Quality and Standard in Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service - Case Study Example

Name : xxxxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : Quality and Standard in Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxxx @2010 Table of Contents Title : Quality and Standard in Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service 1 Table of Contents 2 Abstract 3 Introduction 4 The UK government has asserted that there must be a programme of modernization and reform of framework in which the fire service operates. One of the major aspects of reform programme by the government is the requirement for fire authorities to come up with an integrated risk management plan (IRMP) that will lead to improved safety of the community and increased productive utilization of fire service resources. The process of integrated risk management planning is delivered by creation of a three year rolling strategy with a yearly action plan produced with details of proposed projects for the present year. 4 The integrated risk management plan will enable Derbyshire fire and recue service to reform and improve in the manner the service functions and will also help the service to deliver the accomplishments of considerably reduced deliberate fires and fire deaths. The Fire service will use the plan to evaluate hazard to societies entailing risk to the economy, life, environment and heritage and use its resource more flexibly in protection, response and prevention measures, to meet free challenges and deliver improved outcomes for societies. 5 Methodology 5 Derbyshire fire and rescue service integrated risk management plan 5 Quality assurance systems in the fire and rescue services 8 Fire incident recording 8 Command support system 9 Sprinkler system 9 Appropriateness of integrated financial planning in Derbyshire fire and rescue service 11 Quality assurance system used by the Derbyshire fire and rescue service 12 Fire safety advice for home 12 The new dimension programme 13 Civil resilience scheme 14 Operational assurance system 14 Incident recording system 15 Application of QA systems to ensure consistent proof of quality assurance enhancement in Derbyshire fire and rescue service 16 Conclusion 17 Bibliography 17 Abstract Over the recent years the Derbyshire fire and rescue service has made a considerable contribution to reducing fire risks and accidents and improving the safety and well being of the local communities. The local government has come up with targets to lessen deliberate fires and accidental fires deaths and has increased funding fire authorities to enable them deliver quality services that will ensure maximum protection of local communities from fire risks. The number of fires and deaths in Derbyshire continue to go down as a result of quality fire fighting schemes we use. Introduction The UK government has asserted that there must be a programme of modernization and reform of framework in which the fire service operates. One of the major aspects of reform programme by the government is the requirement for fire authorities to come up with an integrated risk management plan (IRMP) that will lead to improved safety of the community and increased productive utilization of fire service resources. The process of integrated risk management planning is delivered by creation of a three year rolling strategy with a yearly action plan produced with details of proposed projects for the present year. The integrated risk management plan will enable Derbyshire fire and recue service to reform and improve in the manner the service functions and will also help the service to deliver the accomplishments of considerably reduced deliberate fires and fire deaths. The Fire service will use the plan to evaluate hazard to societies entailing risk to the economy, life, environment and heritage and use its resource more flexibly in protection, response and prevention measures, to meet free challenges and deliver improved outcomes for societies. Methodology This work is compiled after using information on the quality assurance measures used by the Derbyshire fire and rescue in making sure the services delivered are of good quality and meet the fire and rescue standards. I have looked at the Derbyshire fire and rescue service integrated risk management and how it identifies, assesses and act to reduce fire risks and ensure community safety. I have also looked at the quality assurance fire and rescue systems used by our service and how these systems work to minimize fire risks and make Derbyshire a safe place to work, visit and live. Derbyshire fire and rescue service integrated risk management plan According to Martinez (2007, 110), Integrated Risk Management Plan describes the manner in which the fire and rescue service recognizes, evaluates and takes action so as to minimize the risks faced by the society, form fire and other crisis that have the ability to cause damage and harm to humans and environment, both natural and built. Our risk managed move toward society safety, fire safety enforcement and inspection, and arrangements to emergency response all lead to a safer environment for the residents of Derbyshire. The three major areas of integrated risk management planning are intervention, prevention and protection. Intervention covers the manner in which the Derbyshire responds to operational events involving the giving of risk information, handling of emergency calls and actual operational response. According to The Stationery Office Books ( 2004), this involves making sure that response resources are in line with the identified needs in Derbyshire, making sure that our operational response are in line with the legislative needs of the 2004 fire and rescue service act and other associated guidance and legislation. Intervention also entails doing research on operational response internationally and nationally to make sure that good practice is considered elsewhere and developing the identified good practice to meet the requirements of our communities and people( Kandola, 2008). Prevention covers our plan for identifying the individuals that are at risk form fire and other crisis, and the actions that we carry out so as to minimize community risk. The aim of using preventive measures is to render Derbyshire a safer region to work, visit and live. The prevention section is presently focusing on ensuring that home fire safety checks are distributed around the region to an acceptable and common standards and partner agency staff are used to aid in this procedure. Rivera (2007) argues that Derbyshire fire and rescue service are presently enjoying a considerable reduction in the figure of people who perish in home fires and this is as a result of the detectors fitted and advice offered during home fire safety checks. Fire authorities have the responsibility of enforcing the order in non residential premises in the county. The order is designed to safeguard individuals from fire, and groups and individuals who control the buildings are responsible for making sure that people around and in them aren’t at hazard from fire and its impacts. The order also involves powers to make sure that the facilities within the buildings to help firefighter in their task are available and maintained. (Robertson, 2004). Every work on premises that are subject to construction control legislation needs building regulation authorities to consult us and the responses we offer to these consultations is our chance to create awareness of our reservation on the appropriateness of the recommended fire safety solutions. We have reservations on risk to firefighters, public and occupiers who attend these consultations. So as to make sure that identical standards are established across the region, reference is made to numerous codes of practice published by the government (The National Archives, 2005 ). Quality assurance systems in the fire and rescue services Fire incident recording The department for communities and local government gathers data on severe fires, resultant injuries and deaths from the 59 United Kingdom fire and rescue services. The fire and rescue services staff employs the incident recording system to undertake their quality assurance. The incident recording system enables data on all fire incidents attended by the fire and rescue services to be electronically collected and validated at the source, and this improves the accuracy and timeliness of the present manual collection (Allocco, 2006). As a consequence of being a complete electronic system, the incident recording system delivers considerable efficiencies at stage from recording, through legalization, to outputs. In order to enhance efficient recording of main data the incident recording system is especially assisted by automated pre population of recruitment details from the existing control and command systems of the fire and rescue services. The fire and resilience department offers technical training courses and several fire and rescue services get training form software suppliers on the standards and use of the incident recording system. The fire and rescue services have the responsibility of cascading the training to every user of the system. The incident recording help desk deals with email and telephone enquiries regarding production systems and training. Command support system The command support system integrates into a simple to use; drag and drop interface a variety of diverse display and communications technologies. These entail the GIS mapping, imagery streaming web access and automatic incident logging. National Audit Office (2010) argues that through offering a variety of collection of functionality, the command support system offers the widest probable choice of vital event information for fire and rescue services commanders at every level of an event in the shortest duration possible, therefore assisting them to increase their decision making and situational awareness (Cote, 2006). Sprinkler system While sprinklers have been utilized in protection of property like factories and warehouses, there is an expanding identification of their efficiency in improving the levels of life and property safety in other forms of premises. According to The Stationery office, (2007), the Approved document B of the building regulations and technical handbooks of Scottish building standards have both integrated clear recognition of the worth of sprinkler system in improving safety levels for occupants and preventing spread of fire. Sprinklers also offer extra levels of protection for fire fighters in complex, large structures and in premises where there is excessive fire load. There is an increasing conscious that sprinklers provide a greatly cost effective way of minimizing the UKs terrible fire fatalities toll. The Wales government has required new building owners to design automatic sprinkler installations and fit latest standard of the domestic and residential sprinkler systems together with smoke management strategies. Quality sprinkler standards will save on construction and enhance them to work effectively work within buildings that are functional for business and residence while maintaining highest standards of fire safety management. Whilst smoke alarms and fire detection schemes possibly save approximately 80 lives every year, this number is not likely to improve. It is evident that while it is the most susceptible members of our community such as the very old, very young and the disabled and also people who unwisely use alcohol and drugs, sprinklers can effectively prevent fire fatalities. In social housing, care buildings, houses in multiple occupation and hostels, sprinklers provide the best opportunity of avoiding deaths when a fire occurs (National Audit Office, 2009). According to Dennett, (2007), sprinklers are environmental friendly since they protect the environment through controlling fire in early stages, avoiding airborne together with water runoff pollution. They also permit building design flexibility and save building costs since under building regulations huge compartment sizes and are constructed and extended distances and reduced boundary to fire exits are permitted. Sprinklers designed and installed in accord with BS EN 12845 Fixed fire fighting systems in regard to automatic sprinkler systems. Appropriateness of integrated financial planning in Derbyshire fire and rescue service The fire and rescue authority integrates its financial and corporate planning process and links them to risk management. It then integrates planning for other resources like capital, human resources and physical assets. The service manager must understand and contribute to planning procedure which assists in ensuring the agreed plans of the fire and rescue authority reflect service delivery. Fire and rescue service is funded by the council tax and government grants and thus it is essential that services offer value for money and meet continuous improvement agenda of the government. Auditing is essential for Derbyshire fire and rescue service since it looks for better means of undertaking things and checking out that the organization is doing what is required. Process audit ensures that procedures are correctly followed to minimize errors and offer constituency, ensuring regulations and legislation are followed and that needs are being met. Auditing ensures compliance with management system offers information for managers so that they are conscious of level of performance and able to make informed decisions and increases quality awareness as people at every level may contribute to improvement. Auditing also contributes to reduction of internal costs by assisting in identification of potential inefficiencies in procedures and assist in maintenance of standards through reviewing achievements and targets. Quality assurance system used by the Derbyshire fire and rescue service Fire safety advice for home The Derbyshire fire and rescue service has launched a safe as houses campaign to minimize the incidents of accidental household fires that are experienced in houses across North West Derbyshire. We believe that almost all home fires can be avoided and we are conscious that if we deliver the correct information and if Derbyshire people adhere to our advice the number of house fires can be radically reduced. Together with increasing awareness on how people can avoid house fires via the local press, we are running several initiatives across the region. In Clowne, Shirebrook, Chesterfield, Killamarsh and Danesmoor fire service volunteers and our staff team are participating in a collective plan with the North Derbyshire home improvement agency and are encouraging individuals who are more than 65 years of age to undertake their Handyvan services which entails a house fire safety check and free information on independent living and security (Wallington, 2005). The Derbyshire fire and rescue service also carries out kitchen demonstrations road shows in the national chip week to bring out the potential risks of cooking to Staveley, Chesterfield, and Shirebook. Community safety officers also visit local community groups and schools and teaches people on the importance of having the correct quantity of a working alarms in their homes which can probably save lives just in case of a home fire. We stress on the importance of people ensuring that they have at least a single fire alarm at each level of the house and regularly check if it is working (Baker, 2007). The new dimension programme The new dimension programme supplies procedures and equipment to improve the ability of the Derbyshire fire and rescue service to response to a wide range of occurrences. The programme provides our fire and rescue service with procedures, training and equipment to respond to a wide range of hazards such as biological, chemical, nuclear and radiological incidents, domestic and industrial incidents, natural disasters, collapsed buildings and chemical spills, as well as earthquakes and floods. Derbyshire fire and rescue service supports this programme through staffing two incident response units in Stavely and Alfreton. These response units offer a mass decontamination capacity for civic members who are involved in a biological, chemical, nuclear and radiological incident. We also possess a high volume bump which is based at Buxton which was utilized in the 2007 flooding. The new dimension department is composed of one station manger and one instructor whose responsibilities are to create and maintain the skills of their personnel in using specialized equipment and appliances used in its operation. Civil resilience scheme The civil resilience officer is based on the strategic development division of Alfreton which is under the integrated risk management wing. The civil resilience post assesses the hazard of emergencies happening and utilizes this information to inform contingency planning and undertakes emergency plans. It also informs and warns the people in the incident of emergency, shares information with other several local responders and co-operates them to promote efficiency in fire risks. In order to accomplish these duties, a local resilience forum discusses the multi agency issues at strategic level and the civil resilience officer activate decisions made by the forum. Majority of the emergency plans we hold are created by the county council of Derbyshire and the civil resilience scheme manages the distribution and maintenance throughout the fore service and the fire resilience officer generates the fire specific plans and helps in arrangements to make sure that every event in the county we run with much safety as possible (Bugbee, 2009). Operational assurance system Working to head of integrated risk management plan in the strategic development section, the operational assurance department bears the responsibility of facilitating schemes to promote Derbyshire fire and rescue service to make sure that a skilful, and well motivate workforce serve Derbyshire residents. The major roles of operational assurance scheme is to carry out stations inspections, incidents debrief and incident monitoring which are forms of assessments which enable us to determine effectiveness and safety of delivery of operational service to Derbyshire communities and to identify limitations in service procedures, systems and policies (Leonard, B, 2009). Incident recording system Incident recording is a scheme to collect details of all non emergency and emergency occurrence data from events that take place in Derbyshire. Fire data report forms have all information obtained from primary fire occurrences, incidents which entail fire damage to vehicles and property or any fire event where individuals have attained fire injuries. The non primary fire events are also documented on the on a final page form whose details are maintained on management information system. The final page collects information for secondary fire incidents which are fires involving rubbish bins, derelict buildings, grassland, and vehicles, and chimney fires. The final page also gathers information from false alarms involving false alarm malicious and false alarm good intent and emergency special services which are incidents involving rescue from caves and cliffs, flooding, rood traffic accidents and leaks and spills entailing hazardous substances. The management information system has reporting amenities which allow the Derbyshire fire and rescue service to collect a variety of incident information from the system. Application of QA systems to ensure consistent proof of quality assurance enhancement in Derbyshire fire and rescue service The quality assurance systems used by the Derbyshire fire and rescue service can be enhanced and improved used the fire and rescue emergency cover which is used in assessing the distribution of risk in the fire and rescue service section. It is also acts a mechanism through which the fire and rescue service record the type and number of resources that are needed to deal with the hazard in specific areas and this is referred to as a fire cover provision. Smeby, (2009) argues that this model can also be used to estimate the outcomes which are measured in terms of loss of property and life of changing a particular degree of fire cover. The procedure is a computer approach which is based on a geographical information system that includes demographic and geographic data. The model integrates a wide range of statistical relationships that are obtained from analysis of all occurrences attended to by the fire and rescue service for a period of five years. It offers an evidence based procedure for measuring risk and the impacts of the function of the fire and rescue service in both operational intervention and via fire protection measures in buildings. The fire service cover model will assist the Derbyshire fire and rescue service in reducing the figures of casualties and fatalities and recognize the number of individuals and the quantity of property that is at considerable hazard form fire and other dangers in the communities it operates. Conclusion The Derbyshire fire and rescue service has endorsed the integrated risk and management plan identify, evaluate and respond to fire incidents and other emergencies so as to make Derbyshire a safe place to live and work in. The integrated risk management plan has enabled Derbyshire fire and rescue service to effectively respond to fire operational occurrences and has given the Derbyshire community information regarding fire risks and how they can be prevented. The organization has also used quality assurance systems which ensure that its services are of good qualities and meet the legislations and standards required by the UK government. Bibliography Cote, A, 2006, Organizing fire and rescue services, Jones & Bartlett, New York. Smeby, L, 2009 Fire and emergency administration: management and leadership practices, Jones & Bartlett, New York. Dennett, M, 2007, Fire attack, An integrated strategy, Savas, Kentucky Robertson, J, 2004, Introduction to fire prevention, Prentice Hall, New Jersey. Martinez, B, 2007, multiple fire setters: The process of Tracking and identification, Cowles Book Company, New York. Bugbee, P, 2009, Principles of fire protection, John Coleman publishing company, PenWell. Allocco, M, 2006, Assurance technologies: principles and practices: A product, process, and system safety perspective, John Wiley & Sons, New York. National Audit Office, 2009, New Dimension: Enhancing the fire and rescue services capacity to emergencies, Edward Elgar, UK. The Stationery Office Books, 2004, Fire and Rescue Act 2004, The Stationery Office, England. Wallington, N, 2005, In Case of Fire, Longman, Melbourne. National Audit Office, 2010, Reducing the costs of procuring fire and rescue service vehicles, Edward Elgar, UK. The Stationery office, 2007, Building Regulations Approved Document B: Fire safety in Buildings, TRL Limited, England. Baker, E, 2007, Fire Appliances in fire and rescue services, Bloomsbury Publisher, Middlesbrough. Kandola, B, 2008, Evaluation of fire safety, Macmillan, UK. Leonard, B, 2009, Fire safety education resource directory, Jones and Bartlett, England. Rivera, S, 2007, Fire safety, John Wiley & Sons, New York. The National Archives, 2005, The Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) order 2005, The Stationery Office, England. Read More