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Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5 (HSPD-5) established the National Incident Management
System (NIMS). The purpose of NIMS is to provide a consistent
nationwide approach for federal, state, local, and tribal governments to
work together on emergencies/disasters regardless of cause, size or
complexity. The Incident Command System (ICS) is a part of NIMS.
Beginning in Fiscal Year
(FY) 2005, HSPD-5 required Federal departments and agencies to make
adoption and implementation of the NIMS by State and local organizations
a condition for
Federal preparedness assistance through grants, contracts, or other
activities. The implementation guidelines (objectives) are used
to determine if agencies have met the HSPD-5 requirement.
NIMS compliance means the agency supports all NIMS objectives or has a
plan underway to achieve them. You may
CLICK HERE for a comprehensive outline of the objectives.
Some of the NIMS objectives
require emergency responders and emergency management personnel to
complete certain levels of training consistent with their assignment.
Most of these courses are FEMA Independent Study (IS) courses available on
line. CLICK HERE
for a complete list of the available courses (FEMA web site).
According to the five-year
implementation scheme there are now new courses required
for specific areas of responsibility. As the years progress, more required training will
be added, particularly a requirement to complete (ICS) "position-specific"
training by2012. See the
NIMS
Fire Year Training Plan for more information.
Each emergency response
agency will conduct an assessment of their NIMS implementation activity
and report the results of the assessment on an on-line tool known as NIMSCAST
(agencies that should participate).
The reporting tool is a SELF ASSESSMENT of your agency's progress in
implementing NIMS. It is possible that your agency has not met all of
the NIMS objectives. In this case it is important to develop an
appropriate corrective action plan to do so. You will be able to
outline your plan on the assessment tool.
As the county-wide
NIMS coordinator I will assist the
participating agencies in assessing their NIMS implementation status,
making timely reports via the NIMSCAST process, and finding resources to
help implement your plan of action. IMPORTANT NOTE:
When you access your account and begin the assessment, there will be
unique guidance entered by me for each applicable metric. This
background information will help you with developing a compliance
strategy.
The reports will be "rolled
up" into the overall jurisdiction report, and subsequently Region 2,
state, and federal compliance assessment. The results of your
assessment may be periodically audited for accuracy and progress toward
meeting your corrective action plan.
Please
contact me if you need any further guidance.
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO NOW:
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Identify your agency point of contact (POC) (required for access to the
NIMS assessment tool)
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Attend
one of the agency briefings
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Respond
to the sub-agency confirmation e-mail sent to your POC
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Assess your agency's current NIMS compliance activities
-
Report your responses to each NIMS
implementation metric on the NIMSCAST reporting tool
-
Identify
a corrective action plan for each incomplete metric
-
Submit
the NIMSCAST report to the FEMA database.
NOTE: Remember that failure to
report your activities via the NIMSCAST will mean you are not NIMS compliant (and not
eligible for up most of the federal grant programs).
For those NIMS metrics that require a NO response, and a suitable
corrective action plan is entered, your agency will be considered in
compliance (as long as progress can be demonstrated).
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