Programme overview
Introduction:
When several organisations respond to the same flood, industrial release or mass-gathering incident, the failures are rarely technical: two commanders issue conflicting orders, the emergency operations centre opens late, and no one holds a shared picture of resources. This Core Concept course builds Incident Command System and ISO 22320 practice for the people who run command posts and coordination centres. Participants set up command structures, run the incident action planning cycle, manage shared resources and test arrangements in multi-agency simulations, and leave with a Multi-Agency Incident Command and EOC Activation Playbook.
Course Objectives:
- Establish an Incident Command System structure for an incident of any scale, assigning command staff and general staff sections within workable spans of control
- Apply the ISO 22320 guidelines for incident management to define roles, tasks, resource management and joint direction with partner organisations
- Activate and staff an emergency operations centre that maintains a common operating picture and supports field command without taking over tactical control
- Lead incident action planning cycles that turn objectives into assignments for each operational period
- Coordinate resource requests, mutual aid, public warning and interagency communications across responding organisations
- Evaluate command arrangements through exercises and after-action reviews and convert findings into tracked improvements
Target Audience:
- Incident command staff who take charge of on-scene response for emergency services, utilities, industrial sites or municipal bodies
- Emergency operations centre managers and section staff responsible for coordination, planning and logistics support during activations
- Liaison and agency representative staff who speak for their organisation inside unified command or a coordination centre
- Emergency planning and resilience staff who write command, activation and mutual aid arrangements
- Public information and warning staff who issue alerts and coordinated messages during incidents
- Operations managers in hospitals, transport hubs and critical infrastructure who hand over to and work alongside external responders
Course Outline:
Day 1: Incident Management Foundations and Command Readiness
- Incident, Emergency and Crisis Levels: Where Command Sits in Each
- ISO 22320 Purpose, Scope and Incident Management Principles
- Command, Control and Coordination: Single-Organisation and Multi-Organisation Response
- Lessons From Multi-Agency Incident Inquiries: Recurring Command Failures
- Command Readiness Self-Assessment Using a Structured Checklist
Day 2: Incident Command System Structure and ISO 22320 Components
- Incident Commander, Safety Officer, Public Information Officer and Liaison Officer Roles
- Operations, Planning, Logistics and Finance/Administration Sections and the Intelligence Function
- Span of Control Rules and Modular Expansion of the Command Structure
- Unified Command: Shared Objectives, Single Plan and Agency Representatives
- ISO 22320 Process, Structure and Joint Direction Components Mapped to ICS Roles
Day 3: Emergency Operations Centre Activation and Incident Action Planning
- EOC Activation Triggers, Levels and Staffing Rosters
- EOC Layout, Status Boards and Information Flow to Field Command
- Situational Awareness Reports and Common Operating Picture Maintenance
- Planning P Cycle: Objectives Meeting, Tactics Meeting and Planning Meeting
- Incident Action Plan Build for a Defined Operational Period
Day 4: Resources, Warning and Interagency Communications Under Strain
- Resource Typing, Request Tracking and Check-In Procedures
- Mutual Aid Agreements and Cross-Organisation Resource Sharing
- Public Warning Messages and Joint Public Information Arrangements
- Interoperable Communications Plans, Radio Nets and Liaison Protocols
- Command Breakdowns: Freelancing, Duplicate Tasking and Information Overload Controls
Day 5: Multi-Agency Command Simulation and Activation Playbook
- Command Post Simulation: Chemical Release Affecting a Residential District
- EOC Activation Drill With Timed Situation Report and Resource Injects
- Discussion-Based and Functional Exercise Design for Command Arrangements
- After-Action Review Facilitation and Improvement Action Tracking
- Multi-Agency Incident Command and EOC Activation Playbook Build and Peer Review
Skills You Will Gain:
- Incident Command Structuring
- Unified Command Operation
- EOC Coordination
- Common Operating Picture Management
- Incident Action Planning
- Resource Typing and Tracking
- Interagency Liaison
- After-Action Review Facilitation
Why Attend This Course:
- Practise taking command and running a coordination centre under timed pressure in scenarios drawn from industrial, urban and public-event incidents
- Learn to fit your organisation's command arrangements alongside those of police, fire, health and utility partners without confusion over authority
- Compare activation and mutual aid practice with peers from emergency services, infrastructure operators and public bodies
- Take back a Multi-Agency Incident Command and EOC Activation Playbook ready for review by your organisation
Conclusion:
Multi-agency incidents are won or lost on command, control and coordination: who is in charge, what the shared objectives are, and whether resources and information reach the people who need them. The course moves from incident management principles and the ISO 22320 guidelines, through ICS structure and unified command, into EOC activation, incident action planning, resource management and interagency communication. The final day tests those arrangements in timed simulations and turns them into a Multi-Agency Incident Command and EOC Activation Playbook for each participant's organisation.