Managing Resources - Legislation of Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service - Case Study Example

Insert Title: Name: Institution: Tutor: Graham Brennan Module: Managing Resources 21st MAY, 2009 CONTENTS 1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………….. 3 2. About Yorkshire ………………………………………………………………….. 3 3. Human Resource ………………………………………………………………… 4 4. Legislation of Yorkshire Fire and Rescue service ……………………………. 5 5. Operational Service Asset ……………………………………………………….. 6 6. Yorkshire crisis management plan ……………………………………………… 7 7. Effective resource management in Yorkshire …………………………………. 7 8. Resource planning ………………………………………………………………... 8 9. Fire code …………………………………………………………………………… 9 10. Comparison of fire and rescue service in Yorkshire and Abu Dhabi ………. 10 11. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………… 11 12. Recommendation ………………………………………………………………… 12 13. References ……………………………………………………………………….. 15 Introduction Fire safety refers to safety measures that are employed in the direction of preventing or reducing the chances of a fire that may possibly contribute to death, damage, injuries or damage. (Nicolas 2001, p.24). Fire safety procedures comprise the systems that are designed throughout the building of a project or executed inside these structures. In addition to education programmes to residents of a particular buildings. A fire hazard may perhaps incorporate a state of affairs that raises the chances a fire could establish or could begin or it could be objects that obstruct escape during the occurrence of fire event. Fire safety has all along been a constituent of building safety. Individuals who examine the breach of fire code as well as visit schools or institutions to educate students on fire safety issues are referred to as the fire prevention officers, from a fir department. While the officers in charge of Fire Prevention Units resolve to coach the trainees in this unit and could also perform assessments and deliver presentations. About Yorkshire The Yorkshire authority has been voted in the Fire and Rescue Service Modernisations Report 2004, as among the most forward-thinking within their respective kingdom.  For Yorkshire it’s a status shared just within London and Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service. The Authority is an independent body with a legal duty to offer fire and rescue services that meets the requirements of local communities. The Service has responsibility concerning the enforcement of fire prevention, under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, petroleum storage and explosives legislation Operational performance and delivery of value for money to taxpayers of West Yorkshire are two most important areas of responsibility. The authority has been pioneer in developing scores of community fire safety programmes which nowadays lie at the center of the nationwide obligation for fire service modernisation. They are committed to an enormous development of this kind of occupation within the future. Fire cover for Yorkshire authority is provided 24-hours per day, every day of the year. Each front-line of every authority fire engine is outfitted with state-of-the-art rescue equipment and a number of them being geared up for important rescue equipment.  Human resource management The authority has also provided back-up appliances to provide resilience for very large incidents. Their firefighters stand trained as well as prepared to cope with an entire series of emergencies, not just fire. These comprise of road, rail or air crashes, floods, chemical spills in addition to even terrorist attacks. The human resource management in the Yorkshire fire and rescue service ensures that people’s obligations are met as well as transforming community services in cost effective way. The Service’s strategies are geared towards improving effectiveness in the workforce by ensuring that workers resources and activities are focused on the main performance indicators identified in their performance plan. The recruitments are carried out in a professional manner where all of the employees are selected on merit as well as according to the modern legislation and good practice. The recruits are specifically selected after passing the national Firefighter Selection Tests to the operational posts. Legislation of Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service The legislation applying to Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service is based on the Fire and Rescue Service Act 2004 and the Civil Contingencies Act 2004. The Fire Authority of Yorkshire is organised by 22 people who are selected yearly through the county’s five district councils, from Leeds, Bradford, Kirklees, Wakefield and Calderdale. The authority services are provided by competent staffs of various organisations that are based in geographical areas. These can further be divided into groups comprising fire stations and a group support teams. The committee also helps its members in following the authority’s code of conduct. The day-to-day operational delivery responsibility in the Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service is undertaken by the chief fire officer in the management board (Ericson 2006). The directive improvement, that is the Yorkshire Fire Service approached keen on consequence during October 2006 along with its replacement of many sections of fire safety regulations within its urban policy. The Yorkshire fire service applies fire safety efforts toward both the domestic and non-domestic building legislation within its operational areas, comprising the common divisions of building blocks of flats as well as homes with various activities (The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005). The bylaw applies to anyone who is: accountable for business building a manager or else self-employed by trade location responsible for a division of a residence, somewhere that a fraction is only utilized for trade reasons a charitable organisation a contractor with a level of a command over some property provision of housing for paying guests Operational service assessment Smeby (2005) argues that: ‘‘emergencies can occur almost anywhere. Prevention and protection activities effect on all people in all places, therefore information and intelligence should be used to target our resources to ensure that they have the most effect’’. Staff in Yorkshire fire headquarters department are responsible for devising strategies, developing policies and supporting service delivery by the provision of information. They link with colleagues in the region and nationally to identify good practice, and to help devise processes that ensure that they deliver a consistent, effective service. According to Nicolas (2001) people should have the right to go about their daily lives in safety. Improving fire services in Yorkshire is one of their highest priorities. Yorkshire crisis management plan In the crisis management plan, individuals are expected to perform various duties to be aware of the policies and procedures in the plan. The fire service has a risk reduction plan whereby the strategy is aimed at having home safety checks and fitting smoke detectors. In the country wide strategy, the operational crews in the fire service are required to visit about 43, 000 households annually. There is also a Fire Safety Risk Based Re-Inspection Programme that is aimed at incorporating all phases of inspection workload that totally contributes to an integrated risk management advance. The programme is also thought to help in ensuring the best utilization of fire rescue service resources. And also enabling employees to become more aware in terms of the way they approach ideas and evidence in the fire services. Effective resource management in Yorkshire Recent changes to the Fire and Rescue Service in Yorkshire require that all homes and units throughout major centers must be fitted with smoke alarms.  This mainly affects homes built before 2000 since, from that date, all new homes and those substantially renovated, must have hardwired smoke alarms installed. Yorkshire is aware that some smoke detection systems incorporated into home security systems, whilst complying with the intention of the smoke alarm legislation, may not be fully compliant. Where there is any doubt as to whether these systems meet the requirements of the legislation, homeowners should contact the Regional Manager Community Safety for advice. As with all legislation, Fire and Rescue Service will be reviewing the new legislation relating to smoke alarms, to reflect the needs of the community and the highest levels of safety for people (Smeby 2005). Resource planning The company works in three ways to help keep you safe from fires and other emergencies a) Prevention - by working with individuals to help them understand risks and reduce the chance of an emergency occurring. b) Protection - by advising or enforcing (as appropriate) adequate standards of construction and management, to ensure that people are not endangered if a fire occurs. c) Intervention - the 999 emergency operational response, provide 24/7 support should an incident occur.  Under the Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, the person in charge has to undertake a fire safety risk measurement and put into practice in addition to preserving a fire management plan. Additional information concerning what is expected to be done at the moment of taking a risk evaluation is within the 5-level of fire risk assessment checklist (Plan together, the escape route, shout for help, Escaping and Please note) Every household is expected to have a given sort of getaway plan within a place for the reason that, when the worst happen. Optimistically it may not be used at the moment, although it is vital to set up for it so that there is no hindrance when being put into practice. In case one is troubled about how he/she would escape from his/her home in an event of fire, Yorkshire Fire Service has assured them not to be worried since, help they offer is always at hand. What one is expected to do is to press emergency code of the house and wait for help (Richardson 2006). Fire code The Fire code also called Fire prevention code or else Fire safety code is a form code implemented by the Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service authority and imposed through fire prevention officers inside municipal departments. They are a set of rules stipulating smallest amount necessities to prevent fire as well as explosion hazards that may contribute to fire or any other hazardous situations (Dylan, 2007). It harmonizes the construction code. The fire safety code is intended mainly at; a) Preventing fires b) Ensuring that necessary training and equipment will be on hand, and c) Ensuring that the original design basis of the structure, comprising the essential arrangement set out by the architect, is not compromised. d) Addressing assessment and safeguarding necessities of a range of fire safety paraphernalia in order to preserve finest fire protective measures (both active and passive). A classic fire safety code in Yorkshire comprises administrative divisions concerning; a) The policy-making and enforcement procedure b) Substantive sections dealing with fire suppression equipment c) Fastidious hazards like containers in addition to transportation for flammable materials. d) Explicit rules for hazardous residents, industrial processes, and exhibitions. Sections may possibly set up the necessities for attaining authorizes particular safety measures needed to stay behind in conformity with consent. For instance, a fireworks presentation might entail a request to be filed through an accredited pyrotechnician, provided that the information is essential for the issuing body to establish whether safety necessities could be achieved (Redsicker, 1996). Once consent is issued, the similar authority might examine the location as well as monitor safety throughout the presentation, with the power to stop the progress of operations, when unapproved performance are perceived or when unexpected hazards occur. Comparison Fire and Rescue Services in West Yorkshire and Abu Dhabi Yorkshire fire rescue service can be compared to the Abu Dhabi fire safety service. The two fire services work to reduce injuries in the community by detecting, preventing and responding to all kinds of fire emergencies. Communities and local governments work together to ensure that the fire and rescue services are equipped to deal with incidents. Workers are trained in the local organisations to be fully prepared fro any disaster. Abu Dhabi and Yorkshire fire and rescue services are well equipped through new dimension programmes to provide the best possible response to any major incident. Fire control projects equipped with the latest technology are available to improve communications, sharing of data and making it easier to deal with major regional or national incidents. The two fire services have strategies aimed at improving response across boarders through the identification of the nearest appliance regardless of the country boundaries. Conclusion The fire service has for many years dealt with difficult and complex situations which call upon firefighters to apply many and varied skills to resolve life threatening situations. As time has progressed equipment, procedures and legislation have developed to ensure crews can be increasingly effective in resolving such incidents. This has resulted in the formation of a dedicated Technical Rescue team within the new community safety organisation (Richardson 2006). To achieve the best results some teams have an ‘open door’ policy with the philosophy of learning and open discussion with all. Close working relationships therefore must exist with other departments of the Fire Service. WYFRS needs also to be able to cope with and recovery from a range of unexpected disruptive events, for example building collapse, or natural disasters. In our ever changing world, materials are continually developed and produced for commercial and domestic markets, which often have an impact on human and animal life as well as the wider environment. In order for the Service to discharge its functions, it has a team of experienced Hazardous Materials and Environmental Protection Officers (HMEPO) who have trained and qualified at the national Fire Service College. This team provides an immediate response in the form of a Hazardous Materials Advisor, providing guidance and support to Incident Commanders at a full range of operational incidents either as part of a pre determined attendance or on request directed from the incident ground (Redsicker, 1996). The team also provides advice and support to the organisation effected after the safety critical phase. It’s believed that keeping communities safe involves more than just preventing crime and disorder – individuals must also create social and economic change. But if they are to make their communities safer, they must all work together as a team. There should be a well structured plan on how the organisation undertakes its services; this will help to create efficiency in the system as it maximizes the available resources.  Recommendation Most fire stations in Yorkshire have fire safety education programs. One role of the Fire Prevention Officers is to make stopovers in schools to teach children the way to prevent fires as well as the actions they ought to take should a fire occur. Fire prevention programs may possibly comprise of the allocation of smoke detectors, making stopovers to schools to evaluate main issues with the students along with implementing nationwide acknowledged programs like ‘‘Risk Watch’’ and ‘‘Learn not to burn.’’ Additional programs or else supports could be purchased through fire departments or community organisations. These are generally compelling and planned in the direction of attracting children's concentration and transmit vital messages. Supports comprise those that are typically auditory, like puppets and robots. The prop has been visually inspiring however the security communication is simply conveyed verbally. Other supports are more complicated; access more senses as well as enlarges the learning factor. They blend audio information and image queues through hands-on contact. A case in point for these includes a mobile trailer security dwelling as well as tabletop risk house simulators. All programs in Yorkshire have a propensity to combine messages of common damage prevention, safety, fire prevention in addition to escape in case of fire. In a good number of instances the fire safety officer is regarded as the professional and is anticipated to convey information in a way that is suitable for every age cluster. The company should extend their services by incorporating or developing its Hazardous Response Team to earn more money within its activities as it helps the community to take care of their surrounding. For efficiency in the Operational Assurance system the company should be carrying out an independently test Incident Commanders at random within the training centre in Bradford so that it can assess its efficiency in responding to emergency. The organisation should merge with the surrounding Fire Service to purchase together fire equipments as well as train their procurement team together as they share their professional experience. This will in improving the organisation service in the delivery of first class service to customers. The Community Fire Safety Team should also contribute to helping the minority groups in the society by attracting these groups to have time with them as they advise them to join the team in delivery services hence creating employment opportunity. Bibliographies Nicolas, B 2001. Fire Services. London: Heinemann Library, pp.23-27 Redsicker, DR 1996. Practical fire and arson Investigation. New York: CRC press, pp.231-238. Smeby, CL 2005. Fire and emergency service administration. New York: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Dylan, BThis email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it  2007. Business.com: Abu Dhabi to outsource non-core activities. Retrieved on: http://www.arabianbusiness.com/index.php. Parliament, Great Britain, 2006. The Fire and Rescue Service. London: TSO Shop - Publisher David. M 2000. The Community Developmental Projects. Oxford University Press. Mikhail. B 1995. Application of technology in community safety. London: Simon and Schuster. Morris, KM & Alan MS 2000. The Guide to Understanding Community Safety Practices. 3rd Ed. London: Simon and Schuster William G & Collins P 1998. Straight from the CEO: the World’s Top Business Leaders Reveal Ideas that every Manager can Use. London: Simon and Schuster Richardson. B 2006. Harvard Business School press Release Activity: Community Safety Journal of A case of Community Safety Practices, vol.19, Issue 2/08. Read More