National Incident Management System - NQS Public Feedback
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The National Qualification System (NQS) provides a common language and approach to qualify emergency personnel in order to facilitate more effective mutual aid response. It establishes standardized job titles, minimum qualifications, and certification processes to help requesting agencies obtain resources with the needed skills and qualifications. The NQS supplements the National Incident Management System by providing guidance on personnel resource typing and supports the goal of a more secure and resilient nation through qualified emergency personnel who can respond across jurisdictions.
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National Incident Management System - NQS Public Feedback
- 1. Fact Sheet National Qualification System (NQS) Purpose Accurately and rapidly providing mutual aid is critical in disasters, but mutual aid partners currently lack a common language and process to easily share qualified personnel. During disasters, this poses problems for jurisdictions and organizations: uncertainty about qualifications of requested resources, personnel being deployed with the wrong skillsets, and precious time lost assembling teams with the proper skill sets. The National Qualification System (NQS) now provides a common language and approach to qualify/certify emergency personnel. NQS provides the tools for jurisdictions and organizations to implement their own qualification and certification processes while sharing resources more seamlessly. It enables mutual aid partners to accurately communicate resource needs in advance of and during disasters, and to have confidence that responding personnel will have the specific qualifications needed for the job. NQS supplements the Resource Management component of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) by providing guidance on personnel resource typing, as well as supporting the National Preparedness Goal of a secure and resilient Nation by creating a network of qualified personnel who can be deployed across the country. Benefits Just by using the same terminology and qualification criteria, mutual aid partners can: • Request and deploy personnel who have the qualifications needed for the job; • Supplement their teams with confidence; and • Strengthen their recruitment, hiring, training, and professional development programs. National Incident Management System NIMS is a systematic, proactive approach to guide all levels of government, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector to work together to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from the effects of incidents. The Resource Management component of NIMS describes how to identify, credential, inventory, plan for, and order resources (personnel, equipment, teams, and facilities) for deployment and utilization by incident and emergency management personnel. NQS Guidance and Tools Figure 1 shows the components of NQS, and the bullets below provide additional detail. Figure 1: NQS Components Visit us at http://www.fema.gov/national-incident-management-system Revised 01/25/2017 “FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.”
- 2. Federal Emergency Management Agency Visit us at http://www.fema.gov/national-incident-management-system “FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.” • The NIMS Guideline for the NQS provides an approach for establishing or improving existing qualification and certification programs. • NIMS Job Titles/Position Qualifications define job titles and minimum qualifications for each NIMS position. • NIMS Position Task Books (PTB) define competencies, behaviors, and tasks that personnel should demonstrate to become qualified in each NIMS position. • The Resource Typing Library Tool (RTLT) and Other Supporting Technologies provide tools to help jurisdictions and organizations implement qualification and certification processes. (https://www.fema.gov/resource-management- mutual-aid) Using NQS • NQS is voluntary. Although FEMA tracks NIMS implementation, adoption of NQS terminology and processes is optional (but strongly encouraged). • NQS is flexible. Jurisdictions and organizations can apply some or all of the concepts in the NQS guidance, adopt whichever NIMS Job Titles/Position Qualifications they find useful while retaining their own job titles/position qualifications where needed, and augment the minimum qualifications and criteria in NIMS PTBs to meet their own requirements. • NQS is adaptable to jurisdictions and organizations of all types and sizes. It does not alter any entity’s legal authority to manage their own operations or to direct personnel within their own areas of responsibility. Development Process FEMA is developing NQS in collaboration with representatives from nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, and all levels of government (local, state, tribal, territorial, insular area, and Federal), to ensure its nationwide applicability. FEMA is leveraging best practices and lessons learned from qualification and certification systems used by government agencies, professional associations, and the private sector to inform NQS development. Additionally, subject matter experts provide information and guidance essential to NQS concepts, NIMS Job Titles/Position Qualifications, and NIMS PTBs. National engagement periods in the NQS development process (see Figure 2) will offer interested parties opportunities to provide input on the draft NQS documents. This feedback, along with lessons learned from real-world incidents, shapes the development of NQS. Get Involved To participate in the NQS development process, learn about NQS tools and resources, and sign up for NIMS Alerts, visit http://www.fema.gov/national-incident- management-system-alerts.