in the late 1990s to be applied to all levels of emergency response management, similar to the USA National Incident Management System (NIMS) and to the UK's Gold Silver Bronze command system, however the original CIMS manual clearly articulated only the incident/site level of response co-ordination.
– Discuss] in 2014 subsequent to the 2010-2011 Canterbury earthquakes, the 2010 Pike River Mine disaster, and the 2011 MV Rena grounding.
this was designed to emphasise that the incident management team is primarily a focused on co-ordinating the response by independent agencies, rather than ordering responders in a militaristic manner.
CIMS aims to deliver: Vision: Safer communities through integrated emergency management.
[2]Mission: CIMS will create a legacy of safer communities through a proved, reliable, user-friendly, effective and efficient up-to-date [incident management] system.
Common terminology for functions, processes, and facilities prevents this, improves communications between organisations, and allows faster and more effective responses.
Designated response facilities with clearly defined functions assist in effective incident management.
Span of control is the number of direct reports any one person can effectively manage, 1:5 being best practice and 1:3 being the optimum for tactical command roles.
Common training enhances personal relationships between agency personnel and may provide economies of scale.
Maintaining international compatibility ensures that New Zealand agencies and personnel are able to operate effectively with overseas organisations and personnel, and enables New Zealand response agencies to more easily analyse and incorporate lessons from overseas experience.
The command appointments for each agency establish an agreed concept of operations and a single Action Plan.
The IC has three main responsibilities: The Operations function oversees delivery of the Action Plan, which means making sure that responders are being as productive as possible.
This means allocating agencies specific functions in their areas of expertise, monitoring their performance, and providing a communication link between the responders and the other elements of the IMT, especially Logistics.
This information is gathered by the Incident Management Team (IMT) to develop the Action Plan (AP).
The Action Plan (AP) is a template for ensuring that the IMT and all agencies involved in the response have a consistent approach to the incident.
Development of CIMS was also indirectly influenced by a major review of New Zealand's emergency services, which took place in the mid-1990s.
[4] This review recommended that agencies should look at working closer together, in order to provide a more integrated service to New Zealand communities.
[5] The Police, however, have a common-law duty to protect life and property, as well as statutory enforcement authority of transport legislation.
One unique element of CIMS, is that the practitioner level programmes must be delivered in a multi-agency environment.
[8] In addition to efforts by local government, Emergency Services Coordination Committees were established to enhance operational effectiveness, clarify local capabilities and establish lead agencies for circumstances where statutory authority was unclear, as in the example above.
Two examples of committees that remain in existence include those in the Counties-Manukau[9] and Central Hawkes Bay[10] areas.
In particular, it reflects the lessons identified from the responses to a number of large-scale and complex emergencies that occurred in New Zealand from 2010 to 2012.
These emergencies emphasised the importance of CIMS, but also subjected the system to new levels of examination, and identified areas where it needs strengthening.
CIMS enables agencies to plan for, train and conduct responses in a consistent manner, without being prescriptive.
With this approach CIMS is an essential tool in New Zealand's preparedness to effectively respond to emergencies.
CIMS 4 can only be delivered as a multi-agency course - usually led in rotation by Police, Fire, Ambulance or the local Civil Defence Emergency Management (CDEM) authority.