Application
This unit of competency covers the skills and knowledge required to assess the extent to which a facility is prepared to respond to an incident.
This unit of competency applies to personnel in incident coordinator/commander, manager or technical specialist or similar roles who are required to examine existing incident response systems and practices, identify key areas where systems overlap or system breakdowns occur, ensure that the established systems are working in accordance to the incident response plan and legislative requirements, conduct and assess incident exercises, and provide input towards system continuous enhancement.
This unit of competency applies to an individual working alone or as part of a team or group and working in liaison with other incident response team members and the incident manager, as appropriate.
An incident is an event which causes, or could have caused, injury or illness; damage to plant, material or the environment; disruption to production or public alarm.
An incident is an unintended event, or an unintended consequence of an intended event. This unit would typically be applied to significant incidents, such as:
fire and explosion
loss of containment.
In a typical scenario the person would undertake an analysis of existing incident preparedness and response systems as part of a continuous improvement process or spot check. Part of the audit may involve the conducting of an unscheduled incident response drill, analysing the results and providing a thorough debrief of the persons involved. The person then may make recommendations for changes to the system. They may have an ongoing role for managing incident information and/or the incident information system.
No licensing, legislative or certification requirements apply to this unit at the time of publication.
Elements and Performance Criteria
Elements describe the essential outcomes. | Performance criteria describe the performance needed to demonstrate achievement of the element. | ||
1 | Clearly identify benchmarks for audit | 1.1 | Access, interpret and clarify the legislative, statutory and site requirements relating to incident preparedness and response systems |
1.2 | Access and review relevant documentation of the incident response plan and established incident management systems | ||
1.3 | Conduct consultations with stakeholders and specialists as necessary | ||
2 | Plan, organise and undertake audit of the established incident response systems | 2.1 | Identify or develop methods to audit the established incident management systems and processes as prescribed by the incident response plan and/or legislation in consultation with relevant personnel |
2.2 | Identify and secure the resources required to conduct the audit | ||
2.3 | Gather and sight relevant documents and all other evidence required in accordance with procedures | ||
2.4 | Conduct the audit according to the identified/developed methods | ||
3 | Evaluate and report the results of the audit | 3.1 | Evaluate evidence gathered for reliability, validity, authenticity, sufficiency, currency and consistency |
3.2 | Promptly bring to the attention of relevant personnel any findings which have serious or immediate risks | ||
3.3 | Disseminate records of the process and outcomes of the audit, including justifiable recommendations complying with procedures, to appropriate personnel in a timely manner | ||
4 | Follow up results of the audit | 4.1 | Discuss and confirm results with relevant personnel and provide feedback, including advice on corrective actions |
4.2 | Follow up corrective actions relating to deficiencies until resolution has been achieved | ||
Evidence of Performance
Evidence required to demonstrate competence in this unit must be relevant to and satisfy the requirements of the elements and performance criteria, and include the ability to:
communicate effectively with internal and external stakeholders
audit and evaluate systems, practices and processes relevant to incident response against defined benchmarks
develop and select methodologies for effective audit and evaluation that comply with any organisation or legislative requirements
provide input towards system continuous enhancement
complete reports and records
identify risks and take appropriate action
read and interpret information from a range of sources including procedures, reports, numerical information and charts.
Evidence of Knowledge
Evidence must be provided that demonstrates knowledge of:
regulatory framework
organisational procedures, including those covering:
safety, hazards and hazard control
incident, fire and accident
environmental protection
risk assessment/risk management
relevant facility fire management and safety systems
communication systems
emergency response plans
audit and review processes
hazard identification and control
risk management principles and techniques
incident containment tactics
identifying benchmarks for incident response systems
types and application of audit methods
auditing principles.
Assessment Conditions
The unit should be assessed holistically and the judgement of competence based on a holistic assessment of the evidence.
The collection of performance evidence is best done from a report and/or folio of evidence drawn from:
a single project which provides sufficient evidence of the requirements of all the elements and performance criteria
multiple smaller projects which together provide sufficient evidence of the requirements of all the elements and performance criteria.
A third-party report, or similar, may be needed to testify to the work done by the individual, particularly when the project has been done as part of a project team.
Assessment should use a real project in an operational workplace. Where this is not possible or practical, assessment must occur using a sufficiently rigorous simulated environment reflecting realistic operational workplace conditions. This must cover all aspects of workplace performance, including environment, task skills, task management skills, contingency management skills and job role environment skills.
Knowledge evidence may be collected concurrently with performance evidence or through an independent process, such as workbooks, written assessments or interviews (provided a record is kept).
Assessment processes and techniques must be appropriate to the language, literacy and numeracy requirements of the work being performed and the needs of the candidate.
Conditions for assessment must include access to all tools, equipment, materials and documentation required, including relevant workplace procedures, product and manufacturing specifications associated with this unit.
Foundation skills are integral to competent performance of the unit and should not be assessed separately.
Assessors must satisfy the assessor competency requirements that are in place at the time of the assessment as set by the VET regulator.
In addition, the assessor or anyone acting in subject matter expert role in assessment must demonstrate both technical competency and currency. If the assessor cannot demonstrate technical competency and currency they must assess with a subject matter expert who does meet these requirements.
Technical competence can be demonstrated through one or more of:
relevant VET or other qualification/Statement of Attainment
appropriate workplace experience undertaking the type of work being assessed under routine and non-routine conditions
appropriate workplace experience supervising/evaluating the type of work being assessed under routine and non-routine conditions
Currency can be demonstrated through one or more of:
being currently employed undertaking the type of work being assessed
being employed by the organisation undertaking the type of work being assessed and having maintained currency in accordance with that organisation’s policies and procedures
having consulted/had contact with an organisation undertaking the type of work being assessed within the last twelve months, the consultation/contact being related to assessment
conducting on-the-job training/assessments of the type of work being assessed
being an active member of a relevant professional body and participating in activities relevant to the assessment of this type of work
Foundation Skills
This section describes those language, literacy, numeracy and employment skills that are essential to performance.
Foundation skills essential to performance are explicit in the performance criteria of this unit of competency.
Range Statement
This field allows for different work environments and conditions that may affect performance. Essential operating conditions that may be present (depending on the work situation, needs of the candidate, accessibility of the item, and local industry and regional contexts) are included. | |
Regulatory framework | The latest version of all legislation, regulations, industry codes of practice and Australian/international standards, or the version specified by the local regulatory authority, must be used, and include one or more of the following: legislative requirements, including work health and safety (WHS) industry codes of practice and guidelines environmental regulations and guidelines Australian and other standards licence and certification requirements All operations to which this unit applies are subject to stringent health, safety and environment (HSE) requirements, which may be imposed through state/territory or federal legislation, and these must not be compromised at any time. Where there is an apparent conflict between performance criteria and HSE requirements, the HSE requirements take precedence. |
Systems | Systems to be evaluated for relevance to and effectiveness in incident response include: hazard and risk management evacuation emergency operations structure communications information management documentation and reporting requirements resource management training audit and review system financial management |
Documents and evidence | Documents and evidence will be selected as relevant from one or more of the following: electronic databases videos photographs written information/records/archives training and learning programs recorded interviews/interview transcripts |
Procedures | All operations must be performed in accordance with relevant procedures. Procedures are written, verbal, visual, computer-based or in some other form, and include one or more of the following: emergency procedures work instructions standard operating procedures (SOPs) safe work method statements (SWMS) formulas/recipes batch sheets temporary instructions any similar instructions provided for the smooth running of the plant |
Sectors
Competency Field
Incident readiness and response