National Recovery Guidance - Generic Issues- Recovery evaluation and lessons identified processes
Background and Context
After an emergency, it is very important that thorough debriefs and reports are carried out to capture issues identified, recommendations to be implemented, and planning assumptions to be reviewed. However, the processes required in order to share the issues identified are not always clear. Many responders look to the agencies affected by an emergency to provide them with information so they too can be prepared for a similar event.
The recovery phase of an emergency has additional complications in that the time line is longer and it potentially involves more stakeholders than the response phase. Typically, it has peaks of activity, such as around the time of an anniversary, as well as routine ongoing work to address the physical and psychological effects of the emergency.
For most emergencies, it is appropriate to carry out a number of debriefs at different stages in the recovery, when certain “recovery milestones” are achieved or a certain period of time has elapsed. It may be a number of months since the emergency until the first recovery debrief can take place, but there should be a continual process for debriefs throughout the recovery phase.
In widespread emergencies, involving the regional or national tier, debriefing at local level may feed into a regional or national level document. In these cases, the process and format may be steered by the regional or national tier in order to produce a consistent and comprehensive debrief.
As debriefing moves from response to recovery, it is increasingly important that the community (including businesses) is involved at all stages. Elected members can play a key role in this, chairing public debrief meetings and business debrief meetings. They can also be useful for door-knocking rounds, bringing back issues that the community has identified, and providing a trusted point of contact for those with concerns.
The contents of debrief documents may be used as evidence in Public inquiries (see Inquiries topic sheet for more information).
Policy and Guidance
England
General
Both the statutory guidance Emergency Preparedness and the non-statuary guidance Emergency Response and Recovery refer to the need for debriefing following an emergency.
Emergency Preparedness provides a section on debrief and evaluation and lessons learned from exercises [paragraphs 5.162 to 5.168], with Emergency Response and Recovery providing similar information on debriefing, inquiries and lessons to be learned from incidents [paragraphs 4.108 to 4.111]. These refer to the need to keep comprehensive records detailing the events, decisions, reasoning behind the decisions, and the actions taken. As well as providing evidence for any formal inquiry, such records are invaluable when debriefing an exercise or emergency.
All debriefs should be effectively chaired, preferably by someone who has not been involved in the emergency or exercise. A secretary should also be appointed to ensure a record of the discussion is produced.
Additional guidance is found in the Home Office publication The Exercise Planners Guide.
Recovery debriefs
There is currently no specific guidance on how to carry out recovery debriefs, but learning from those carried out following recent incidents shows that the following key points may be useful:
- Where a Recovery Co-ordinating Group is established to lead the recovery from an emergency, it would be sensible to hold a debrief session before the disbandment of the group (or any of its sub-groups). It is suggested that internal debriefs within an organisation are held first, with these thoughts then being brought together in a multi-agency debrief.
- A strategy for obtaining views from the community (residents, businesses, etc) should be developed and agreed with Elected Members and the Local Resilience Forum. Such a strategy might include the use of:
- Questionnaires
- Focus groups
- Websites
- Existing networks (eg. business networks, parish councils, community groups, etc)
Obtaining views from the community is likely to require an extended debriefing programme (in terms of the time needed to issue questionnaires, collate responses, gather focus groups, etc), but the debrief still needs to be carried out in a timely fashion so issues are still fresh in peoples’ minds. The use of an independent company or facilitator to take forward the public debrief programme should be considered to (1) demonstrate impartiality – particularly if the emergency has been contentious, and (2) because of the personnel resource such an exercise is likely to require.
- There is likely to be considerable pressure to release the recovery debrief report into the public domain, particularly if the community have been consulted. It is therefore recommended that a pro-active approach is taken to this issue, with an early statement being made about the consultation mechanisms, the fact that the report will be published (with details of how, eg. on a website, etc), and with an indicative publication date being provided.
- Documents produced during the debrief process should be held for a suggested 5 years, but then reviewed in light of possible inquiry or investigation timelines prior to disposal. Everyone should maintain their own documents in case of an inquiry.
Lessons Identified
The collation of lessons identified from the recovery phase of emergencies and exercises should be the same as those used for the response phase.
- National lessons identified can be fed via Regional Resilience Teams to the Civil Contingencies Secretariat in the Cabinet Office for collation and co-ordination of any subsequent actions by the relevant government departments.
- Regional lessons identified can be fed into Regional Resilience Teams for consideration and action by Regional Resilience Forums.
- Local lessons identified can be collated for consideration and action by Local Resilience Forums.
Where lessons identified would be of interest to Local or Regional Resilience Forum members in other geographic areas, these can be flagged to the Regional Resilience Team who will arrange for them to be disseminated via their networks. Copies of publicly available debrief reports will also be sent via the Regional Resilience Teams to the Cabinet Office for inclusion on the UKResilience website.
Wales
The collation of lessons identified from the recovery phase of emergencies and exercises in Wales should be the same as those used for the response phase.
- National lessons identified should be fed via the Welsh Assembly Government to the Civil Contingencies Secretariat in the Cabinet Office for collation and co-ordination of any subsequent actions by the relevant government departments.
- Regional lessons identified should be fed into the Welsh Assembly Government for consideration and action by the Wales Resilience Forum.
- Local lessons identified should be collated for consideration and action by Local Resilience Forums.
Where lessons identified would be of interest to Local or Regional Resilience Forum members in other geographic areas, these should be flagged to the Welsh Assembly Government who will arrange for them to be disseminated via their networks. Copies of publicly available debrief reports will also be published on the Wales Resilience website and sent via the Welsh Assembly Government to the Cabinet Office for inclusion on the UKResilience website.
Scotland
The review of lessons learned from the recovery phase of an incident should be carried out in exactly the same way as from the response phase and plans must be reviewed and amended as necessary.
Northern Ireland
[TBC]
Roles and Responsibilities
Local and Regional
The following roles can be involved in the debriefing process:
Reviewer – someone who collates the material, statistics and details to filter it for production of reports for issues identified.
Chair of debriefs – to manage the debrief and its members by:
- Setting ground rules
- Opening the session
- Extracting useful material
- Closing the process
Secretary to take minutes of the debrief meeting(s).
Local and Regional Resilience Forums are expected to collate issues identified from emergencies or exercises in their areas, but where these may be of use to others, they should be shared more broadly across the country using the Regional Resilience Teams.
Lead Government Department
The Civil Contingencies Secretariat collates issues identified from debriefs of national level emergencies and exercises.
Other Government Involvement
Where Central Government Departments are involved in an emergency or exercise, they are expected to carry out their own debriefs.
Devolved Administrations
Wales
The Local Resilience Forums at the local level and the Wales Resilience Forum at the all-Wales level will review all lessons learnt from incidents and exercises.
Scotland
Strategic Co-ordinating Groups will review all lessons learned from incidents and exercises.
Northern Ireland
[TBC]
Funding
Local responders are expected to fund their own debriefing processes.
Devolved Administrations
Wales
No difference in Wales
Scotland
No difference in Scotland
Northern Ireland
[TBC]
Links to Other Topic Sheets
Case Studies (Incidents and Exercises)
Other Useful Documents
- New Zealand guidance on Organisational Debriefing for Civil Defence and Emergency Management [external website]
- The Emergency Planning College library holds reports and information regarding national and international emergencies.
- Carlisle Storm and Flood Recovery Phase Debrief Report [external website]
- The Pitt Review has been established to review the flooding in June and July 2007. [external website].
List of Contacts
The Emergency Planning College librarian
E-mail: epc.library@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk
Tel: 01347 825007
