Training programme for operational responders

December 2020

The challenge

A leading government organisation in Wales required a training programme to develop capabilities and confidence of officers who respond to environmental incidents. It needed to be suitable to provide foundation training to new entrants to the organisation and refresher training for existing staff, to help ensure a consistent incident response.

Key facts

• Bespoke, structured, modular-based training programme
• Targeted at officers who respond to environmental incidents
• Develops confidence, competency and consistency
• Designed, developed and piloted less than 8 weeks from commission
• 38 officers trained to date, with 52 officers currently completing the programme

The solution

RAB Consultants were awarded the Incident Management Foundation Programme in December 2018. We worked with subject matter experts to identify learning needs through a discussion and review of environment officer role profiles. Through this activity we targeted four capability areas to build the training programme around: Health, Safety and Wellbeing; Incident Management; Communication; and Information Management. This bespoke training was to be designed, developed and piloted in less than 8 weeks from commission, ready for the main roll-out from April 2019 onwards.

To accommodate for different ways and means of learning, we developed a structured, modular course that blends self-learning, classroom capability development training, experiential learning, demonstrations of operational capabilities and a simulated incident scenario. To maintain engagement, we also included four webinars, dispersed throughout the programme, to introduce the cohort, share good practice and provide continued tutor support. This structure takes a cohort of 12 delegates on a learning and development through awareness and understanding, to applying this in role play and practice, over a six month period.

Following the delivery of successful pilots, we delivered the course to five cohorts through 2019/2020 and are currently delivering the course to another 4 cohorts through 2020/2021.

Conclusion

This training programme provides officers with the foundation skills and experience to improve their duty role capabilities, confidence and consistency in their response. This helps to support the organisations corporate Incident Management Enabling Plan aim to ‘deliver an effective and consistent response to the likelihood and consequences of environmental incidents.’

This course is an example of a framework which can be adapted to other incident responders across the UK and overseas. Our experts can modify and create training and exercising courses to suit your organisation’s requirements, providing an innovative learning experience.