Fire and Rescue Service Management - Assignment Example

Note: Presentation will follow in the evening today (UK time). Thanks!! FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICE MANAGEMENT Quality and Standards 1. Assessment of the validity and benefits of the Oxfordshire IRMP against each element of the HSG 65 framework. a. Policy A fire and rescue service health and safety management policy according to in HSE guide for measuring performance must exist, meets legal requirements and best practices, up to date, and being implemented effectively. In addition, to determine if the policy is being implemented effectively, it should reflect in the overall performance results and audit (HSE 2001, p.12). With the presence of Oxfordshire IRMP from 2008 to 2011, there is not doubt that the health and safety management system exist and on its way. The legal obligation that must be met is the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 where it requires the fire authorities to plan, equip, and respond to the needs of the localities. In the first requirement, the Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service had complied by establishing an integrated risk management plan from 2008 to 2011 which seems being updated yearly as evidenced by the existence of IRMP 2010-2011. The organisation framework has been designed to meet known local needs in compliance with existing laws and national standards of service. The requirements to provide a personnel and equipment had been met since there are 44 standard fire engines and 6 reserved vehicles in their facility. These fire engines contain water, fire fighting and rescue equipment including cutting gear for removing people from crashed vehicles. Aside from these standard equipments, the Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service also have specialist vehicles such as Aerial Ladder Platform, Detection, Identification and Monitoring Units, Environmental Protection Unit, Heavy Rescue Unit, and many other highly useful modern equipments including two 4x4 vehicle for off-road response (OFRS 2007, p.5-76). In terms of best practices as required by legislations and statutory frameworks, the Oxfordshire IRMP did set their own standard to respond to all incident types in just 10 minutes. Emergency calls will be answered in 10 seconds and emergency response will be mobilised within one minute. The response standard set by the Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue is to ensure effective response while maintaining a safe system of work. In dealing with other emergencies such as those involving terrorism, chemical, and nuclear threats, decontamination facilities have been improved by the addition of specialist vehicles and other related equipments. The improvement also includes special training for associated personnel (OFRS 2007, p.77). Effective implementation of the policy can be determined by the overall performance and audit. In the first quarter 2008, the reported response time to emergencies within 11 minutes was 81% which is 1.11% higher than the target. Accidental fire deaths and injuries from fires in the home were also reduced by about 25% (OFRS 2008, p.1-4). The OFRS IRMP includes systems for monitoring, auditing, and reviewing the effectiveness of the plan. Performance is being measured against a series of national Best Value Performance Indicators in terms of speed and weight of attack, number of fires, injuries and casualties, and availability of resources. In addition, comparative performance is obtained through performance of other fire and rescue service having the same profile to Oxfordshire such as Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and others. The effectiveness of each component part of OFRS is being monitored and reviewed by the Comprehensive Performance Assessment. For this reason, OFRS had established a Performance Review Department to ensure monitoring and evaluation of its core activities. At this time, OFRS is audited by the HM Fire Inspectorate and accepting feedback from the users of their service (OFRS 2007, p.79). b. Organising According to HSE, the measurement should be based on the existence, adequacy and implementation arrangements such as establishment and maintenance of management control of health and safety within the organisation. The IRMP must promote cooperation and participation of individuals effectively including safety representatives and other related groups. Maintain effective communication and ensure competence of the service employees (HSE 2001, p.12). One of the main objectives of OFRS IRMP is to maintain the level of their performance and satisfaction of the community they serve. For this reason, they have to maintain control of the health and safety management within the organisation. OFRS IRMP includes development of quality assurance and client satisfaction systems to maintain the level of the organisation’s performance. It also includes performance targets and local performance indicators to maintain control and effectiveness of the health and safety management system. In terms of cooperation, it intends to develop effective working partnerships, maximise existing staff resources, and work with business owners to encourage them to conduct their own risk assessments (OFRS 2007, p.62). c. Planning and Implementing Generally, to gauge the adequacy of the plan, it should have a clear objective for developing and maintaining the health and safety management system. It must be designed and developed to handle management arrangements, risk control systems, and workplace precautions suitable to the requirement of the organisation (HSE 2001, p.12). The OFRS IRMP is understandable and with a strong desire to develop, maintains, and improves the health and safety management system. For instance, the plan sets a high standard for the next few years built from past experiences and intends to deliver an ever stronger, safer, and professional service. More importantly, the OFRS IRMP is both an assessment and a strategic tool that will be use to advise the community of the potential consequences of known risks and how it can be avoided. The IRMP also adopted an evidence-based improvement and seeks to inform policy development, resource allocation, and service delivery through quantitative and qualitative data. To support the IRMP processes, OFRS will use the Fire Service Emergency Cover provided by the Communities and Local Government to ensure manager’s effective analysis of existing risks and accurate response planning. The data would come from national trends, research and focus on local experience such as population factors, environmental hazards assessments, major incident hazard profiling, and data from built environment and transport infrastructures (OFRS 2007, p.14). In order to effectively implement the IRMP, OFRS intends to introduce the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 since it’s new to the fire and rescue service. It would improve and update the database of risk, set effective priorities and targets for fire protection, set local performance indicators, link existing fire risk and fire protection into the IRMP, training and development of workforce in accordance with best practice, partnerships, quality assurance, placement of appropriate technical support and information systems, and ensuring that quality management is suitable for the purpose (OFRS 2007, p.62). d. Measuring Performance and Audit Review Essential to the health and safety management system, an IRMP must have an audit and review provision or measuring activities designed to assess the performance of the organisation (HSE 2001, p.13). With OFRS IRMP, the design of the organisational structure is flexible enough to meet locally identified needs in compliance with current legislative and governance frameworks. For this reason, there are managers assigned to monitor service delivery and service support functions. The Service Delivery Manager, which is under the Deputy Chief Officer, is responsible for monitoring the performance of the policy areas. Meanwhile, the Service Support Manager’s responsibility is to ensure that the service’s support functions are efficient enough in delivering the service. The use of qualitative and quantitative data to determine the level of performance would help the organisation maintain the service delivery standard and provide accurate performance monitoring and management. Monitoring performance is vital to OFRS thus it has included a quality audit system and review of progress programmes. For instance, the 2007 review of progress has led to further development of the fire protection function and result to various initiatives (OFRS 2007, p.71). 2. Appraisal of the appropriateness of the existing output measures of the document, which related to the key strategic objectives of the organisation against the Fire and Rescue Service National Framework document 2008-2011. According to the Fire and Rescue National Framework 2008-2011, an Integrated Risk Management Planning is generally helpful in reducing fire deaths and deliberate fires. In addition, it provides the Fire and Rescue Service with the freedom to locally assess the risk, economy, and the environment in their respective communities and meet challenges in prevention, protection, and response activities. In view of these benefits, an IRMP must follow certain rules to be effective and benefit from these positive outcomes. Primarily, leadership and management must be effective and seeking genuine engagement with the members of the community, eager to have a strong relationship with partners, and willing to develop a workforce that is representative of the people they serve. In addition, management should ensure that they are well integrated with nearby localities and having joint that they can use to respond to any type of incidents (Communities and Local Government 2001, p.12). Considering the above objectives, priorities, and other criteria set by the Fire and Rescue National framework, the OFRS IRMP primarily is publicly available and covering more at least three years time span and regularly reviewed and revised as mentioned earlier. The OFRS IRMP therefore met the first primary requirement and up to date in terms of information and evaluation of service delivery performance. In terms of regard to the risk analysis from local and regional resilience forums including those coming from Community Risk Register and internal risk registers, the OFRS IRMP took into account civil contingencies and disaster caused by unusual and major incidents such as a terrorist or biological attack. It had adequately collaborated with Thames Valley and South-East Regional Emergency Services. In fact, the development of OFRS IRMP was based on the system provided by the Communities and Local Government and a number of data sources such as socio-demographic data from census, empirical Fire and Rescue Service activity data and other critical information coming from local and national agencies (OFRS 2007, p.17). In terms of consultation during the development and review stages of the IRMP, OFRS had effectively managed to consult the public and extends the consultation process to every individual that has a legitimate interest in the IRMP development. These include reaching young people, ethnic minorities, stakeholders, volunteer organisations, business community, employees, and other interested parties. In view of demonstrating how prevention, protection, and response activities will be executed to cost-effectively limit the consequences of risk in the community, the OFRS IRMP, made sure that the highest standards will be provided through skilful and cost-effective use of resources. For instance, establishing a risk profile for Oxfordshire can help limit the consequences of risk since they are identified early in the process and can be assess for proper control. Another is the use of FSEC to study population trends that can help identify various socio-economic factors that could affect public services in the future. The built environment study also helps identify the level of risk and prioritisation of response and prevention (OFRS 2007, p.19). In terms of internal affairs such as the diversity of the workforce, the OFRS IRMP is very keen to have family-friendly policies for staff and diversity issues resolved. The workforce development is considered a legal obligation of OFRS thus it intends to maintain a full complement of qualified staff and continues training particularly on staff belonging to the Service Delivery group. The vision of “Making Oxfordshire Safer for All” includes promoting equality of opportunity for all members of the service and recognition of individuals and team achievements (OFRS 2007, p.7). In general, the OFRS IRMP has adequately managed to comply with the expectation set by the Fire and Rescue National Framework 2008-2011 as evidenced by a number of relevant activities and model adapted by OFRS. The existing output measures of the document in relation to the Fire and Rescue Service National Framework documents are no doubt appropriate and correct. 3. Critical review of the outputs of the document that identifies proof regarding quality enhancement with the organisation. Primarily, any fire and rescue service is being assessed on its timely response and effective fire fighting or rescue attempts. As mentioned earlier, the OFRS had set its own response standards through its IRMP. Before, from 2003 to 2005, the response time for a fire incident was more than 14 minutes but with the new IRMP, an attempt would be made to enhance response time to 11 minutes. Moreover, by 2010 the target number of accidental fire-related deaths in the home would be reduce to 20%.In general, the IRMP intends to save at least 365 lives while saving £100 million by 2016. OFRS would achieve these by attempting to delivery safety strategies for families and young people and promote of equality for members of the service. In addition, encourage individual and teams to attain higher achievement and meet the service’s response target (OFRS 2007, p.12). Risk Profiling is one notable quality enhancement with the organisation because it can considerably give the service an advantage over potential risk that may influence their performance targets in the future. Identification of risks such as those that threatens the lives of the population, risks that are coming from the built environment, transport infrastructure, and the natural environment can help the service to develop strategies that can specifically prioritise response based on the likelihood of the risks. Moreover, inclusion of local population trends in the risk management can greatly enhance planning fire risk area and identification of factors that may affect future public services. Since potential fire loss in built environment can have great consequences on national scale, mapping and risk assessment of these structures can help determine the actual risks levels the service must plan and anticipate in the future (OFRS 2007, p.17). Another quality enhancement to the service is its response to automatic fire alarm system which previously bringing special problems for fire fighting teams. For instance, unwanted fire signals from these systems creates unnecessary deployment of resources and increased risk to fire fighters and the public. The present OFRS IRMP, now challenges calls from this sources and will only respond when there is confirmation of fire in the area. However, if a call comes from previously determined and risk assessed premises, calls would be process immediately without delay particularly when a fire is confirmed (OFRS 2007, p.24). Another quality enhancement to the service is considerations made on the significant implications of increasing traffic in the county since this could affect the service activity level specifically the response time. Risk profiling road traffic can help the service identify and predict the possible location, time, rate of occurrence, and likely impact of incidents. In addition to road traffic assessments, it is also a quality enhancement of the service to consider the impact and develop contingency plans for rail and air transport infrastructure in the area. Since the country have two major railways running through different directions, one busy international airport, and three military airfields, planning for major incidents is so essential. Similarly, enhancement in quality of service by assessing risks coming from the natural environment helps safeguard the community against pollution and other harmful environmental hazards (OFRS 2007, p.30-34). In its annual report for 2008-2009, the Oxfordshire council was awarded a Charter Mark in customer service and the audit commission has considered the council as one organisation with a “robust policy framework for promoting equality” (OFRS 2008, p.20). This is probably because, as contained in the IRMP for 2008 to2013, the organisation has used its resources efficiently. The Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service was also assessed as service delivering excellent response as there were notable reduction of fatalities and injuries. Bibliography: Communities and Local Government, 2008, Fire and Rescue Service National Framework: 2008-11, UK: Department for Communities and Local Government HSE, 2001, A Guide to Measuring Health & Safety Performance, UK: Health & Safety Executive OFRS, 2007, Integrated Risk Management Plan: 2008-2013, UK: Oxfordshire County Council OFRS, 2008, Quarterly Performance Information, UK: Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service Read More