VectorCommand launches Command Assessor – Police system for command training and assessment
An innovative new approach for supporting police command training and assessment has been developed by VectorCommand, working in conjunction with current and former police service command specialists and the Institute of Criminal Justice Studies at Portsmouth University. Former chief superintendent Paul Forbes and Institute lecturer John Jones , who both contributed to the development of the system, explain the operational requirement and how the system has been developed.
How should police services train senior officers for critical incident command, and, once trained, how can they assess their competence in a challenging, realistic, consistent and fair manner? These are common challenges faced by police forces throughout the UK, challenges for which the new Command Assessor – Police should provide a solution.
According to Paul Forbes, a retired chief superintendent and former head of the Police National CBRN Training Centre: ‘You as a chief officer could send me away to a critical incident course of some description, I could be a group member with another 12 or 15 of my peers, not participate at all, and still come out with the same certificate as a person who has contributed 110%.
‘This is because there is no formal assessment. The police assess, very critically, people who want to be sergeants, the first step up the ladder, and they also do the same for sergeant-to-inspector, to perform functional tasks around their roles. Get beyond that and there is no formal assessment. There is some formal assessment for firearms incident management, but that is very bespoke.
The Command Assessor – Police works within VectorCommand’s Training and Exercising System, a well established system widely used by emergency services and agencies around the world (including the Police National CBRN Training Centre, Hampshire Police, EU FloodCommand, the Scottish Resilience Development Service, the Scottish Ambulance Service and US emergency management agencies).
‘The Command Assessor – Police will help police services make some hard decisions, about pass or failure, not just attendance. The people who are going to command real critical incidents are sometimes going to be put in some very difficult situations, and they could ultimately come under the scrutiny of a public enquiry or a criminal court for making good decisions, or no decisions or bad decisions. This system is really intended to help forces and commanders overcome that problem, to give people that horrible sweaty exposure, to come as close as possible to a real live event. The only way to do that is using simulation of some description.
‘The assessment is an hour long, broken down into three 20-minute blocks in the first “golden hour” of being called to something happening. We are allowing for an hour and a half within that structure, trying to make it as close to reality as possible. So you will receive through simulation a call from the duty officer in the control room to the duty Silver or the duty Tactical Officer. It will then build from that, so there will be interactions with a number of other players, both from inside the police service and external to the police service who would be required to attend the types of incident being portrayed in the simulation. These people aren’t actually there, it is all being simulated, and there is no “hot phoning”; it is all done using the system, pre-recorded against a set of criteria. In terms of structure, we built a scenario and then we built the interactions, what we perceive would happen within that type of incident.
‘In terms of assessing people, you have to be fair to them as well. We have broken it into three 20-minute blocks. But it is longer than an hour, because that also gives them breaks of reflection time. At the end of each 20-minute section there is a 10-minute opportunity for the person who has had the interaction to compose a policy log or tactical options log, about what has been going on, to give them reflection time to make sure they have got a full understanding.. But that is also an opportunity to assess, because in the heat of the real event they are not going to have that time. We give them that opportunity, because they should be making notes of some description. What we are pushing for – and most forces have this anyway – is some form of tactical options log or some form of policy or decision-making log.
‘So the first 20 minutes is static, with information received over the phone. The next ten minutes is reflection time, and we are simulating the candidate driving to a silver tactical command post. In the second twenty minutes they will have interaction with people from their own service – the officer at the scene, the incident officer and fire and ambulance personnel. Some of these are pre-recorded video talking heads, with different response options, and some are phone calls. Some of these interactions will require two-way conversations and some will be one-way, where we are trying to assess from the previous interaction that they actually understand the last interaction.
‘As an example, the ambulance conversation may be two-way – “Can you tell me this? Can you tell me this? – and the second interaction with the fire personnel may be ‘I haven’t got much time, you need to tell me stuff”, so you are “Hoovering” out what they have been given right from the point of entry. “Has there been a threat made? Are my staff in danger?
‘Every interaction thereafter, with different characters throughout the hour, will be the point at which you will be assessed. The assessment will be based on a number of National Occupational Standards (NAO) and the Integrated Competency Framework (ICF), which sits below that. So the two marry together effectively, to display your capability and your understanding and knowledge of what your role should be. Each time there is an interaction of some kind, then there is an opportunity for formal assessment against the NOA and the ICF. What we have done is map that with Portsmouth University’s Institute of Criminal Justice Studies against the relevant sections. The golden thread throughout that is respect for race and diversity. That is crucial.’
John Jones from Portsmouth University’s Institute of Criminal Justice Studies agrees with Paul Forbes on the need for a critical incident command system for police officer assessment?
‘Whilst the police service has a strong track record of using formal assessment as a means of testing knowledge, understanding, competency and skills, there are gaps at some levels of the service and in some skill areas. In my view, critical incident command is one area where assessment needs to be more rigorous. The public and police officers, and other emergency responders at the scene, need to be reassured that the officers in command of what can be very demanding, complex and fast moving incidents, possess the necessary knowledge, skills and competence to command these types of incident effectively.
‘This is an innovative approach to improving command capability which builds on a number of factors. The first is the provision of a comprehensive programme of distance learning developed by subject matter experts at the University of Portsmouth’s Institute of Criminal Justice Studies. The programme will include specially designed distance learning (DL) modules on areas such as decision-making, interoperability and command resilience. Delegates attending the course will be tested on their knowledge and understanding of the DL.
‘The next key element is the use of simulation technology to test command skills. Delegates will be required to take command of a critical incident in which their interaction with other responders takes place by way of pre-recorded video. This ensures that every delegate receives a consistent answer to questions for further information.
‘The third element is the use of the National Occupational Standards and the Integrated Competency Framework, published by Skills for Justice, to build an assessment framework against which the delegate’s command skills are assessed.
‘The fourth element is that delegates will be required to undertake a further level of assessment, in that they will be required to research and submit an assignment, assessed by Portsmouth University specialists, which will be designed around command skills.
‘Finally, the course will lead to a formal qualification which will be recognised by the University and can be used to attain additional credits for those course delegates studying with the University.
The system supports the various standards for UK police skills assessment because it is built around the National Occupational Standards and the Integrated Competency Framework. The questions set in respect of the initial knowledge assessment are National Police Improvement Agency-compliant, and the assignment will have passed the University’s assessment QA procedures.
‘The programme can evidence a number of strengths and benefits when compared with other critical incident and command training, including:
• Each delegate will have undergone three levels of assessment to test individual levels of knowledge, understanding, skills and competence using a number of statistical analysis tools;
• The programme will have undergone extensive evaluation in order to test the validity and reliability of the delivery methods and mode of assessment;
• The end-of-course certificate is not just a certificate of attendance – it can provide stakeholders with the reassurance that an officer who has passed the programme has demonstrated a high level of knowledge, understanding, skills and competence in the command role;
• The skills assessment is a time-pressurised, high energy assessment exercise in which delegates have to assume the Silver Command role.
‘In my view the combination of assessment methods and types of assessment processes, together with the approval of the University of Portsmouth and the evaluation methods, make this a unique training programme.’
