incident Action Plan for safety implications.
• Assign assistants qualified to evaluate special hazards.
• Initiate preliminary investigation of accidents within the incident area.
• Review and approve the Medical Plan.
• Participate in planning meetings.

Liaison Officer Responsibilities

• Act as a point of contact for agency representatives.
• Maintain a list of assisting and cooperating agencies and agency representatives.
• Assist in setting up and coordinating interagency contacts.
• Monitor incident operations to identify current or potential interorganizational problems.
• Participate in planning meetings, providing current resource status, including limitations and capabilities of agency resources.
• Provide agency-specific demobilization information and requirements.

Assistants

• In the context of large or complex incidents, Command Staff members may need one or more assistants to help manage their workloads. Each Command Staff member is responsible for organizing his or her assistants for maximum efficiency.

Additional Command Staff

• Additional Command Staff positions may also be necessary depending on the nature and location(s) of the incident, and/or specific requirements established by the Incident Commander.
• For example, a Legal Counsel may be assigned directly to the Command Staff to advise the Incident Commander on legal matters, such as emergency proclamations, legality of evacuation orders, and legal rights and restrictions pertaining to media access.
• Similarly, a Medical Advisor may be designated and assigned directly to the Command Staff to provide advice and recommendations to the Incident Commander in the context of incidents involving medical and mental health