Challenges and implications facing senior personnel engaged at regional and state levels of emergency management operation coordination

Senior fire and emergency services personnel have to manage many complex challenges and these demands are going to increase in the future. In order to understand what these challenges are and potential options for improvement, interviews were conducted as part of the Bushfire CRC funded research Organising for Effective Incident Management. The aim of the research was to better understand the information needs and decision-making challenges facing those operating at senior leadership level above the local Incident Management Team so that strategies to move forward can then be identified. These interviews form part of a consultation process that will feed into a discussion (Green) paper of issues confronting the industry and, in collaboration with the industry, into a White paper outlining strategic directions for the future.

This report provides a synthesis of challenges raised in interviews conducted with 54 personnel working above the local incident management level. Telephone or face-to face interviews were conducted using a grounded theory approach. This report discusses the main challenges that were reported and that need to be confronted to manage future emergency events.