Provision of Support to an APHA Tier 2 National Exercise (ASPEN)

The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) is seeking to engage a supplier to support the production and delivery of a Tier 2 National Exercise and supporting agencies. Tier 2 National Exercises are a) led by a Lead Government Department with involvement from key stakeholders (including other departments), b) may take the form of Tabletop or Live Exercises or elements of both and c) include likely participation of COBR (Civil Contingencies Committee).

The primary purpose of the Tier 2 National Exercise will be to test the Government’s Contingency Plans and established policy, for the control of an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD). Its aim is not to provoke new policy developments but rather to explore current policy and the arrangements for its implementation.

It will also test APHA’s operational response arrangements and expose communications, resilience and capability to scrutiny. The supplier will have experience of managing and delivering exercises of a similar scale.

They will be expected to create and deliver an Exercise Package capable of testing the preparedness and effectiveness of Defra framework response plans, Contingency Plans for Governmental administrations and APHA Operational response plans. APHA has a critical role in the control and eradication of endemic and exotic notifiable and reportable diseases including responding to Outbreaks of notifiable avian disease, Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) or swine fever.

APHA in conjunction with the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Welsh Government (WG), Scottish Government (SG) & Northern Ireland (NI) and their operational partners are to work in partnership to plan, prepare and deliver a Tier 2 National Exercise. The exercise will be a medium to large scale FMD Outbreak originating in the border regions of England and Wales spreading to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The primary purpose of the National Exercise is to test Defra’s, WG’s, SG’s and NI governments current contingency plans and established policy, for the control of an outbreak of FMD. Its aim is not to provoke new policy developments but rather to explore current policy and the arrangements for its implementation.

It will also test the APHA’s operational response arrangements and expose communications, resilience and capability to scrutiny. A phased approach is required and summarised below.

This is to ensure a level of professionalism and quality of delivery that APHA resource could not produce. It is necessary that the Contractor has experience of managing and delivering exercises of similar scale. Phase 1 – Project Initiation & Contract Mobilisation Phase 2 – Project Design & Exercise Planning Phase 3 – Exercise Development & Pre-briefing Phase 4 – Project and Exercise Delivery Phase 5 – Project Debriefing Phase 6 – Project Reporting & Closure