Quality & Standard in Cleveland Fire Station - Case Study Example

Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : Quality & Standard in Cleveland Fire Station Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxxx @2010 Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Abstract 3 Introduction 4 The validity and benefits of the key quality assurance (QA) systems used by the Fire & Rescue Service (FRS) pre government change July 2010 (QA background history) 5 The appropriateness of any available QA systems that relate to the key strategic objectives set out in the current IRMP projections for your nominated organisation 8 Validity and benefits of the quality assurance (QA) systems Cleveland Fire & Rescue Service (FRS) post government change July 2010 10 Application of the recommended QA systems to ensure consistent proof of quality enhancement within the organisation 12 Conclusion 13 Bibliography 15 Abstract Cleveland is one of the well established Public Service facilities which offers fire and rescue service in UK. The quality of the services offered by this organization reflects the requirements of the local government which are stated in the National Framework Act 2008-2011. The main objectives of the organization includes: prevention, protection and effectively responding to the emergencies in the environment. This is achieved through the use of a good Integrated Risk Management Plan which acts as guidance through all the operations and reflects the requirements of a quality assurance system for the improvement of the quality of the services offered in reference to the expectations. Introduction The Cleveland Fire Station is a constitutional fire and rescue service which covers areas of Middleborough, Redcar, Hartlepool, and Cleveland. The prevention, protection and emergency response services are offered by the 15 strategically located units which serves approximately 234,660 domestic dwellings. The main aim of the stations is prevention of loss of life and injuries from some of the emergency incidents thus reducing the occurrence of risks in the community. For efficiency of the services, nine out of the 15 are crewed day and night for fulltime services and the other six are crewed by retained firefighters living within or a short distance from the station so as to be able to respond within five minutes after alarmed. The organization works in partnership with the North East Ambulance Service for the provision of emergency medical cover to areas of East Cleveland. These works to preserve life awaiting the arrival of either an ambulance or a Rapid Response Vehicle (RRV). As a result of the recent changes in the government of United Kingdom in July 2010 and the political directions, it is stated that there would be an abolishment of the Comprehensive Area Assessments as well as cutting of the local government inspections starting October 2010. The study below is a report to the Chief Fire Office representing the assessment of the validity and benefits of the quality assurance systems used by the Cleveland Fire Station. It also focuses on the validity of the quality assurance systems recommended for the organization after the government reforms (Library of Congress, 2003 p. 79-82). The validity and benefits of the key quality assurance (QA) systems used by the Fire & Rescue Service (FRS) pre government change July 2010 (QA background history) According to the Fire and Rescue Service National Framework 2008-11. The public services should be properly representative of the communities that they serve. The Fire and Rescue National Framework sets the government priorities and objectives for all the Fire and Rescue services. This is made possible by clearly elaborating the expectations of the government concerning the Fire and Rescue Service, the expectations of the authorities of the Fire and Rescue organizations and the support of the government to help the organizations meet their goals and objectives (Houck, 2002 p. 235-245). The management of the organizations thus has a role to play in ensuring that the services offered by the organization are of the desired quality. This quality can be determined by relating them with the locality value or international standards. Before the changes in the government which took place in July 2010 concerning the standard measure for quality assurance, the authority was also concern about the quality of the services that Cleveland Fire and Rescue and other related organizations. The set framework is an important aspect for the determination of the solution to the local problems. This works to give the Fire and Rescue services the flexibility that they require for the specific needs of the communities that they serve based on the heart of the approach of government (Communities and Local Government, 2007 p. 7-8). The success mostly lies of the local risk assessment and the Integrated Risk Management Planning (IRMP). The Cleveland Fire and Rescue service concentrates on the formulation and the implementation of the IRMP which acts as a guide for the operations as well as gauging the performance to know whether they have reached the quality of the services as aimed. This is perceived as a guide during the process of assessing the quality of the services (Miskelly, 2009, p. 67). The local government through some strong and prosperous communities sets out the general government expectations for the local authority and the Fire and Rescue services for enabling them to achieve the vision. These gave a guideline of the quality of the services that the organizations should provide to the public. The government would not only give the directives of the quality of services but also make a follow up by assessing the services. The Local Area Agreements provides the assessors with good opportunities to gauge the services provided by the organizations (Thurston, McCaughey, & Kent, 2009 p. 67-69). The (CSR) Comprehensive Spending Review of 2007 would be considered to reflect on the expectations of the public which was used to gauge the set the standard value of the services. This continued to deliver more improved efficiency and valued approach to target setting for the local and central government. Together with the targets of the Public Service Agreement which were considered to be cross-cutting, each of the department had a set of agreement of Departmental Strategic Objectives (DSOs) through which the quality of the services would be measured. The community and the local government’s DSOs in Cleveland included: assurance of safer communities through the provision of good and effective framework for the agencies of Fire and Rescue Services and some fire indicators which were applied to the performance of the local government and were agreed as part of the comprehensive spending review: NI33-Arson Incidents (deliberate fires) NI 49-Number of the primary fires and related fatalities and nonfatal casualties (excluding precautionary checks) The indicators and the Departmental Strategic Objectives are the key measures used the government to test the performance of the Fire and Rescue Services and the measurements are in Comprehensive Spending Review period (Communities and Local Government, 2007 p.8). The appropriateness of any available QA systems that relate to the key strategic objectives set out in the current IRMP projections for your nominated organisation All the fire and rescue authorities must have a good management strategy which helps in the managements operations and a risk based inspection programme in the enforcement of the Regulatory Reform as well as the formation of the IRMP. This Regulatory Reforms of Cleveland Fire and Rescue service gives the concern organizations the legal duty of carrying out the risk assessments and implements the most essential precautions for the reduction and control of the risk (Shippey, 2007 p. 68-73). The Integrated Risk Management Plan is essential as guidance in all operations of an organization. All the activities should be reflected in the plan for the assessment and management of the risks which occur or likely to occur in an organization. The objectives which are set in the plan to be achieved by the organization are appropriate in guiding all the considerations made. This includes the quality assurance systems which are considered during the assessment period for the judgment of the quality of the services achieved. The government highly supports the Fire and Rescue Authorities especially during the process of developing the IRMP and in the enactment and evaluation of the impact and adequacy of the IRMP policies. The government makes clear that there should be a good plan for the reform and modernization of framework within which Fire and Rescue service providers operates. The major element of the reform programme of the government is the need for the authorities of the fire to produce Integrated Risk Management Plans which leads in the improvement of the operations and the quality of the services offered (Worthington, 2009 p. 156-167). This plays a great role in making the Fire and Rescue Service more responsive to the needs of the community especially in the delivery of the community safety. The duties of IRMP includes: identification of the risks in Cleveland, examination of the existing prevention, protection and intervention methods, outlining of the areas of improvement and incorporation of the agendas of future improvements. The organization has suggested using an international based quality assurance system which is in a position to develop international qualities. These are however enacted by the plan for the action meaning that the plan has to be regularly updated to fit the current needs of the society including the standard quality set and the systems preferred to gauge the qualities. In the plan of the organization the relationship between prevention, protection and response is essential to effective delivery of the functions of the organization. This involves the utilization of the resources available or indicated in the plan. This relationship in the integrated plan is depended on the robust and updated risk data which reflects local, national and international standards (American Standards Association, 2008 p. 16-19). Validity and benefits of the quality assurance (QA) systems Cleveland Fire & Rescue Service (FRS) post government change July 2010 With the various reforms taking place in the lifestyles of people in the community and the systems of governance in July 2010, so many things changed including the quality assurance system. Globalization has caused the improvement of the quality of services offered by most of the organization with the struggle to make them internationally accepted. This has resulted to discovery of the most modern quality assurance systems like International Organization for Standardization with the ability of testing the international standards of the services offered by Cleveland fire services. The advancement in technology has enhanced the discovery and implement of these systems. Spiral Test is the most common for quality assurance. This provides full quality assurance solutions which are necessary in the management of the community issues. The current management of Cleveland fire services is making use of this system to test the community issues at its service (Peschard-Sverdrup, 2008 p. 87-95). The benefits of the quality assurance considered post the government changes is the flexibility and the reduction of the must and should requirements from the initially used systems and focusing on the expectations reflected in the current needs of the societies. These are organized in four themes: resilience, prevention, protection and response, diversity at workplace and governance improvement. The resilience is concerns the delivery of the flexibility programs and all the necessary actions of the authorities in ensuring that the organizations are well equipped to meet the highly changing needs of the public. The causes of the community risks are diverse and changing with the changes in the lifestyle. This means that there is need for Cleveland organization to be flexible in its operations to include the reforms taking place (American Standards Association, 2009 p. 8). Prevention, Protection and Response are the core goals and objectives of the Fire and Rescue Services. This entails the analyses of the community risks like fire hence determining the action to take in efforts to reduce or get rid of the effects of those risks. Diversity and Workforce are concern about the necessity of the mainstream diversity in all levels of the services providing the workforce in the organization with development in the working skills, training and health and security at the workplace. Governance and improvement comes in to cover these service providing institutions with the necessary efforts in support of the efforts to deliver the intended services. The framework set by the government reflects on its plan for the whole of the Comprehensive Spending Period although there is need to be regularly updated to fit the current needs of community (Sipes, 2010 p. 123-145). According to Cheit (2004), there is need for the government to try to monitor the operations of the organizations to check whether they meet the qualifications. This is achieved by regularly assessing against some standards like the (International Organization for Standardization) ISO for the certification of the qualifications. The currently used standards are internationally based thus the government use them because of the pressure of globalization. ISO is the widely used measures which have developed over 18000 international standards on various topics subjects thus around 1100 new standards are formulated and published every year. The system does not specify how the quality assurance processes of a firm should occur but authorizes that any organization appropriately defines the quality standards, documents its processes and ensuring that it adheres to the set standards. They require that a quality system is put in place to assure the customers that the services offered are of quality standards. They have valid measurements and properly calibrated equipments of test (Herner and Company, 2008 p. 145-153). Integrated Risk Management Planning (IRMP) successfully enables the development of the Fire and Rescue Service works and has enabled the achievement of the set goals and objectives of the organization. Cleveland Fire and Rescue services launched a public consultation on its Integrated Risk Management Plan. Since the development of this plan the organization has made great movement in the deliverance of modern services thus the members of the community are enjoying benefits of a more effective and impactful service. Application of the recommended QA systems to ensure consistent proof of quality enhancement within the organisation The quality assurance systems are essential in ensuring that the organization meets the needs and expectations of the customers and the stakeholders. The ISO standards is currently the most used system, ISO 9000 deals with the essentials of the qualified management systems. This includes the principles of management which enables the managers to meet the standards set to be met by the organization. For the assurance of the achievement of these standards, the confirmation is obtained from the certification bodies. These gauge the operations against the set standards thus determining whether the organization is worth the certification depending on the standard of the services they offer (Fewtrell, & Bartram, 2001 p. 317). The adaptation of the system by the organization may be associated to a variety of factors. In addition to the many benefits of the stakeholders there are other aspects like the financial benefits which are ISO certified organizations. Most of the customers are attracted to the organizations whose performance are ISO certified because they believe that their quality meet the international standards. The system can also be applied in the efforts to improve the performance or the quality of the services offered. The systems identify the best qualities and sets them to be used as a comparison tool for the management of the organizations to compare with their operations thus they develop their services to meet the standards (Pizam, 2005 p. 456-467). Conclusion Management and assessment of the operations of an organization are the key factors contributing to the effective performance. The performance of the Fire and Rescue services is gauged by the qualities of services that they offer to the community. This is determined by the Integrated Risk Management Plan which directs on the steps to follow in achievement of the set goals and objectives. This is also very essential as a determining factor of all the operations, for example, how to plan for the utilization of the resources and the plan on activities to undertake towards the achievement of the goals and objectives. The government is concern about the operations of Cleveland Fire and Rescue services organization because of its concern to ensure that quality services are offered by the organization to the community. This is done by supporting the organization through the formulation and implementation of the international standards organizations which guides on considerations towards the achievement of quality standards and their abilities to meet the current needs and desires of the community. Before the changes in the government the organization had quality assurance for testing the services offered although at the regional or national level. Other reforms came into the system with the discovery of the international based systems thus the services meets the desires across the nations of the world. This works to improve the performance of the organization because it can offer services to all nations. The international standardization is achieved through the assessment of the services in comparison to the set international standards. 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