Assessments

Overview

The Assessments register holds assessments of property damage which can be received from an external Source following some kind of impact (typically first responders and emergency services and local rescue agencies such as the State Emergency Service). This includes an Agency Report and can be an Initial Impact Assessment (IIA) or other general types of assessment. During an initial impact, large volumes of information are collected for processing as a result, Assessments are most commonly imported into the system in bulk from a file provided by the reporting agency.

Assessments function similarly to Cases, but only record property and damage information. Assessments allow property damage reports to be reviewed and verified without having to first create Cases. In addition to property damage, Assessments can identify hazards and whether a property is habitable.

Assessments can be assigned and referred for a Secondary Assessment or Infrastructure Assessment.

Assess and convert them into Cases to manage Affected Persons and other related records.

Access

To access Assessments:

• Assessments must be enabled for the event.

• Go on duty with an appropriate role such as Recovery Officer or Recovery Manager. If you can't access it, ask your administrator to check your permissions.

Locate the Assessments register under Recovery > Assessments in the menu.

Finding Assessments

The register includes a number of features to assist in finding Assessments:

• Datagrid view

• Map view

• Filters including workflow, types, source, region and tags

• Combination filters and search by most fields

Filters

Filters help make management of Assessments easier by focusing on specific groups of items on the datagrid.

Viewing Assessments

When viewing Assessments, sections can be expanded to show information.

As each section is completed, new sections may show additional information.

Assessment Settings

Record Notes

When editing, you can record notes as you make changes which will appear in the Activity log.

Refer to: Recording Notes

General Information

The General Information section holds Assessment details. Assessment Type records whether it is an Initial Impact Assessment or General Assessment. Most Assessments from external sources will be Initial Impact Assessments. Other Assessments use General Assessment. It is important to select the type carefully as it can't be changed later. Assessment Received Date/Time defaults to when the record was created, however it can be set as required.

Agency Report

The Agency Report is usually captured from information sent by the agency.

Damage is confirmed in the Are any property, buildings or private assets damaged? field.

Source records where the information came from. This will typically be a responders emergency service or local rescue agencies such as the State Emergency Service. Your Administrator configures the list of Sources for your site using the Recovery: Assessment Source lookup.

Report Full Details is used to capture detailed information. It is possible to record in this field tabular data which can be viewed from within the Assessment record.

General Photo(s) of property is used to show non-structural photos for assessment purposes.

When hazards are present on site, the Are there any hazards present at the property? will be checked and Hazard Information holds the details.

Impacted Property

Asset Address and Location of Property records the impacted property location. This will look up your local asset database, and confirm the location of the property on a map. Imported Address shows any text address supplied from imported data, this may not be matched against your asset data.

Specify the Property Use by ticking on the appropriate checkboxes. You can select multiple property uses for the property if needed.

(Council) Assessment

The Assessment section is used to prepare the record for conversion to a Case.

Typically as part of this process, an officer will review and check that there is not already a case being managed for the property.

Given Names and Family Name records the owner's name which is set as the primary contact.

(Council) Assessment Notes records any considerations made by the assessment officer.

Workflow

The Workflow section records information on the status, priority, assignment and next actions.

In general, the Assessment will go through the following stages:

1. Newly imported data begin as an Unverified Assessment

2. Assessment is assessed for impacted property or infrastructure, the status should be changed to Requires Secondary Impact Assessment or Requires Infrastructure Assessment respectively

3. Based on these statuses, the Create Cases bulk action is run

4. The Status is set to Closed- Secondary Assessment Created or Closed Infrastructure Assessment Created respectively

Assessments have the following Statuses, in order of which they can be set:

Related Records

Related Records highlights Cases with the same address. This helps avoid duplication. It also includes links to other Assessments on the same property.

Classification

Refer to: Editing Items: Classification

Your Administrators configures the list of Classification for your site using Recovery: Assessment Classification.

Administrative

Refer to: Editing Register Items: Administrative for more information on creating an Assessment template

Activity

Refer to: Viewing and Opening Register Items: Activity

Updating Assessments

When updating Assessments make any require changes to the Assessment Settings, in particular:

• Update the Status to reflect the current stage of the Assessment

• Make sure the Next Action Due reflects the current timeframe for actions

• Ensure that the right person is handling the Assessment using the Assignment field

• Update the Assessment notes and owner information

Adding Assessments

Importing Assessments

A System Administrator can import Assessments in bulk via the Import system using an Assessment Import parsing rule. There are different import parsers for different agencies so it is important that the data is imported correctly choosing the right format and configuring the import file before importing.

Adding Assessments Individually

To add a new Assessment:

1. Select the New Assessment button from the New item menu.

2. Complete each section of the Person Settings as required. Note that some options may open up new sections to complete.

   1. Select the Assessment Type and accept or adjust the Received Date/Time

   2. Complete the Agency Report and Impacted Property details

   3. Optionally set a Priority and Next Action Due

3. Save

Bulk Actions

The following additional bulk actions can be performed on Cases via the Actions menu:

Reports

The main Reports for Persons include the Recovery Assessments Report this is also as a bulk option from the Actions menu.