emergency & Crisis management
Effective emergency and crisis management requires more than a plan. Organisations need clear structures, responsibilities, escalation arrangements, decision-making processes, and people who understand how to operate when normal business arrangements are no longer sufficient. Maelstrom Consulting supports organisations to develop, review, and improve practical arrangements for managing incidents, emergencies, and crises.
Emergency & Incident Management Planning
Development and review of emergency and incident management plans, procedures, and supporting arrangements. Planning is developed with the people responsible for using it, with an emphasis on clear objectives, responsibilities, escalation, coordination, and practical actions.
Crisis Management
Development and review of crisis management frameworks and plans for events requiring strategic leadership, executive decision-making, and organisation-wide coordination. This includes activation and escalation arrangements, roles and responsibilities, consequence management, strategic priorities, and integration with operational response and business continuity arrangements.
Incident & Crisis Management Teams
Development and improvement of Incident Management Team and Crisis Management Team arrangements, including structures, roles, operating rhythms, decision-making processes, information management, and coordination between operational and executive levels.
Incident Management & Response Arrangements
Development and review of incident management and response arrangements aligned with New Zealand’s Coordinated Incident Management System (CIMS) and the Australasian Inter-service Incident Management System (AIIMS).
This includes incident management structures, Emergency Operations Centre processes, procedures, supporting tools, and arrangements for coordination with external response agencies.
Emergency Management Reviews
Independent review of emergency management frameworks, plans, structures, procedures, and organisational readiness. Reviews identify strengths, gaps, and practical improvements to ensure arrangements remain fit for purpose and aligned with operational requirements.
Regional, Local & Hazard-Specific Planning
Development and review of emergency management plans for regional, district, city, local, and organisational settings. This includes Regional Emergency Management Plans, local arrangements, CATPLANs and other hazard or contingency plans in Aotearoa New Zealand, and Australian state, district, local, functional, and hazard-specific emergency management plans.
Planning can cover governance and coordination arrangements, hazards and consequences, roles and responsibilities, operational arrangements, readiness, response and recovery, and supporting procedures.
Integration with Business Continuity
Emergency and crisis management arrangements should integrate with business continuity, providing a clear connection between management of the immediate event, its wider organisational consequences, and continuity of critical operations.
exercising & Training
Plans and structures need to work in practice. Exercises and training develop individual and team capability, test arrangements, and identify improvements before they are required during a real event. Maelstrom Consulting provides exercise design, facilitation and evaluation, CIMS training, and incident and crisis management team development.