Defining Incident Management

Incident management is defined as those processes, decisions and actions taken to resolve an emergency incident, and support recovery that will enable the community to return to a ‘new normal’. In pursuing that outcome, Incident Controllers must also consider the management of impact and consequence to the community and environment.

In the Tasmanian context, the Incident Controller does not have a major role in dealing with wider community consequences, however, their management of an incident will have an impact on those issues.

In Tasmania, fire and emergency services and other agencies/organisations with emergency management support responsibilities have adopted an incident management system based on the Australasian Inter-service Incident Management System (AIIMS ).

Tasmania Police have adopted a very similar system of incident management in line with other police services around Australia: Incident Command Control System Plus (ICC+)

Some agencies within Tasmania have adopted the AIIMS systems as it’s  Incident Management Framework.

Incident Classification Model

Most agencies have developed standard operating procedures or arrangements that provide guidance for managing and resolving emergency situations they are likely to encounter. Responding to managing an emergency can be complex and challenging. Incidents are classified in three levels:

• Level 1 can be resolved through the use of local or initial response resources, using normal management procedures.
• Level 2 may be more complex either in size, resources or risk and are characterised by the need for:
  • Resources beyond initial response; or
  • Sectorisation of the incident; or
  • Establishment of functional services due to the levels of complexity; or
  • A combination of the above.
• Level 3 are characterised by degrees of complexity that may require the coordination of numerous activities across a number of services and an extended duration of time. Situation may require significant whole of Government coordination of response and recovery to manage the significant consequences that maybe faced by the broader community.

A reminder that if you have access to WebEOC it stores a Matrix that outlines Incident classification that you can use a resource.

The Australian Disaster Resilience Handbook Collection provides guidance on national principles and practices for disaster resilience. The Australian Emergency Management Arrangements (the Arrangements) are intended to guide Australian governments, non-government organisations, emergency management organisations, agencies, and communities in establishing their emergency management arrangements. They articulate the principles, structures and procedures that support national coordination of emergency management. See resource document below.