Fire Safety Awareness - Case Study Example

Bradford Fire Safety Awareness in Bradford Name Course Instructor’s Name July 13, 2010 Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Recruitment of staff 4 Resources required 7 Evaluation of the project 8 Policies to be used 10 Application of principles of operational assurance 11 Conclusion 11 References 12 Introduction In this modern world, every community is at the look out of disaster and emergency control (Communities and Local Government, 2009). Most effort is directed on the awareness and preparedness of the society concerning the dangers of fire breakdown and teaching the entire public and society on various methods of fire avoidance and response to fire breakdown, which is a cost efficient program for fire prevention. The society-training program, which is perceived as worthy, is meant to assist in lessening of fire breakdown, occurrence of injury related to fire, property loss and finally death. Despite of this, there is dissimilarity of labors directed on the society and public training on fire across the world. In several countries, the society outreach training offers education on fire of which is very concentrated to most levels school grade but in other countries the teaching is more limited on talks (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2005). It has been noted that, due to lack of interest from the entire society in matters pertaining fire prevention, insufficient or lack of fire fighting equipments, lack of materials and inadequate time in most school programs that can enhance inclusion of fire information. Other factors include lack of interest from the fire brigade and minimal incentives from the insurance players are some of the major hindrances to effective delivery of fire education (Smith, 2007). However, information sharing on fire safety programs can be of great help in minimizing the above-mentioned hindrances. This study has been done with an aim of teaching the lower (primary) school pupils on safety of fire (Communities and Local Government, 2009). The proposed project will entail enrolment of two full time staffs whose work is to convey the project by acting as community fire safety practitioners. This project proposal offers physical resources expenditure and financial cost consideration and the means of procuring these materials and resources for the proposed project. It will also offer a means of assessing the proposed project once commissioned. It will also discuss in details how the stated principles on operational assurance will be functional in the project running. Recruitment of staff Older children are usually fearful as compared to the younger ones. This is so due to the fact that older children comprehend the outcomes or dangers of a disaster such as fire breakdown. Most children end up learning about fear out of experience (Flynn, 2009). Majority of these children are in a position to learn vivid by use of graphical imagination of substances if only they are well defined and elaborated to them. In case of a disaster older children experience reasoned fear. Hence, children are required to learn the means of overcoming and facing the fear of fire breakdown from a tender age. As most tutors lacks training on the methods to be applied when teaching on disaster education like fire breakdown to the children, the teaching method of this tutor therefore relies on individual interest of every teacher and on top of that his creativity in the direction of motivating the children is very crucial (Flynn, 2009). The presence of enthusiastic tutors who are willing and able to elaborate to his children concerning fire breakdown is very crucial in the on going fire safety knowledge among these primary school children. Every role facilitated by the tutor in the presentation of resources among children with dissimilar backgrounds, interests and wants is very important (Smith, 2007). Recent researchers have shown that, the interaction mode of tutors with the primary children has a direct outcome on extend to which the children are brought up on matters of disaster awareness more so fire breakdown. Therefore, there is a great need to offer most teachers the fire breakdown safety awareness education. Hence, these teachers require to be offered with effective information on previous fire disasters and other related fire hazards that are most likely to occur in schools and in residence. In addition, the teachers should be trained also on ways of contacting usual meetings with the children’s parents from primary school. This will in return enhance the teachers in gaining more information about the children and the children’s reaction towards the fire safety education. It is also very important to provide these teachers with the necessary information concerning how to build up incentives for the children in primary school in order to carry out drills while at home (Flynn, 2009). This helps the children to transmit whatever they attain from their respective schools to their families. In such a case, we propose the hiring of an instructor who will train the teachers. This instructor must have a wide-ranging knowledge concerning fire prevention and safety. The instructor is required to have a very high qualification in community disaster management most likely a degree, with additional of more than two years working experience within the society in fire prevention and safety programs (Smith, 2007). The instructor shall be in charge of developing an excellent training curriculum and will also be expected to work hard in ensuring that every teacher included in the training is followed to make sure they put into operation what they acquired during training period. The vacancy will be displayed and advertised in media and via the internet to attract an instructor of higher qualifications and excellent performance in training. Although the advertisement expense is expected to be high, the instructor to hold this position will realize the seriousness of the proposed project and position. The qualified candidate will have to make a formal application for the vacancy, and only the shortlisted individuals will be called for interview plus practical tests on matters pertaining capability of carrying out drills (Communities and Local Government, 2009). Every trained teacher will be expected to transmit the gained knowledge to the children in primary school. Some of the methods to be used entail songs, drills and games on fire prevention and safety; hence, an officer mainly a fire field officer will be employed to assist in the implementation of drills while the teachers train the primary children (MSU Resource Management Principles, 2004). This officer must possess the skills of safety and prevention as well as have knowledge and outward ability of performing the drills in a creativity manner such that the children will be willing to be involved actively. This position also will be published through the media and internet in order to attract highly talented and qualified candidates. The staffs to bear these posts will be hired in a fair and reasonable manner. The staffs will be chosen on worth and in agreement to the legislation governing service and excellent practice. This will aid in evading discrimination of every type during hiring process (Smith, 2007). The National Firefighter Selection Tests will be applied to choose candidates to bear the two posts. The instructor of teachers’ post will be given on a five-month contract on basis renewable for some other five months depending on the outcome of evaluation of the proposed project. Immediately after the first five months, it is anticipated that at least two teachers from Bradford are trained on how to teach the primary children on fire prevention and safety (Smith, 2007). In the following next five months of the project, all trained teachers will be given refresher classes to enable their training abilities. The vacancy of the field fire safety officer will be given on a nine-month contract basis and it will also be renewable depending on the results of the project assessment results. The payment for the two positions will be in agreement to the doctrine of non discrimination and justice together with the legal necessity of equal reimbursement for equal worth. Hence, the workers costs and wages levels are projected to be competitive in order to enhance attraction of the worth candidates for the two posts. Resources required Unique fire safety awareness materials that will be made use of to create awareness among the Bradford children will be needed. The materials will entail books, video games, charts, audio visual and manuals (Flynn, 2009). These materials will be of different information depending on the grade of the children. They will also be made use by the instructor of teachers to educate the teachers and thereafter be used by the teachers in educating the primary children. Hence, every pilot school that will participate in the project will be provided with such materials. Once the project is successful, other schools may also be offered with such materials to assist in educating the rest of the primary children in Bradford (Communities and Local Government, 2009). During the training session, several boardrooms for accommodating the training of teachers will be hired. In addition, different training materials to be applied in drills will be offered (MSU Resource Management Principles, 2004). On the side of a field, follow up car will be needed to enhance transportation of materials, which will be applied in refresher and drills training courses. A non-dependent sector will be selected to offer advice, which is self-governing, and be concerned in the evaluation of various procedures of procurement of materials that will be used in the project (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2005). The skilled sector is expected to offer critical advice and evaluate the procurement documentation via tender invitation. This sector will also build up an in-sourcing costing model that will be used as a bench point for the assessment of the reply to tenders. The advisory sector will also review and develop a way out strategy and framework for conversion of contractor. A concise invitation to tender paper is expected to be made by the external advisors. This paper is expected to offer a level playing ground for prospective contractors. The invitation to tender structure and format will also help in the assessment of bids. The established costing model for the in sourcing of material stipulation will be used in the evaluation of the reply from bidders in conditions of value for money. The model will assist in weighing against the outsourced provider expenditure, pass through expenditure and subcontractor expenditure, which will enable justice in the comparison procedure (Communities and Local Government, 2009). The model will make use of a pro-forma financial program, which will assist in the assessment procedure of the bids. Project materials will be placed in an order of precedence to make sure that bidders have utmost focus in the invitation to tender. Evaluation of the project The objectives include: To educate primary school tutors on methods of training the primary children on fire prevention and safety. To support awareness amongst schoolchildren on fire prevention and safety. To offer primary schools materials for learning about fire safety. To assess the benefits of the education in primary school children concerning fire prevention and safety in schools and homes. Children are perceived as future assets of diverse communities. The inevitable nature of various disasters, the irregularity of such disasters and the call for safety of children is the driving effort behind this project. In situations of fire incidence, children are the mainly affected since they do not know how to act in response to such awful situations. Hence, there is a need to be aware of how to respond in such kind of situations from early stages of their lives so as to lessen the injuries and damages associated with fire breakdown. Teachers are the main guardian of children thus; they are anticipated to play a vital role in the promotion of awareness on fire prevention and safety to these children (MSU Resource Management Principles, 2004). In view of the fact that most of them are not trained or may have very diminutive knowledge on fire safety, they will be initiated to promote awareness among the children. After training session, the teachers will then participate in the creation of fire safety awareness among the children (Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, 2005). A number of drills will be conducted in dissimilar schools to assess and estimate the impact of the project. The limitations and benefits of the project will be analysed and necessary remedial action taken. The assessment process will be carried out by a self-regulating assessment sector. The sector will be projected to assess the usefulness of fire safety awareness amongst the primary school children (Smith, 2007). The sector will also make sure of impartiality since it will be self-regulating from the line of project management. The reliability of the project will also be evaluated depending on the modes of evaluation embarked on by the evaluators. The sector is anticipated to carry out the evaluation procedures transparently. The evaluation procedure will be directed by reviewing the indicators of performance that will entail the outputs, impacts and outcomes. Outputs in this project will include assessment of the teachers training process (MSU Resource Management Principles, 2004). Outcome will entail the ability of the trained teachers to establish fire safety awareness amongst the primary school children. The impacts of the project to be assessed will involve assessing of the usefulness of the awareness of fire safety in schools and homes as measured from the drills. The assessment will be done twice in the course of the project. The self-regulating assessment will act as a learning device and a way of demonstrating accountability (Communities and Local Government, 2009). The assessment will act as a learning mode on how to strengthen the awareness on fire safety and prevention and how the project resources can be made use of effectively. It assists in evaluating how well the objectives of the project would have been expressed and achieved. It will also estimate the quality of activities included in the process of awareness creation and how the activities meet up the children awareness of fire safety. As a result of limited funding of projects, several donors focus on the end results, thus the self-regulating evaluation will offer accountability of the project. Policies to be used The implementation of this proposed project will be directed by the fire and rescue service policies on training and community development. Since the project will include the education department, the policies directing the running of schools will hold on to avoid inconveniences with the usual school curriculum (MSU Resource Management Principles, 2004). Hence, the stakeholder of this project will be both the rescue service and Bradford fire department. These two sectors will be conferred with on the policies that will direct the implementation of the project to do away with any conflict of interest. The choosing of schools, teachers to be educated and training materials will be directed by the training regulations of the rescue and fire department in Bradford. Application of principles of operational assurance The addition of design assurance is defined to as operation assurance. Design assurance entails validating designs and employing information technology systems (Smith, 2007). Operation assurance makes certain that the operation of information and technology systems gratifies certain requirements. Since information and technology will be taken up in the project, there is a want for security of the information and technology systems (Flynn, 2009). Layered protections will be applied to give this security. This kind of security will be able to offer a full spectrum of safety against all information technology system threats. This is as a result of allowing use of several protection approaches, which overlie and addresses technology, persons and operation phase of the IT system (MSU Resource Management Principles, 2004). The embracing of this operation assurance standard is informed by the fact that the IT systems to be applied in the project will be greatly interactive with other systems and hence making sure the ultimate protection of the project’s IT systems and other systems to which the system will be linked to need to be protected. Thus, failure of the other systems will not influence the project’s IT system. Conclusion As children form the stage of future generation in the society. Their defence from any disaster is supreme. From the researchers’ point of view, training of children on disaster management from a tender age is crucial in establishing awareness on safety. This project aims to create awareness amongst primary school children concerning fire safety awareness. This is projected to minimize injuries and deaths of little children during fire incidence since most of them are not aware on how to act in response to such emergencies. The training of teachers is anticipated to facilitate faster achievement of the project. The assessment of the project will be done by a self-regulating body of assessors to determine the credibility, usefulness and the impact of the project ones made to order. The hiring of the two staff members is projected to facilitate the teachers training and implementation of the project together with the internal evaluation of the aims of the project. References Communities and Local Government. 2009. National Procurement Strategy for the Fire and Rescue Service in England 2009-12. Available at www.communities.gov.uk Flynn, J. 2009. Fire Service Performance Measures. National Fire Protection Association Fire Analysis and Research Division. MSU Resource Management Principles. 2004. Resource Management Principles: Approaches to Planning and Budgeting. Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. 2005. National Procurement Strategy for the Fire and Rescue Service: 2005-2008. Smith, D. 2007. Revenue and Capital Budgets 2007/08: Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Authority. Available at www.manchesterfire.gov.uk Read More