Training exercises
This page is dedicated to the recent history of exercises run within Bedfordshire.
2006
2005
2004
2003
Network Rail Exercise Sodor ran on 8 November 2006 . This table top exercise ran over the course of one day with wide involvement from Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Rail agencies. Nearly 100 people participated in the exercise which tested the emergency response to a high-speed collision of two trains on the Bedfordshire/Buckinghamshire border. Casualties and environmental pollution resulted.
Participants of Exercise Sodor widely agreed that the practice of multi-agency working was very beneficial. Many people agreed that it was good to learn about how other agencies work and how best to work together. The exercise also highlighted the need for local authorities to work with train operating companies to set clear lines of communication and establish roles in the set-up of Emergency Reception Centres. Since November we have done some training for Train Operating Companies on the role of Local Authorities in an emergency. Representatives from the Local Authorities in the area also met with several train companies to discuss the overlap of responsibilities.
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Exercise Wilson was a Health-led operational exercise held on 10 October 2006 at Redborne Upper School, Ampthill. It was the first exercise in the UK designed to test established mass vaccination targets set by central government.
Targets of 60 immunisations per hour were achieved in the exercise, making it a success. Valuable lessons were learned, however. Outcomes for review included developing the floor plan of a mass vaccination centre to ease traffic/congestion, ensure fairness of service, ease tensions amongst family groups. Media co-operation was an important issue, as was the distribution of informational leaflets to keep visitors informed of the process. A larger-scale exercise will be planned in the distant future which will hopefully address transportation issues on an operational level.
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Health-led Exercise Howard took place on 20 July 2006 at HM Prison Bedford. This table top exercise aimed to test the emergency plans and procedures of HM Prison Bedford using a flu pandemic scenario. Players assessed the likely impact of an ongoing incident on prison functions. The exercise helped forge stronger links between the prison service and the member organisations of the Bedfordshire and Luton Local Resilience Forum (BLLRF), particularly the health service.
The exercise was very successful in introducing HM Prison Bedford to the work of the Bedfordshire and Luton Local Resilience Forum and their co-ordinated, supportive emergency response. It highlighted the need for increased partnership between these organisations. Bedfordshire PCT have begun to raise awareness and training needs to health care workers within the Primary Care Trust. In addition they have been raising awareness within the prison of the role of Bedfordshire & Luton Local Resilience Forum and highlighted the importance of service continuity plans.
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Exercise Boot Up is a series of ongoing internal Bedfordshire County Council-run exercises to test our emergency IT and communications capabilities.
Tom Bennett leads the exercise, which features surprise phone calls to the IT department stating that an emergency had occurred and a communications operations centre is required. The exercise has two aims. Firstly, to streamline and improve our emergency communications operations, and secondly, to provide training for our IT staff, thereby ensuring appropriate knowledge, confidence and efficiency in their roles and responsibilities during an emergency situation.
The exercise has outlined areas where we can increase efficiency which will be beneficial during a real incident. It has also indicated what practical expectations should be for our emergency contacts functions. Improvements in our strategy are already being seen. During the last test in July, set-up targets were missed by a mere 5 minutes!
To date, the exercise occurred on
26 May 2006
3 July 2006
11 September 2006
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8th March 2006 Exercise Dodo was held to provide a learning platform for BLLRF with regards to some issues which may be faced before and during a Pandemic Flu outbreak.
The exercise was split into two parts…
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The morning session looked at a Pandemic outbreak where vaccinations are not yet available and there are not enough antivirals for local workers within Bedfordshire and Luton. This part of the exercise encouraged organisations to look at the types of problems that may occur when key staff are not available.
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The afternoon session considered the Local Resilience Forum response within Bedfordshire and Luton approximately 6 months on from the end of the first wave of Pandemic Flu. This part of the exercise looked at how BLLRF will manage the response to the setting up of mass vaccination centres.
Bedfordshire County Council set up its Emergency Management Team, which comprised of key people from all of the main service areas. Problems and issues were fed into this group for actions and decisions to be made, including public information, school closures, protection of the vulnerable, provision of critical services and loss of key staff.
The objectives for the exercise were:
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Understand the need for flexible response plans to an unpredictable event.
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To identify treatment and care that may be required for the population of Bedfordshire and Luton during an Influenza Pandemic.
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Limit morbidity and mortality due to infection transfer and minimise the spread of the virus.
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Recognise the potential of an influenza virus with pandemic potential on every business/agency.
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Understand the need for multi-agency involvement during an Influenza Pandemic.
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To understand the need for joint messages and the importance of accurate and timely information provision during such an event.
The exercise identified some key issues to be taken forward and supported some of the decisions that have already been agreed. The positive outcomes of the day included:
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Identifying where Business Continuity Plans are required
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Ways to better utilise the media
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The topic: the exercise raised awareness of the seriousness of flu pandemic and how this would affect the council
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Decision making process
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Longer Term Issues
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Discussions of priorities: issues and solutions
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The need for service areas to have BCM (Business Continuity Management)
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The need to have a greater knowledge of service provision
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What Local Authorities can contribute
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The ability to identify questions and tasks to be addressed and carried out in advance
An exercise report has been produced, both for the County Council and from a BLLRF multi-agency perspective.
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A health-only evacuation exercise, Exercise TRISTAN was held on 22 Nov 2005 by the Primary Care Trusts and Bedfordshire and Luton Partnership Trust. Exercise TRISTAN was based on a scenario of dealing with issues raised following the evacuation of a community – for exercise purposes, Tristan da Cunha . Staff from Bedfordshire County Council and Luton Borough Council's emergency planning departments took part in the exercise.
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As a follow-on from previous seminars and workshops on Emergency Rest Centres (ERC) 
and at the request of the voluntary agencies, the BLLRF Support Group agreed to a full Emergency Reception Centre exercise to take place on Sat 19 Nov 2005 to test and validate the ERC Plan and the response of all participating agencies.
The exercise objectives included:
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The timely formation and briefing of a multi-agency rest centre team.
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The identification of and effective provision for, the needs of evacuees.
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The use of all multi-agency resources to fulfil the needs of the rest centre.
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Effective communications between teams within the rest centre.
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Effective ongoing communication with the evacuees.
A scenario was based around the need to evacuate a residential area due an acetylene cylinder being threatened by fire was used to generate exercise play.
A number of injects were used during exercise play. These were fed into the rest centre from a single source, via the Duty Emergency Planning Officer. Other injects were also fed in via evacuees who were given specific problems and issues that needed addressing, including:
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Health issues
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Communications Issues
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Documentation Issues
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Dietary Requirements
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Lone Children and Pets
The exercise took place at Stratton Upper School in Biggleswade and consisted of a workshop based on a practical slow time "set up" for the Reception Centre Managers in the morning, for about 2 hours, and then a full scale live exercise on completion of the Reception Centre Managers training with about 100 volunteers in total, including staff and evacuees, needing processing during the exercise.
The exercise, in the main, validated the plan. Many good points came out of the exercise but it did highlight a number of outcomes for review which are being pursued. The exercise was well received by participants and thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.
Positive outcomes
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Throughout the exercise the voluntary agencies acted professionally and with great respect for the evacuees.
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All of the issues raised by the injects were dealt with sufficiently.
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In the afternoon of the exercise the ERC Management was much more structured and organised.
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Once in place the team leaders formed an extremely effective 'middle management' layer within the ERC dealing with a range of issues.
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First Aid, refreshment and food provision was good.
Exercise safe haven was successful in
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Highlighting areas for future development of ERC planning in Bedfordshire and Luton.
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Highlighted weaknesses and areas for improvement in exercising, training and documentation.
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Demonstrating the ability of the various agencies to respond effectively at an ERC.
Giving a wide range of volunteers and staff the opportunity to experience an ERC environment either from a responder or evacuee perspective.
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Exercise ICARUS 2005 was a two part exercise. The first part, testing the Luton Airport On-Site Plan, was led by Luton Airport and took place on Tueday 18 October 2005. This was an operational play exercise. The second part of Exercise ICARUS 2005 was led by Bedfordshire County Council. It tested the Off-Site response and took the form of a Table Top exercise held on Friday 11 November 2005 at the Bedfordshire & Luton Fire and Rescue Service HQ Training Facility.
The basic scenario consisted of a large passenger aircraft running off the northeast end of the runway and off the airfield. For exercise, the county boundaries were moved to facilitate play being limited to Bedfordshire responders only. The areas of play were a Strategic (Gold) Group, Tactical (Silver) Group and Operational (Bronze) Group.
The off-site segment of Exercise ICARUS was used to demonstrate the EMERGO Management System for running table top and other exercises.
The conclusion reached from the exercise was to combine parts of the Airport Plan with the Combined Response Document (CRD) . After discussion it was decided to take relevant parts of the existing crash plan into the CRD and develop the rest of the information into a Memorandum of Understanding/Standard Operating Procedure for aircraft incidents, subject to the approval of the BLLRF Sub-Group.
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Exercise FULL SPATE 2004 was held on Friday 17 and Saturday 18 June 2005 . The exercise took the form of a Command Post exercise on Friday, the Incident day, and a structured workshop on the Recovery day on Saturday.
The aim of this exercise's Incident Day was to validate the Bedfordshire and Luton Flood Plan through a Command Post type exercise, in accordance with the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. The aim of the Recovery Day was to develop a BLLRF Recovery Framework Document and to identify key short, medium and long term Recovery issues.
Main objectives
1. To confirm responders are familiar with the plan.
2. To identify any issues with the plan that could hinder the response.
3. To test the communications channels in the plan are sufficient.
4. To ensure that each responding agency is comfortable with their own and others responsibilities.
5. To review and revise where necessary the Beds and Luton Flood Response Plan
The following scenario given for the exercise was delivered in a pre-brief document prior to the exercise and is reproduced below:
"The time of year is mid-summer. Rain has been falling steadily since Sunday. Due to prolonged rain storms, the land has become saturated (Soil Moisture Deficit SMD 0mm). The temperature is 15-18 °C. The current storm is moving from the West travelling slowly in a North Easterly direction.
The Environment Agency (EA) have issued Flood Watches and Flood Warnings for various places throughout the county. Please note the exercise will be played as if it is Wednesday 15th June 2005and will be run 4 times the normal speed. On Wednesday morning shortly before 06.00 the rain fall becomes more intense. As the morning progresses the rainfall increases and the EA issues a Flood Warning Update at 07.00, recommending the SCG is convened.
It has been decided to convene the SCG at Police HQ at 08.30. The Local Authorities decide to set up an Emergency Operation Centres at SBDC, Dunstable at 08.00 and County Hall, Bedford at 08.20.
The EA will issue subsequent Flood Warnings and Severe Flood Warnings throughout the day."
Exercise play on the Incident Day took place at Police HQ, Kempston, County Hall, the Environment Agency Ops Room at Brampton, Highways Agency Incident Room in Northampton and South Beds District Council offices in Dunstable. The Recovery Day venue was County Hall.
Key outcomes
At the conclusion of play, the following outcomes were agreed:
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The flood plan will be validated pending minor amendments
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Familiarisation of roles training is needed for acting staff
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The plan will be more focussed on particular roles and will be compatible with requirements of the Civil Contingencies Act (2004).
The flood plan should ensure clear SCG protocol and pre-planned structure of operations.
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This Table Top Exercise took place at the Holiday Inn, Sandy on 26 January 2005 to validate the site specific Sandy Petroleum Storage Depot (PSD) Off-Site Plan for the Control of the Major Accident Hazards (COMAH) to comply with the COMAH Regulations (1999) .
The County Council has a statutory duty to work with the Oil and Pipelines Agency, UNIPEN, the site operating contractor, the Environment Agency, the Primary Care Trust and the emergency services to develop and prepare the Off-Site Emergency Plan specific to top-tier COMAH sites. Bedfordshire has only one such top-tier site (i.e. sites that store 25,000 tonnes or more of hazardous material.)
The event was organised by Bedfordshire County Council and UNIPEN. All potential responding agencies were invited to provide their own aims and objectives for the exercise with the over-riding aim of validating the plan. The objectives were drawn together and scenario injects devised to satisfy these objectives. In all there were upwards of 70 injects to the exercise.
Following an introductory session, the exercise was initiated by a pre-recorded emergency '999' message from Unipen Staff to the Fire and Rescue Service (FRS). Copies of the Off-Site plans were available in each of the exercise rooms for reference but all players were requested to read the Off-Site Plan prior to the exercise. The injects to the scenario followed a real-time event for the first two hours of a real response mainly based on the question 'What would you do now?'
Other issues were explored such as where to have marshalling areas, rendezvous points, communications channels and who should be involved at Silver Command, amongst others.
The exercise play ended after about two hours. Notionally the fire had been extinguished, victims had been taken away and the situation brought under control. The day was rounded off with a mock press conference and a hot debrief. The panel consisted of the CEPO, FRS spokesman, Silver chair from the Police, Unipen Spokesman and a spokesman from the HPA.
The exercise was well received by all 50 participants. The observers and directing staff commented on the fairly smooth running of the exercise. The exercise not only validated the plan but gave all involved a valuable insight into the mechanisms and procedures of a major incident response.
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This exercise was held on 20 January 2005 at the Cambridge Belfry with the aim of exploring cross border issues relating to County and Regional Plans for the mass evacuation of London. This was the first time that a Region had organised an exercise on this topic. The exercise was in the form of a workshop and posed a number questions or issues during the following main sessions:
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Primary Roles and Responsibilities
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Evacuees coming in by road.
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Evacuees coming in by train.
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Handling evacuees
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Repatriation
There were the six County tables (Bedfordshire, Cambridge, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, Suffolk), a Regional Table (GO-EAST, GO SE, GO EM, MoD & Health) and a National Syndicate Table (MoD, ODPM, Civil Contingencies Secretariat, London Resilience, Association of Train Operators) represented at the Workshop.
Each "County Table " consisted of 10 – 12 players from a cross section of the Counties' organisations, including the police, ambulance, local authorities and the health economy drawn from the emergency planning fraternity.
Among the many issues raised that have been considered are:
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The instigation of a public information strategy
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Clarification is required on requesting the use of Special Powers
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Media and communication of information to evacuees.
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Co-ordination issues between counties and with London.
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Road Traffic flow, coordination and management.
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Identify where cross border and regional issues require further development / resolution.
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Establish communication flows with the Rail companies
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Clarify the legal status of misplaced persons in the medium to long term
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Study the implications for the framework if caused by a CBRN incident
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Produce a recovery plan
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On 23rd January 2004, the Health Protection Agency (HPA) held a one-day table top exercise (East Wind) involving the Health Service and other partner agencies in Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. The main objectives of the exercise were to provide a learning opportunity and explore planning issues with respect to a multi-agency response to a no-notice terrorist attack involving a "dirty bomb".
Other objectives include:
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To exercise inter-agency working, the strategic decision-making process and the Health Sector response.
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To identify how operationally handled when 2 counties are involved.
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To exercise arrangements for JHAC.
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To exercise issues with regard to mass decontamination.
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To clarify health and safety issues for front line response teams.
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To explore health infrastructure arrangements for dealing with self-referrals, and whether there would be security issues.
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To exercise arrangements to deal with secondary contamination i.e. on patients and ambulances.
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Explore issues on the availability of equipment for detection and decontamination.
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To exercise links between those responsible for media and public communication.
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To explore potential scope of food bans and explore recovery issues.
The scenario was based around a vehicle moving on the M1 close to Luton, heading to London . The vehicle, a small van, was being used by terrorists to produce a crude dirty bomb. Early intelligence identified the vehicle and the possibility of it carrying radioactive materials.
Due to an accident on the M1 resulting in its closure, the vehicle was diverted off the M1 at junction 11 and continued along the A5 to rejoin the motorway at junction 9. As the van passed through the village of Markyate, 4 miles south east of Luton , the vehicle stopped suddenly. The driver was seen running from the vehicle before it exploded.
A small quantity of explosive was detonated which results in some radioactive material being released into the atmosphere. The plume drifts over the northern section of Markyate and over the area of South Beds. The remaining source is deposited around the accident site in 5 main fragments.
The emergency services are already nearby, given the accident resulting in the M1 closure just south of Luton .
The exercise was well received and proved a useful and informative experience. It enabled a greater appreciation of the roles of other organisations and, as such, emphasised the benefits of a multi-agency exercise. The majority of exercise objectives were achieved.
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Just a few years into the new millennium the risks and perceived disasters have changed from natural and transportation linked, to world-wide threats of terrorism. These new risks include Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear events (CBRN).
On the 16th and 19th December 2003, two half-day Table Top Exercises were held with Bedfordshire's three Primary Care Trusts (PCT's). The aim of these exercises was to evaluate and develop the abilities of the Bedfordshire Health community in dealing with a mass immunisation scenario. Exercise Sospiri focused on how to deal with immunising people within the county, not on responding to a terrorist incident.
The scenario
A 40 year old man was taken to hospital by ambulance and was admitted to a side-room in intensive care as his condition deteriorated. He was accompanied by his wife and teenage daughter who he lives with. His wife said that he had a five day history of what sounds like influenza.
However, his condition deteriorated at his home and he has developed a severe rash on his extremities. He now has a high fever and prostration. The rash was unlike that of meningitis.
The man was a local businessman who returned via Heathrow from a two-day conference in New York 10 days previously. All his family remained well, at this time.
The patient was then seen by the local infectious diseases physician and tests revealed that he was suffering from smallpox.
With co-ordination from the Health Protection Agency (HPA) and assistance from the Local Authorities, mass immunisation centres were established in designated locations throughout the region.
The issues and tasks that had to be considered in such an event included:
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Initial actions
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Venues
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Advice
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Staffing
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The role of GPs
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Registration
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Timings
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Immunisation problems/triage
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Priority Groups
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Transportation
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Post Treatment
The sessions highlighted the arrangements and resources we already have in place to respond to such an incident and the main issues we would need to further consider.
Exercises like this will help to formulate the emergency response to any incident within the county.
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Bedfordshire County Council was invited to Rover (a Network Rail Exercise) at Bedford to 'play' in a table top exercise to discuss emergency roles and responsibilities in the event of a rail crash incident. Other participating organisations were Luton Borough Council, Bedfordshire & Luton Fire Service, Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Ambulance and Paramedic Service, Bedfordshire Police, British Transport Police, Bedfordshire Primary Care Trusts, Coroner, Voluntary Agencies, Network Rail and Thameslink.
The scenario
On Thursday 6 November 2003 , a British Aerospace 146 crashed onto the rail infrastructure south of Flitwick Station. The aircraft crashed and immediately after a Thameslink train collided with the wreckage. The aim of the exercise was to examine how to progress from the initial confusion of the accident.
The main objectives of the exercise included:
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Improving the awareness of the Roles, Responsibilities and Capabilities of all organisations and responses during an emergency situation.
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Testing the compatibility and effectiveness of all participating organisations' emergency plans.
The exercise highlighted the benefits of holding multi-agency exercises because occasionally new groups do emerge who have similar resources and goals as other agencies. As the exercise progressed, it became apparent that a group called the Incident Care Team (ICT) from Thameslink saw themselves as having similar roles and responsibilities as Bedfordshire County Council and Luton Borough Council with regards to caring for survivors, victims, and evacuees.
As a result, Bedfordshire County met with the Incident Care Team to investigate in more detail their background, roles and capabilities.
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This exercise was designed in 2002 to test the arrangements for an emergency at London Luton Airport , and the responders.
The scenario
On Sunday 19 October 2003, Condor Airlines Boeing 767, flight CA123, crash landed at Luton Airport without any prior warning of a problem. The flight en route from Rome , it was confirmed later, had 73 people on board. As the aircraft attempted to land on runway 26, it careered off to the northern side and came to rest on an area of hard standing.
Air traffic control alerted the Airport Fire Service. Other emergency services were confronted with the aircraft, mainly intact, but with burning wreckage surrounding and within the aircraft, which was compromising the safety of the passengers inside.
As the fire and ambulance personnel arrived, the area around the aircraft became a sea of luminous jackets, fire hoses, and vehicles. On board the aircraft, it was smoky, dark, confusing and noisy from all the screaming and crying passengers.
Fire and rescue personnel rushed on board, calming people down and escorting them to safety and medical treatment. While some passengers were taken straight to hospital, others went to the 'Survivor Reception Centre' where they could receive further support, food, drink, advice and eventually be reunited with their loved ones.
Officers from the emergency services, airport personnel, handling agents, flight operators and many more, ensured that the incident was brought under control, the airport was safe, and that those involved received all the care that they required.
This event involved approximately 300 personnel.
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