Wishing all our friends a Happy Christmas, As we at the Hydra Foundation look back over 2015, we are delighted to see Australian Federal Police now fully operational, Western Australia, Victoria Police and NSW Police going from strength to strength.  Australia is a strong partner in our community of ideas.  Homeland Security USA is operational and working with us as research partners.  In the UK, Immigration Enforcement, UCLAN, Leeds Beckett, Christchurch Canterbury, University of South Wales and Chester University all engaged within our Academic community, with University of Portsmouth coming on line in 2016.  NYFRS are developing a whole host of exercises in Hydra in the Cloud.  National Crime Agency and College of Policing upgrading to HITC. Met. Police installing two floors of its new training building dedicated to Hydra.  British Transport Police running Hydra over two remote locations.  20 UK Police Forces and 16 Fire Services operating Hydra and New version of the system, Orion, going live on Dec 28. Happy New Year

AFP suite in Canberra Australia ran its first SIO Course in December 2015.  The course was developed in partnership with the Hydra Foundation and was Facilitated by Alison, Dean, Shane and Jonathan.  Geoff worked alongside the control room to pace and train the directing team.  The course was very well received and the delegates had to present to a Senate Committee at Parliament House.  The richness of the decision logs was stunning.  The AFP are now embarking on the development of Leadership, Investigative skills and Counter Terrorism.

As part of the new installation at Leeds Beckett University, Geoff, Terry and Jonathan ran a workshop this week with the Business and Law School academics on the methodologies of Hydra.  The new scenario is well developed, and great progress has been made on both the installation of the new Hydra Suite and the creation of the first exercise.  A very rewarding project working with a very creative team.  Watch out for further developments

Australian Federal Police Hydra Suite was installed this week.  Steve flew out with UK AV technicians to work alongside Australian contractors.  The new suite running Hydra in the Cloud technology was installed in the AFP training centre. With internet connectivity the new suite is operating with its own secure server and access to the web based Hydra server.  This will enable them to run secure and sensitive training scenarios and have access to the Hydra Community.  With three other suites now operating in Australia (Perth, Melbourne and Sydney) AFP will be able to operate scenarios both inter-state and meet its needs for international delivery. Photos coming shortly

Malcolm Farrow from the Fire Service was awarded a Fellowship of the Hydra Foundation for his outstanding contribution to the Fire Service and Chairmanship of the Fire Hydra and Minerva Users Group.  Malcolm's achievements were mentioned at the recent Chief Fire Officer Association Conference.

Hydra established in 85 centres around the world.  The new system is stunning.

Hydra in the Cloud, a web based fully featured system is now operating in Australia, USA and the UK in 10 Hydra suites.  There is a roll out planned to convert existing suites to the new system.  The new version utilises a number of new methodologies to further immerse expert practitioners in Hydra simulations. Hydra is now operating in the Federal Law Enforcement Agencies of UK, Australia and UK and the UK Fire Services.  There are 6 Universities delivering Hydra exercises as part of their Masters and Undergraduate programmes.  The UK Immigration Agency now has two suites.  A mobile of the version is now fully tested and has operated successfully in the Australia Federal Police and Portsmouth University.  The mobile version is now stable and able to operate with minimal set up and is fully featured.

1st June, 10kv Workshop with Safeguarding partners at West Mids. Police Training Centre.  Really intense workshop with practitioner professionals dealing with Child Sexual Exploitation and Vulnerable people.  The event started with a review of what matters to the people who are working hard to engage with children and young adults.  Other sessions concentrated specifically on CSE and how professionals can work together to protect and prosecute.  Very good representation from Health, Education, Charities, Police, Social Services, Local Authorities, LSCBs and the third sector.  John Grieve was in attendance working alongside the team providing fast time analysis of the emerging themes.  ACC Carl Foulkes, organised the event and invited key participants to attend.  The areas discussed covered, multi agency working, sharing of information, what works and the impact of austerity on the ability to deliver services to vulnerable people.   

Truly a moving evening, working with Families of Murdered Victims.  The Foundation was asked to run a 10kv workshop, to look at Family Liaison, and Family engagement in the investigation process.  20 families attended and talked about their experiences.  The analysis of this workshop in in hand and we hope to be able to feedback to the Met. their experiences.  A real privilege, and exactly what the Hydra Foundation is all about.