James Lamin

Incident Grading (P1)

Police

In the police service there are four main incident grading categories;

· Grade 1: Grade 1 is the ‘Emergency Response’. This response is where there might be a danger to life or there is a threat of or immediate use of violence. There also might be a serious injury to someone or damage to a building.

· Grade 2: Grade 2 is the ‘Priority Response’. This response is where someone reporting what has happened does not need an ‘emergency response but knows that it is of some importance. Examples of incidents where priority response can be used is when; there is a concern for a person’s welfare and in a road traffic collision that has serious/ fatal injuries.

Grade 3: Grade 3 is the ‘Scheduled Response’. This response is where it can be best to schedule meetings, this may be because it is not crucial that the police are there for the time being and it may also produce better actions by the police if pre-arranged response

· Grade 4: Grade 4 is resolution without deployment. This response is where an incident can be solved over the telephone. For example issuing someone with a speeding ticket or theft of property where there is no evidence

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Ambulance

The ambulance services also have categories for incidents which split into three sections:

· Category A: This category is considered to be the priority and refers to incidents that can be life threatening. For example a traffic collision, heart attack or a stroke.

· Category B: This category is where a incident is serious but not life threatening. A few examples of these could be a broken bone or a injury to the spine.

· Category C: This category is when an incident does not need the attention of the ambulance service. Examples of these are dislocation, minor cut or injury.

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Fire

The fire service also have grades, these grades are on what’s called the risk category. Any incident the fire service goes to will come under one of these categories.

· Risk Category A: Category A mainly refers to large cities, towns and shopping areas

· Risk Category B: This grade is mainly for multi-storey buildings or large residential areas.

· Risk Category C: Category C mainly refers to the suburbs of larger towns.

· Risk Category D: This category comes in use when the incident matches the requirements of the categories A to C.

· Remote and Rural: This has no pre-determined category and is completely different category

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Roles and Responsibilities (P2)

Any emergence service that arrives at the scene first must asses and provide information on the scene according to the:

· Casualties - how many casualties there are and what state they are in

Hazards - any dangers that may threaten to harm the services or casualties.

Access - are there any obstacles preventing the services from gaining access to the scene or preventing a person(s) rescue.

Location - identify quickest route to and from the scene of the emergency incident.

Emergency services - must provide information on which emergency services are required at the scene.

Type of incident - For each emergency they must use incident grading to assess the situation.

Starting a log – the services must record all the details of the incident.

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Police

The roles and responsibilities of the police are to:

· Keep the Queen’s peace

· Bring justice to those who break the law

· Help and protect the community

· Uphold the law

· Operating with integrity

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Ambulance

The roles and responsibilities of the ambulance service are to:

Save life.
Provide the medical treatment, stabilisation and care at the scene.
Provide support to those who involved with the patient.

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Fire

The roles and responsibilities of the fire service are to:

Prevention and control of a fire.
Protecting the lives of civilians.
Quarantine hazardous areas.
Preserving evidence at the scene of a fire, which had been set on purpose
Protect the local environment.

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Importance of Safely Responding to Emergency Incidents as an Emergency Response Driver (P3)

The response driver(s) have to respond safely to an incident, especially as they are usually driving over the speed limits on rural roads.

The response diver has to be quick to get to a scene, a few minutes maybe all that’s needed to save someone’s life. In order to get to the scene fast and safely the response drivers have to go on an advance driving test. This test is to see whether or not the response driver can handle the vehicle safely at high speeds.

When responding to an incident the response drivers still have speed limits although they are obviously higher than the ones we are allowed to travel at. This limit depends on the type of road and cannot exceed a certain percentage over the normal speed limit for that particular road. For example on a 30mph road a response drive can travel up to 60mph but is not allowed to exceed this limit.

These limits are there because the chances of hitting something are greatly increased as the response driver is exposed to the extra dangers that are presented on that type of road, for example a lamppost.

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Scene Preservation and the Service Provisions of Specialist Units at Emergency Incidents (P4)

When the Specialist Unit arrives at a crime scene they must record the time, date and weather conditions and the Specialist Unit that does this is the forensic scientists that take and test items at the scene and see whether they could be used as evidence that could lead to a conviction.

After which, the Specialist Unit must preserve the scene and secure the area. Once the area is secure, the Specialist Unit must evaluate the scene and take the necessary action to prevent it from being contaminated. Any person present at the time who may have witnessed what had happened should be removed from the area and have their details taken.

Immediate action must be taken to preserve evidence at the scene, which could be destroyed by the weather conditions. It is also very important to monitor and record any movement or if any of the items have been touched and those individuals must have their details taken.

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Statutory and Voluntary Agencies (P5)

Police, fire and ambulance service at an incident are examples of statutory agencies.

Voluntary agencies are agencies which at some incidents help the statutory agencies. An example of a voluntary agency is mountain rescue.

Some incidents will require both of the agencies. In these case the agencies will work together to control situations effectively and safely. For example if someone was injured on a mountain it will be down to the mountain rescue team to rescue that person. The mountain rescue team would communicate with the ambulance service and pick a place where the mountain rescue could hand over the injured person to the ambulance service. The injured person would then receive the medical attention they need. If the person needed medical attention straight away or it was really difficult for the ambulance service to get to him, they may have to use the air ambulance.

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Health and Safety Measures (P6)

The primary of legislation covering work related health and safety is the health and safety at work ect Act of 1974.

The first crew at the scene must make a mental risk assessment and note the safety of the scene. They must also make an assessment on whether any extra precautions are necessary.

Also the first crew on the scene should move any members of the public away.

An example of where extra precautions will take place is if there was a power cable that had broke and was now resting in a pool of water. The role of the first crew would be to cordon of the area until the power has been turned off and the area has been made safe to move.

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Explain the roles and responsibilities of the key services attending an emergency incident (M1)

The police fire and ambulance all have responsibilities when attending an incident, but if it is a major incident including all three of the services then they have two work together in order to get the job done in the most effective way. In order for that to happen they need some sort of structure/ chain of command so they know what they doing and when this avoids confusion and arguing. The chain of command is split into three parts; Gold command, Sliver command and Bronze command.

Gold command which is the highest form of command sets a strategy on how to proceed with the major incident

Sliver command is the second to highest form of command and it’s their job to implement gold’s strategy which is then passed on to bronze command

Bronze command consists of everybody else who has been called to scene who isn’t in gold or silver command. It is their job to put gold’s plan into action.

The police, ambulance and fire service common goals/objectives when attending a major incident. These include save life, protect the area, prevent escalation of incident, and trying to restore normality as quickly as possible without causing further damage or injury.

The Police

At a major incident the police will have to control the flow of traffic and block the sight of the incident from civilians.

Also at a major incident if the police at the first emergency service on the scene they would have to produce a log on all the information they have. These would be then, later made into a full report. The police would also have to inform the other services what has happen and what needs to be done.

In most cases any sort of major incident will become a crime scene especially if the is a fatality. If there is a fatality the police will have to conduct an investigation at the scene to gather as much information/evidence in order to get a conviction.

For example if there was a road traffic collision, and there were fatalities involved. The police would have to gather as much information and try and reconstruct what happen.. They can do this by asking witness’s (if there were any) or by looking at the markings on the road (tyre marks). They could also look inside the car for evidence, for example empty beer cans could mean the driver could have been drunk driving.

By doing this they can gather the evidence they need to figure out how the collision occurred. Once they have sufficient evidence they make a digital reconstruction of the event. This can be a Magistrate or Judge if the case went to court.

The Ambulance Service

On arrival to a major incident the Ambulance service’s priority is to save life of anyone involved in the incident.

They may also stabilise and provide treatment to the causalities at the scene. Unless the casualty is in a critical state and needs to be taken to hospital.

The ambulance service must also provide a log if they are the first crew to arrive at the scene.

The police must then preserve the scene and start investigating into what really happen and why or they will be gathering evidence in order to convict someone.

Going back to the collision scenario the Ambulance service’s priority is save the people who are still alive at the scene.

Fire service

The Fire service’s job at a major incident is extinguished any car fires or any fires at that scene. They must also detect and protect the scene from any hazards that could damage scene for later investigation.

The fire service must also provide a log so the situation can be dealt with effectively.

The scene must also have limited amount of personal compromising the scene because otherwise it would make the investigation a lot harder to solve.

Again going to the collision scenario, if the driver is unconscious but still alive and trapped in their car the Fire and Ambulance service would have to work together in order to get him safely and effectively

Scene Preservation (M2)

Scene preservation is extremely important when arriving at a scene of crime. The first officer on the scene must record all the details about the scene including time, date and weather conditions. If weather conditions are getting worse action must be taken to preserve the scene. The officer would also have to secure the scene and keep from the view of the public. They could do this by putting a tent over the scene this will also help to preserve it as well.

Nobody is allowed to be alone at the crime scene as they may contaminate or move evidence.

The smallest pieces of evidence can link anybody to a crime, for example a strand of hair. Sometimes the smallest piece of evidence could also be the most useful as they can see who’s been to the scene from hairs nails DNA ect.

The services have to take action to ensure they don’t contaminate any evidence. Which is why when at a scene they should wear; Gloves so they don’t leave any prints, masks and hoods so no hair or sweat can touch the scene, Covers for their shoes so they don’t leave any prints, long clothing on arms and legs and if necessary goggles may be worn if there are gases or liquids involved.

They can also make a reconstruction of the scene to help investigate the scene. This helps to interpret the scene of events leading up to the crime. Every time they get new evidence they can add it to the reconstruction and slowly piece together what actually happen.

Photographs need to be taken of the scene and are produced at the beginning of the investigation. This is extremely important piece of preserving the crime scene. This is so every knows where everything is and they can see if they have been moved.

Specialist units such as forensics will need to be carried out at the scene of crime. A normal police officer will not have been trained to perform tasks and preservation skills. The scene has to left to the specialists. The other responding services can cordon of there are and take appropriate actions if there are crowds. The police can stay at the scene to make sure no one tries to get passed the cordon area.

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Health and Safety (M3)

The Health and Safety Act 1997 is what is used by the Police and subsequent Police Health and Safety Regulations 1999, which is a review of the first act mention. These acts were made because of the Health and Safety at work Act 1974.

The first crew on the scene must move all pedestrians out of the area this is to reduce the amount of risk of someone else getting hurt. Also pedestrians could be blocking the way for other services to access the scene. It is then the job of the first crew on the scene to brief the other crews at the scene on what has happened. The emergency services must be careful at the scene so no harm comes to themselves or others.

It is also standard for all emergency drivers take a course to improve their driving and making sure they can drive at high speed safely. This is called the advanced driver course. This is to make sure that no other incidents happen due to drivers not being probably trained.

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