Effective communication

The aim at every incident is to co-ordinate communications and decision-making of the incident commander, operational personnel and fire control personnel.

Effective communication is fundamental to achieving successful and safe resolution of incidents. It provides the incident commander with knowledge about the situation and progress of tasks. Obtaining accurate and timely information is crucial to underpin situational awareness and subsequent decision-making. It helps the incident commander perform the role in a confident and determined manner and thereby assert their leadership and authority.

Communication also plays a vital role in co-ordinating activities, completing tasks and handover of command. Sharing accurate and timely information is also critical for helping others to have a common understanding of the situation, what is happening and what needs to happen next. Even the most effective plans will only work if the people putting them into practice understand them.

As well as exchanging information, good communication helps to build relationships between people. These relationships are important so that people are effective when they carry out their tasks to resolve the incident. Incident commanders should be aware that effective communication is essential for good leadership and makes it easier for people to follow instructions, understand briefings and have confidence in what is being stated.

Effective communication should:

• Provide information that is:
  • Clear
  • Relevant and concise
  • Timely
• Be easily understood
• Be delivered confidently
• Include active listening
• Ensure verbal and non-verbal communications are aligned
• Ensure assumptions are questioned

When establishing an effective communication strategy, consideration should be given to the structure that will support it, in terms of technology, equipment and systems. The strategy should take into account:

• The size, type and location of the incident; communication needs to be supported across the whole of the incident ground, including within buildings and structures
• The effectiveness and resilience of the communication structure
• The provision of resilience, such as fallback arrangements, to ensure there is no loss of communication during an incident
• The provision of communication equipment with an appropriate ATEX classification if required

Operational and fire control personnel should be made aware of the limitations of the secure digital network in their service. To avoid communication systems being overwhelmed, such as during a multi-agency incident or major incident, personnel should follow standard communication protocols and keep radio and mobile communication to a minimum.

Fire and rescue services should consider the use of standard message templates to ensure communications between fire control and the incident ground are kept brief. The call sign or incident commander’s name should precede any message as this will assist fire control personnel to accurately record information. All messages that are passed between the incident ground and fire control should follow the predetermined content and structure.

It may be beneficial to obtain advice from a communications tactical adviser to avoid radio and mobile communications becoming congested at larger or protracted incidents.

When implementing a communication strategy, key principles should be considered to ensure:

• That information received in support of the incident is accurate, appropriate and timely
• That information is obtained from a reliable and credible source, or if not that it is checked and verified
• That appropriate methods of communicating information are used if there are security implications, or the need to relay sensitive or distressing information
• The appropriate recipients are provided with relevant information, via an appropriate method
• The relevance of the information

A good flow of information is one of the most important assets for an incident. An incident commander should ensure they:

• Gather information, issue orders and receive situation reports
• Issue orders to personnel
• Receive situation reports from all areas, including sector commanders
• Assess and provide for the needs of other agencies, and plan to meet with them
• Carry out a risk assessment and add this to the briefing on arrival
• Brief personnel about the tasks they need to perform and the hazards and risks they face
• Thoroughly brief personnel to share any safety critical information

A structured method, such as using an IIMARCH (Information, Intent, Method, Administration, Risk assessment, Communications and Humanitarian issues) template, may help incident commanders when preparing a brief. Further information on this approach, and a Word version of the IIMARCH template, can be found on the JESIP website. The JESIP Mobile App includes a prompt for use of the IIMARCH briefing tool, with the ability to share.

For multi-agency incidents the M/ETHANE message protocol should be used to exchange information about the incident with other responders via fire control and other agencies’ control rooms.

Incident commanders may also hold briefings on the way to an incident. The extent of the briefing will depend on the type and scale of the incident. If personnel have little experience of the incident type, or there is high risk, a comprehensive briefing should be provided.

It will be necessary to organise safety briefings. As the incident develops, or if the risk of injury increases, those briefings may need to be more comprehensive.

Incident commanders should also establish suitable arrangements for communications. This is usually the role of command support under the guidance of the incident commander, and may include:

• Establishing communication links with fire control
• Ensuring they correctly assign radio channels and call signs
• Establishing communications with other agencies
• The use of talk groups
• Requesting the support of a communications tactical adviser
• Establishing communications with sector commanders and other command support functions to receive regular situation reports
• Ensuring sector commanders can communicate between themselves
• Using local systems; some new and complex buildings and structures, including those extending underground, have communication systems installed for use by emergency services

Effective handover

Ensuring there is an effective handover between commanders is a crucial step in the handing over of command. It is an important stage in the formation of the new commander’s situational awareness, which will be partially based on the situational awareness of the current commander and will be further developed from the range of information that will be gathered. Failure to conduct an effective handover can lead to poor situational awareness and can result in inappropriate or ineffective decisions being made.

Handovers should be conducted in a systematic way. There are a range of methods for handing over, which should include:

• Information on the incident
• Information on the risks
• Information on the resources
• The plan, including:
  • Objectives
  • Tactical priorities
  • Operational tactics
• The incident command structure and communication lines
• Key decisions, using the decision controls to articulate for each:
  • What the goals were
  • What they expected to happen
  • How the benefits justified the risks

For more information refer to Incident command: Knowledge, skills and competence: Interpersonal communication.