Child Fire Safety Awareness - Report Example

Name : xxxxxx Tutor : xxxxxxx Title : Child fire safety awareness Institution : xxxxxxx @2010 1. Project title: Child fire safety awareness 2. Introduction Considering this project, young children in primary schools need to be informed of dangers associated with fire. They need to be made aware of how they can help themselves incase of abrupt fire outbreaks in schools and homes. Young children of primary are very vulnerable to dangers of fire and therefore their safety need to be enhanced as far as fire outbreaks are concerned. In order to implement this project that will improve fire safety awareness amongst young children of primary school age, the objectives of this project must be in accordance with the latest risk national management plan. Also to be considered is the issue of management of physical and financial resources for successful implementation of child fire safety awareness. The main aim of this project will be to educate children on fire safety and this entails how children can stay safe or handle themselves incase of fire outbreak. This involves teaching children on the steps to take when fire outbreak occurs (Haung 2005). Generally, the project will start with recruitment of two new full time staff to deliver the project to act as community safety practitioners. The there will be a discussion on the management and costs of financial and physical resources. The resources and procurement materials or staff for the project will be identified together with how the whole project will be evaluated. The final discussion will be on application of principles of operational assurance after which several learning outcomes will be assessed. 3. Recruitment of the staff The two staff members to be recruited as community safety practitioners must be qualified and should meet the following requirements. They need to be ready to work as full time employees ready to dedicate themselves to the process of implementation of this project. Appropriate recruits must have at least three years experience in fire safety education and should posses at least a diploma in fire fighting or any relevant field from a recognized institution. The two positions will be advertised both in newspapers and through posters after which the applications will be expected before the set deadline. The short listed applicants will be called for interviewing to prove if they actually have the stated qualifications. During the interview, I will have to use several techniques and put in place several considerations to finally come up with the two best and most qualified applicants (Finney 1993). Other factors like health and social capacity will also be part of other considerations since this exercise will involve young children and this means that for them to understand well what will be delivered to them, they need someone who can understand them best. The final two candidates must be willing to work for this project in the stated position and they will be employed under a contact that will run or will need to be renewed several times before the end of the project. This means that the two successful applicants will have to sign a performance contact that will have several conditions attached. Signing of the performance contract will enable observation and evaluation of the employees’ duties and assigned responsibilities in an effective and efficient manner. Whether the employee will sign the next contact form after the expiry of the first contact period will depend on the outcomes of evaluation. The employee will only be allowed to proceed to the next stage of the project after it has been successfully assessed that he or she has performed and fully completed all the requirements of the previous stage as required and this will apply to all consequent stages till the final stage of the project (Finney 1993). After selection and signing of the performance contact, the two employees will be first trained. I will do the training myself on how the project will run. They have to know each and every detail of the project so that they can be fully conversant when assigned with responsibilities during the implementation. I will then prepare procedures and manuals for the project and give each one of them. They will be expected to follow the manuals for reference and any complications or need for assistance will be immediately raised forward to me for assistance. During the training, the employees will be taught on effective management of both financial and physical resources that will be underway to spearhead the process of implementation of this project. I will make sure that all this steps staring from recruitment of these employees to project implementation process itself is in accordance with first the employment legislation from the respective authority and then obtain the legal documents for a go ahead to implement this project. This will create smooth working environment and less pressure from the legislature and other local authorities concerned (Finney 1993). Concerning the costs, the recruitment process will require expenditure in terms of hiring an assistant to help me in both recruiting and training program. The salaries and allowances of the employees will be also a vital cost. Then other costs will be on provision of stationery and other training materials for the employees. My co-assistant will be paid 600 dollars per month. The two employees will be paid 400 dollars per month each and approximately 50 dollars for allowances for each. The stationery and other requirements for the recruitment and training exercises will amount to about 100 dollars. Up to this stage, the total costs will be 1600 dollars. I think this is the best practice since every step is guided with principles that have to be met before any payment is made or before any selection is made. With this practice especially training, the allocated resources will be efficient managed and used to cut on extra expenditure on resources. The terms offered to the employees are good in a way that as much as the employees are expected to perform before approval of subsequent contacts and payments, they have been offered with appreciable remuneration to boost their morale to give out their best (Finney 1993). 4. Other resources needed to run the project Apart from the staff, other resources that will be needed to run project include literature review materials. Since this is a project that is intended to make young children of primary age aware of the dangers of fire and how they can stay safe from impacts of fire, a lot of literature materials on fire safety for children need to obtained to act as a source of information for the practitioners who will be working from respective communities targeted. Various demonstrations will also be carried out to prove the effectiveness of the fire awareness teachings made to these young children and this will only be possible and accurate if appropriate literature is available for research since the employees will not be having such kinds of knowledge in their finger tips and those who might be having some knowledge will at least need reference or supplement of information. Another resource that is needed is the means of transport. The practitioners will need at least a car to be able to move from place to place within the community teaching children on fire safety. Public means of transport will be less convenient to practitioners since they will be carrying with them a lot of materials for demonstrations since young children understand best through demonstrations than mere talking (Finney 1995). Other materials that will be required include sprinklers and alarms for demonstrating to children on how they can use alarms or sprinklers in cases where it is appropriate to be used. All they need is to be taught through demonstrations on how such systems are used so that incase of emergence, they can save themselves by raising the alarm incase they are unable to escape (Finney 1995). Concerning the costs, the literature materials or the teaching materials will require about 600 dollars for each employee. One alarm system and one water sprinkler system will be required for demonstration purposes and the two will amount to about 1000 dollars. The car that will be hired for the practitioners will cost about 1000 dollars per month for each car. The total cost for both practitioners will be about 5200 dollar for the two employees (Finney 1995). The literature and other teaching materials will be obtained from the bookshops, libraries and institutions dealing with fire safety since most of then have got manuals on the requirements needed. The cars will be hired from vehicle dealers and be paid monthly then the alarms and the sprinklers will be bought from appropriate dealers and shops. After all the resources are set, the employees will be assigned the respective communities to carry out child fire safety awareness and a job description form will be prepared within three weeks and given to respective employees. The description must be in accordance with the employee legislations of both the organizations and the legislation in place. The health and safety of the employees will be guaranteed though insurance and no form of discrimination or favor will be exercised towards the employees. The practitioners will then be given a go ahead to start the real project (Karki 2002). 5. Evaluation of the project The project will be evaluated by benchmarking. This refers to measuring the parameters of evaluation to determine if they have been met and then searching for the best practices. First I will set up a program of evaluation. The evaluation will be done on monthly basis in areas where the practitioners have been assigned to carry out the project implementation. Within every month, I will make sure that I attend at least one of the sessions with each practitioner to see how they are carrying out the exercise (Mitler 2003). By doing so, I will be able to evaluate the performance of each practitioner in terms of efficiency and effectiveness on how they are teaching the young children on fire safety. This will give me a clear picture on the expected outcome and areas where improvements need to be done. I will also visit areas where the practitioners have already implemented the teachings to evaluate if actually a good job was done. I will carry out personal interviews and one on one talk with several children at random to see if actually they are aware of the fire safety requirements. I will also engage in practical evaluations where I can talk with the community members to initiate a fire related act intentionally where young children of primary age are to evaluate how they will react to the incident as far as fire safety teaching that were offered to them are concerned. From their response, I will be able to evaluate whether the implementation process was successful or not. I will then be able to know where exactly need to be repeated or change of strategy (Mitler 2003). Generally I will employ a SMART form of evaluation where by I will first look at each and every specific aspect of evaluation as stated and verify if it was successfully implemented. Then I will measure the level at which it was successfully implemented. I will then evaluate the attainability and the relevance of the aspect to see if it was relevantly implemented in the required manner and finally I will look at how timely the aspect was implemented. With this, I have a clear picture of the proceedings of the project and a decision whether to proceed to the next step or not can be made from an informed perspective (Andrews 1986). 6. Policies The first policy is to obey the project regulations governing the project. All the participants of the project including the practitioners and the communities where the project is to be implemented must abide by the rules and regulations of the project for successful, easy and smooth running of the implementation process. The second policy is that all the project activities must run in accordance with the content of the project. Therefore, no alterations shall be tolerated whatsoever unless effected as a team. The third policy will concern the legality of the project and operation. Before any implementation is effected in any assigned area, legal procedures have to be followed step by step till fully permission is given to go ahead with the implementation. Other wise no implementation exercises will be effected. Other policies include management of financial and physical resources provided for the project. Every resource allocated to the project must be accounted for if used. (Green 1987). 7. Town criteria The criteria within this town as required by the local governing authorities is that before any community project is effected, the project team and some community representatives have to meet and inform their people to be aware of the project so that by the time the project is being carried out, the community member are already aware of something about the project. All the legal and supportive documents have to be justified before a go ahead is given. 8. Application of the principles of operation assurance Accountability will be enhanced by ensuring that each and every team member is accountable for every expense, of either financial or physical resource. Actions or steps taken by any team member should comply with the procedures outlined in the project and any defaults will still be accounted for by the member undertaking the action. The project will provide extension services of training to equip the team members with appropriate skills to effectively and efficiently implement the project. Monthly evaluations will promote effective service delivery and good practice by the team members. Roles will be divisively assigned without discrimination and every team member will be included in decision making to promote member inclusion and participation in all affairs concerning the project (Anderson 1982). 9. Conclusion Child fire safety awareness is something that should not be overlooked. The challenge is not only on educating the young children on the safety measures but also how to manage resources linked to the project. Management of resources is a very important aspect of this project and if the resources available will be managed well, the costs or the expenses will reduce and the project will be able to serve a variety of children and communities within the budgeted resources. For this to happen, efficient recruitment of qualified staff for the project together with training and evaluation will make sure that you come up with an efficient and effective team that will see up to it that resources for the project are well managed and accounted for and that the child fire safety awareness program is enhanced to each and every community where the project is implementation targets. A good team that will be able to apply the principles of management of financial and physical resources allocated to the project and analyze the procurement process discussed in this project will make an excellent team that will enhance both resource management and child fire safety awareness as the core targets of the project. A total amount of about 7000 dollars per month will see the project through the entire period considering the calculations made on costs. 10. Bibliography Anderson, D 1982. Operational principles. Fire outbreaks and rescue services, vol.12, no.14,pp. 380-390. Andrews, L 1986, Fire Behavior and safety principles, London, Methuen publishers. Finney, M 1993, Principles of human resource management, Jekyll Island, Georgia. Finney, A 1995, National procurement and budgetary, American press, New York. Green, T 1987, Principles of resource management, OSU publishers, Ohio State University Haung, K 2005, Fire safety awareness campaigns, Journal of fire safety strategies, vol.4, no.6, pp. 211-219. Karki, S 2002, Community Involvement in and Management of Fire resources, Journal of resource management, vol. 2, no.8., pp. 59-64. Mitler, H 2003, User’s guide to fire safety awareness and evaluation, Beacon Press, Boston. Read More