multi-agency interoperability, interoperability, blue light services, emergency services,
Unifying Communications for a Safer Response The Programme was funded jointly by the Department of Communities and Local Government, National Policing Improvement Agency, Cabinet Office and the Department of Health. The Public rightfully expect a quick and effective response from the emergency services and responder community. Experience of major incidents and large scale events have highlighted the requirement for responders to communicate more effectively. Common communications tools are available, including Airwave radio and data tools such as the National Resilience Extranet. Airwave is the common radio platform in use by the Police Service, Ambulance Trusts, Fire and Rescue Service and those responding within the Civil Contingencies Act, 2004. The exchange of critical voice and data information between emergency responders is essential to: For more information on the benefits of interoperability, please see Benefits and Efficiences page. "To enable the Emergency Services, with other Category 1 emergency responders, to deal as successfully and safely as possible with emergencies of all kinds, and related events with a potential for emergencies, by working together within a framework of unified response and communicating effectively with each other, and with others as required, to that end". This report, in turn, referred back to the Tri-Services agreement between ACPO, Chief Fire Officer's Association (CFOA) and the Ambulance Services Association (ASA), now Ambulance Chief Executive Group (ACEG), from 2002 which detailed the degree to which those agencies committed to communicate with each other and at what operational levels. It built upon the experiences from 9/11, 7/7, the Hungerford shootings in August 1987 and the Kings Cross fire in November of the same year. We can also derive lessons from the significant communications demands encountered during a string of other, more recent, incidents such as: At a lower level, the emergency services and the wider responder community work together on a day-to-day basis, but usually communicate face-to-face or via their control rooms. This still has its place as existing best practice, but can be enhanced by the use of these Airwave capabilities. During that process it became apparent that 53 Police Services had configured their systems in such a diverse way that their configuration was a barrier to interoperability and that there was no single reference piece to describe how to achieve single service interoperability (within and between police services). As a result of a report to ACPO Cabinet and, subsequently, Chief Constable's Council, an agreement was reached to support a single configuration standard and to commission (from the Interoperability Programme) a SOP guide. This latter document, SOP Guide on Police to Police & Inter-Agency Airwave Interoperability, published in Spring 2010, fits with the Multi-Agency piece. These guides, and later pieces, support the UK Interoperability Continuum which describes the incremental route that partnerships can take to achieving Interoperability on Airwave. This continuum has been promoted during the summer of 2010 through a series of regional workshops and implementation packages supplied to champions/change managers in all the English and Welsh Police, Fire and Ambulance Services. The packages sent to the Champions/Change Managers contained a Self Assessment Checklist, enabling organisations and their partners to assess themselves against a number of capabilities that the team had identified as being prerequisites for interoperability. Some agencies used this checklist to trigger an action plan with an explicit link to the gaps that they had identified. Also included in the package was a précis of the SOP guide, the Summary: Standard Operating Procedure Guide. During the Workshops various presentations were given: This latter piece led into a SOP Implementation Model which provided organisations with a structure to use while going through that process which, in turn, was linked to a Reporting Template to monitor update activity. The workshops highlighted that the individuals charged with implementing IVC within their local resilience forums had a number of additional requirements. They asked for a template for writing individual SOPs, in response to which the team produced Assistance for SOP Writers - Generic Plans and Assistance for SOP Writers - Specific Plans. To support these the National Multi-Agency Talkgroup Plan describes how Airwave Talkgroups are used, from business as usual, scaling up to National Mutual Aid, and assists operational planners to select the appropriate talkgroups to achieve their objectives. Further support is provided by an exemplar insert for operational plans, Specimen IVC plan. Trainers Guide: Local Resilince Forum (LRF) Airwave Interoperability Course Trainers Slides: Local Resilience Forum (LRF) Airwave Interoperability Course Other training pieces included control centre and command roles as well as input for the radio end users. The Programme created a package that identifies the objectives of exercising IVC, Exercise Objectives, the triggers to be written into such an exercise, and the ways in which success or failure may be measured, Exercise Planning. Contacts: Should you have any questions the following individuals will be able to assist you: Police Geoff Lowe - Geoff.Lowe@npia.pnn.police.uk Trevor Winterbottom - Trevor.Winterbottom@npia.pnn.police.uk Ambulance Chris Lucas - chris.lucas@nhs.net Joe Garcia - joe.garcia@nhs.net Fire Keith Donnelly - kdonnelly@fireresilience.org.uk Mike Webster - mwebster@fireresilience.org.uk Multi-Agency Airwave User Group (MAAUG) For the wider responder community MAAUG Secretariat - maaug@airwavesolutions.co.uk
The Programme is now closed but resources remain available for use by the responder community.
The Background to Interoperable Voice Communication (IVC) on Airwave
In autumn 2006, the Office for Government Commerce (OGC), reviewing the purchase of Airwave by the Fire, Police and Ambulance Services in the context of the findings of the report into 9/11 and the recent events of 7/7, suggested the need for a programme whose remit was:
What the programme has delivered
To answer the requirements highlighted by these issues and the OGC report, as well as the responsibilities imposed by the Civil Contingencies Act, in 2008, the Multi-Agency Interoperability Programme drew together subject matter experts (SME) from Police, Fire and Ambulance with the addition of the Responder Community in early 2010. With the support of, and sign off by, the three chief officer groups in 2009, it produced a Guidance on Multi-Agency Interoperability in strategic form and a more specific SOP Guide on Multi-Agency Airwave Interoperability in early 2010.
After the workshops, the team worked on learning needs analysis, training and exercising pieces to aid the development of consistent training and exercising. . This included a generic training guide aimed squarely at offering groups, such as LRF partnerships, a simple approach to training individuals whom they have identified as being key to achieving IVC.
NPIA Airwave Interoperability & Fleetmapping Manager
NPIA Airwave Fleetmapping & Interoperability Manager
Senior User Representative
Ambulance Radio Programme
Department of Health
Head of Technical Assurance
Ambulance Radio Programme
Department of Health
Fire Resilience Interoperability Manager
Fire Resilience Fleetmapping Manager
