Incident and Emergency Response Guide · Sta˜ordshir ersity Incident Response and Emergency Guide December version The objectives of the University’s Incident and Emergency Response

1Incident Response and Emergency Guide - December 2018 version 1.0

Incident and Emergency Response Guide

2 3Staffordshire University Incident Response and Emergency Guide - December 2018 version 1.0

Contents

Introduction 3

Principles and Objectives 4

Definition of an Incident or Emergency 5

Incident and Emergency Response Structure 6Incident and Emergency Identification and Activation 8 Standard Operating Hours 8 Out of Hours 9Response Activation 10 Bronze Operational Response - Standard Operating Hours 10 Bronze Operational Response - Out of Hours 10 Silver/Gold Tactical/Strategic Response - Standard Operating Hours 11 Silver/Gold Tactical/Strategic Response - Out of Hours 12Incident Assessment Sheet 14Assessment of Incident Level Guide 16Incident Structures 17 Minor Incidents: Bronze Team 17 Moderate To Significant Incidents: Silver Team 18 Major Incidents: Gold Team 20

Introduction

This Incident and Emergency Response Guide supports Staffordshire University’s staff to lead and organise the response to a disruptive incident of any size, scale, nature or severity.

The document provides guidance and resources to manage an incident or emergency, as well as tools to assist the individuals involved in the response.

The Incident and Emergency Response Guide covers all the University’s sites including the Stoke Campus, Centre of Excellence at Blackheath Lane, Centre of Excellence at Royal Shrewsbury Hospitals, Stafford Business Village, Lichfield Campus, and Business Village and applies to all staff of the University.


The objectives of the University’s Incident and Emergency Response Guide:• To mitigate the impact of an incident or emergency.

• To provide guidance on the level of response required.

• To set out the process for the escalation or de-activation of an incident.

• To define the roles and responsibilities of key teams and individuals.

• To establish the University’s Incident Management Team at an appropriate level.

Principles and Objectives

Following principles govern the University’s Incident and Emergency Response Guide:• The Guide outlines operational and tactical responsibilities of key parties.

• The Guide details the operational processes the University will follow in the management of an incident or emergency.

• The Guide is deliberately brief to ensure speedy implementation at time of crisis.

• The Guide and associated procedures reflect, as far as is possible, normal management arrangements of the University in order to avoid confusion and uncertainty.

• The Guide is closely linked to existing relevant plans, including the University’s Risk Management Policy and approach to business continuity.

Definition of an Incident or Emergency

What is an incident?An incident is something that happens, which has the potential of a negative impact. Incidents could be:

• The loss of access to, or minor damage to University buildings

• Restrictions on movement in and around the University’s campuses

• Loss of utilities e.g. loss of power, telephones or IT failure

• Minor injury or illness occurring suddenly threatening the welfare of staff, students or visitors

Incidents can cause operational, financial or reputational issues for the University and must be managed swiftly.

What is an emergency?An emergency is a situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment. Emergencies could be:

• Death of student, member of staff or visitor to the University

• Suspicious or criminal circumstances taking place or having been discovered

• The need to evacuate a University building, eg. due to fire

• Contamination of areas of the University’s campuses or properties, or the surrounding areas by a hazardous substance or agent

• Significant disruption or damage to local roads and transport networks and/or other local infrastructure

• Significant illness or injury (or risk thereof) to students, staff, or visitors to the University

Early activation or escalation of response arrangements is preferable and desirable – if in doubt, activate and escalate.

Arrangements can be de-escalated quickly but escalation often takes time to implement and therefore, early action maximises the time available to arrange the response. It also achieves corporate oversight and support to any actions being taken at a lower level and it also represents a good opportunity to test arrangements.


Incident and Emergency response structure

It is vital that the University has a clear and simple method by which it can respond to incidents and their various levels of severity.

The University recognises four levels of incident, which reflect the severity of the incident. These are: Minor; Moderate, Significant and Major.

The structure adopted by the University to manage the response to incidents reflects that used by many organisations such as the Police. This three-phase structure of Bronze, Silver and Gold teams is outlined below with brief responsibilities and level of personnel involved.

Type of incident

Structure(s) activated

Key personnel Role

Major Gold team

Lead: Member of the Executive (initally the individual on call if out of hours)

Other members of the Executive Team as required together with other specific roles

Strategic oversight and leadership

Significant

Silver team

Lead: Member of the Executive (initally the individual on call if out of hours)

Members of the University SLT along with Service / expert staff as required

Tactical coordination of the response; direction of the operational response

ModerateTactical support to, and oversight of the operational response

Minor Bronze team

Lead: Member of the SLT with responsibility for area of incident or emergency

School/Service or technical expert staff as appropriate

Operational management of the incident

Procedural guidance

The University's Incident and Emergency Response Guide is supplemented by detailed procedural documentation and templates. These documents are designed to be used by the Bronze, Silver and Gold teams as working documents and will inform the actions taken in the immediate aftermath of and incident or emergency as it is being managed and then later as an evaluation exercise.

The documents contain a series of detailed information regarding the response to a range of specific incidents as well as generic checklists which will help ensure that necessary actions are undertaken in the event of an incident or emergency.


Incident and Emergency Identification and Activation

Executive to determine the level of incident and response required

Initial Incident Notification (Received by Campus Security, Digital/Estates

Helpdesk, Student Hub, Information point or through an individuals line manager

and escalate to SLT lead for area

SLT Member brief Executive to the facts of the situation

Complete Incident AssessmentSheet

Identify and Implement actions contained within

Incident Response Guide to manage

the incident

Incident Management Team (IMT) Lead

Identified

Standard Operating Hours

Incident and Emergency Identification and Activation

Out of Hours


Response Activation

The University operates a standard structure for incident and emergency response. At the forefront of these arrangements are the following:

• Campus Security: contacted internally through 3600 or 4444 extension number. Primarily used for building or security related incidents. email [email protected]

• Digital Services Helpdesk: staffed Monday to Friday during office hours and with call diversion to a third party (Norman) outside of these times. The helpdesk can be contacted via the 3800 extension number. email [email protected] this helpdesk is for IT-related issues. email [email protected]

• Student Hub, Stoke Campus: The Student Hub is located in the Science Centre. It is open from 8am-8pm Monday to Thursday, 8am-5pm Friday and 10:00am-1:00pm Saturday and Sunday. email: [email protected]. www.staffs.ac.uk/studenthub Tel: 01782 294715 (ext: 4715)

• Information Points: Stafford and Shrewsbury Centres of Excellence Information Points open between 8:45am - 5:00pm Monday to Thursday 8:45am - 4:30pm Friday. Stafford Tel: 01785 353766 Shrewsbury Tel: 01743 261136

• Student Union: Students’ Union, College Road, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 2DE 8am - 8pm weekdays. tel: 01782 294629

These services are most commonly used for an immediate response to an operational incident or emergency that can be managed within existing arrangements, together with the usual management infrastructure that exists within Schools and Services.

In the event an incident or emergency occurs and this needs escalating to the Duty Executive for a co-ordinated response

BRONZE - Operational Response - Standard Operating Hours

BRONZE - Operational Response - Out of Hours

It is the response to non-routine, slowly-developing incidents that will need to be managed by a Silver or Gold Incident Management Team, or those with complex impacts that may fall outside standard procedures, or require a more highly developed and structured response. In these instances, it is a priority for the organisation to be assured that:

• impacts of the incident are understood;

• resources of the University are coordinated in response;

• decision making is taken at an appropriate level of management;

• normal business is maintained alongside incident response;

• arrangements are suitable and sustainable for a long-term incident.

If a response is required and the Incident Management Team needs to be convened, the structure is likely to be similar to the diagram below. Dependant on the incident, not all roles will necessarily be required.

IMT Leader

Press and Internal Comms

Estates

Finance

Student Services

and Student Union

Digital Services

HR and OD Business Risk

Schools

Health andSafety

Legal

Secretariat

SILVER - Tactical/Strategic Response - Standard Operating Hours

GOLD - Tactical/Strategic Response - Standard Operating Hours


A comprehensive contact directory containing the contact details for all internal and key external individuals is available as follows:

• A complete contact list (Executive - Gold)

• A abridged contact list (SLT - Silver)

• The Duty Executive Contact Number and abridged list (Campus Security - Bronze Team)

If escalation is required, during standard operating hours, the Operational Response (Bronze) staff will use IRIS to inform colleagues to escalate the incident.

In the event of an out of hours incident the Duty Executive will be contacted. If the Duty Executive cannot be contacted, one of the other members of Executive will be contacted and assume the same responsibilities. If none of the Executive members can be contacted, the appropriate SLT individuals will be contacted on a primary, secondary, tertiary basis dependent on the type of incident.

SILVER - Technical/Strategic Response - Out of Hours

GOLD - Technical/Strategic Response - Out of Hours

The University’s Incident and Emergency Response Guide is supplemented by detailed procedural documentation and templates. These documents are designed to be used by the Bronze, Silver and Gold teams as working documents and will inform the actions taken in the immediate management of an incident, post event and then later on an evaluation exercise.

The documents contain a series of detailed information regarding the response to a range of specific incidents as well as generic checklists which will help ensure that necessary actions are undertaken in the event of an incident.

The following principles will guide this more complex response structure

Co- Locate Co-locate with others as soon as practicable at a single, safe, and suitable location

Communicate Communicate clearly

Co-ordinate Co-ordinate by agreeing lead person. Identify priorities, resources and capabilities for an effective response, including the timing of actions to be achieved

Jointly understand risk

Jointly understand risk by sharing information about the likelihood and potential impact of threats, hazards and options to agree potential control measures

Shared situation awareness

Shared situation awareness established by using common templates, storage ar-rangements, structures and decision making models


Incident Assessment SheetOn receiving notification of an incident: Note: The Assessment of Incident Level Guide should be used when assessing the incident initially. Some points may not be relevant to the specific situation.

Date: Time:

Reported by:

Synopsis of available information:

Understanding the level of severity:(To be read in conjunction with the Assessment of Incident Card)

Major Significant Moderate N/A

Level of financial loss:

Loss of critical services:

Loss of critical infrastructure:

Potential length of impact on services:

Disruption to partnership activities

Level of breach of legislation

Level of media coverage impacting upon reputation

Level of impact on staff welfare

Level of impact on student welfare

IMT Level initally assessed as: Gold Silver

Signed: Date:


The following provides a method to assess the level of the incident or emergency in order to inform the level of Incident Management Team to be established.

This is not prescriptive and judgement should be exercised, if in any doubt, escalate in order to inform the level of Incident Management Team to be established.

Definition of incident(s) by impact

Gol

d

Maj

or

o Major Financial Loss (loss of 1million) / Major impact on funding.o Loss of critical services over 2+ days with potential long-term change to

operational delivery required.o Major disruption to partnership activities.o Major breach of legislation leading to legal or punitive action.o Major disruption to, or loss of, critical infrastructure extending over 2+ days

with potential for long-term or permanent alternatives required.o Potential sustained adverse media coverage at various levels and/or major

social media activity.o Potential long term damage to reputation and loss of confidence in the

University.o Potential major impact to student/staff welfare

Sliv

er

Sign

ifica

nt

o Significant Financial Loss (loss of 500K to 1million) / significant impact on funding.

o Loss of critical or several support services lasting more than 1 day with disruption or remedial arrangements extending over a prolonged period.

o Significant disruption to partnership activities. o Significant breach of legislation leading to legal or punitive action.o Significant disruption to infrastructure extending over 1+ day with substantial

or long-term adjustment required to recover functionality.o Potential adverse regional or national media coverage and/or significant

social media activity.o Potential significant impact to students/staff welfare.

Mod

erat

e

o Moderate Financial Loss (loss of 100K to 500K) moderate impact on funding. o Moderate service impact lasting 4-8 hours with minor adjustments required

to return to normality.o Moderate disruption to partnerships activities o Minor breach of legislation leading to legal or punitive action.o Moderate disruption to infrastructure lasting up to 1 day with minor long-

term adjustment implemented to return to normality.o Potential adverse local media coverage and/or low key social media

attention with limited or short-term damage to reputation.o Potential minor impact to student/staff welfare

Bron

ze

Min

or

o Minor financial loss (loss of up to 100K) limited or no impact on funding.o Temporary or minor disruption to non-critical services for up to ½ day with no

long term impacts.o Minor disruption to partnerships activities or minor breach of legislation

leading to legal or punitive action.o Minor disruption to non-critical infrastructure for up to ½ day with no long-

term impacts or further action required.o Potential adverse, short-term social media traffic limited to event with no

wider coverage or long term damage to reputation.

Assessment of Incident Level Guide Incident Structures

MINOR INCIDENTS: Bronze TeamThese teams will normally be led and co-ordinated by the Functional Lead (the most senior person within that particular area) and will consist of first responders to an incident.

Responsibilities:• Initial assessment of the scale, duration and impact of the incident using the Assessment of

Incident Level Guide to complete the Incident Assessment Sheet

• Initial liaison with emergency services if appropriate

• Evacuation of buildings if appropriate

• Cordon control if appropriate

• Escalation to the Director/Dean and relevant Executive (standard operating hours) and Duty Executive (out of hours) as appropriate

• Maintaining records and logs of the incident

Leadership:The Team Leader or nominated deputy will lead and co-ordinate the Bronze Team. The Bronze Team leader is responsible for liaison with the Silver Team or Gold Team if it has been invoked.

Membership: The Bronze Team is the team ‘on the ground’ at the time of the incident and is likely to be made up of staff from one or more teams including Estates and Commercial Services, Digital Services, Student and Academic Services, Marketing and Communications, Students Union, Health Safety and Wellbeing, Business Risk and the appropriate representatives of the function affected.

Escalation:The Bronze Team must determine whether the incident requires escalation and should use the Assessment of Incident Level Guide to trigger an escalation of the incident response structure. If in doubt they should notify their manager, who will liaise as appropriate with the Director/Dean and/or relevant Executive (standard operating hours) and Duty Executive (out of hours)

The Bronze Team should not assume that the incident will have only a local impact and should always call on the available expertise and support of the University where required e.g. to provide specialist advice, support; and/or provide additional staff and other resources.


MODERATE TO SIGNIFICANT INCIDENTS: Silver TeamThe Silver Team will usually receive notification of an incident either: 1) via the Gold Team where a known incident is being de-escalated 2) by the relevant Executive member where a incident has been identified during standard operating hours 3) by the Duty Executive where an incident has been identified during out of hours.

Responsibilities :• Recording initial information on the Incident Assessment Sheet using the Assessment

of Incident Level Guide

• The initial and ongoing assessment of the scale, duration and impact of an incident using the Assessment of Incident Level Guide and Incident Assessment Sheet

• Establishing the University’s operational priorities in responding to the incident

• Identifying appropriate staff and expertise to support the response

• Establishing a Silver Team structure with appropriate administration, record keeping and resources to sustain itself over the duration of the incident

• The allocation of resources and tasks

• Managing and providing support for the Incident Bronze Team (if invoked)

• Coordinating communications, including media statements

• The establishment of an Incident Call Centre (if required)

• Liaison with external agencies

• Activation of, and liaison with the Gold Team as appropriate

• Initiation of Business Continuity Planning (and co-ordination/oversight via a sub-group as necessary).

• ‘Close down’ after the incident

Leadership:It is likely that the Silver Team will be activated and led either by the lead member of Executive for that function area during standard operating hours or by the Duty Executive (out of hours) or the most relevant and senior officer of the lead service area. On initial activation, they will need to identify the appropriate level of response, as well as a suitable (available) manager to provide future leadership.

Membership:Membership of the Silver team will need to be established in response to the type, scale, duration and impact of the incident. Membership is likely to be drawn from:

• Student and Academic Services • Digital Services• Marketing and Communications• Health Safety and Wellbeing • Business Risk • Schools (or relevant Schools)• Financial Services • Estates and Commercial Services• HR & OD• Legal Services• Students Union• PA Support to provide Secretariat Services to the Team

Further members to join as required – please note this list is not intended to be exhaustive.

Escalation:The Silver Team must determine whether the incident requires escalation to the Gold Team as the incident develops and should use the Assessment of Incident Level Guide to trigger an escalation of the incident response structure.

In doing this, the Silver Team should not assume that the incident will have only a local impact and should always call on the available expertise and support of the University's resources to provide specialist advice, administrative support, and/or to provide additional staff and other resources to the response.


MAJOR INCIDENTS: Gold TeamThe Gold Team will be established in order to provide strategic leadership and oversight to an incident or emergency that is assessed as having a potential major impact.

The Executive, being a strategic leader of the University, will act as the Gold-level representative of the University in the first instance. In this capacity the Duty Executive will be required to determine the level of an incident and assemble the appropriate Gold and Silver Team if the event occurs out of hours. During normal working hours the relevant member of the Executive based on portfolio will lead the response to the incident and coordinate the Gold Team.

When established, the Gold Team will take-over from the Duty Executive in order lead and manage the incident or emergency.

Responsibilities:The Gold Team will be established when an incident has far-reaching consequences for the organisation. In these circumstances, the incident will require:

• The attention of, and communication from, the most senior representatives of the University

• Members may be required to act as senior spokespersons for the University

• Recording initial information on the Incident Assessment Sheet using the Assessment of Incident Level Guide

• The initial and ongoing assessment of the scale, duration and impact of an incident using the Assessment of Incident Level Guide and Incident Assessment Sheet

• Establishing the University’s operational priorities in responding to the incident

• Identifying appropriate staff and expertise to support the response

• Establishing a Gold Team structure with appropriate administration, record keeping and resources to sustain itself over the duration of the incident

• The allocation of resources and tasks

• Managing and providing support for the Incident Bronze Team (if invoked)

• Coordinating communications, including media statements

• The establishment of an Incident Call Centre (if required)

• Liaison with external agencies

• Activation of, and liaison with the other teams as appropriate

• Initiation of Business Continuity Planning (and co-ordination/oversight via a sub-group as necessary).

• ‘Close down’ after the incident

Membership: The Gold Team will be made up of the following (or deputies):

• The Vice-Chancellor • The Deputy Vice-Chancellor • The Pro Vice-Chancellor - Student Experience • The Pro Vice-Chancellor - Partnerships and Region • ChiefOperatingOfficer• ChiefFinanceOfficer• Director of Marketing and PR• Business Risk Manager • Head of Health Safety and Wellbeing • Schools • Legal Services • Student Services

Further members to join as required - the list is not intended to be exhaustive.


100326

Staffordshire UniversityCollege RoadUniversity QuarterStoke-on-TrentST4 2DE

www.staffs.ac.uk

Documents

Incident and Emergency Response Guide · Sta˜ordshir ersity Incident Response and Emergency Guide December version The objectives of the University’s Incident and Emergency Response