Fire Safety Awareness Project - Assignment Example

Running Head: Fire Safety Awareness Introduction- About the Assignment: The assignment is about the implementation of a project that will improve fire safety amongst young children of primary school age. The project seeks to meet objective as outlined by the Risk Management Plan. A whole some review is included highlighting the issues of resource management and human resource management. The project is about teaching primary school children on child safety. In this project two new full time staff members will be recruited. They will be responsible for delivering the project and acting as community safety practitioners. The financial and physical resource costs will be taken into perspective. For this application of the principles of financial and physical resource management will be done. Ways in which the overall suitability and sustainability of the project will be evaluated. The procurement process in fire and rescue service will be analysed. Analysis of human resource management in fire and rescue service will also be done. Critical analysis of the principles of resource management will also be done. Recruitment process: What does it take to be a fire fighter? Practitioners need to be sturdy and tight and should be able to encounter any emergency situation that they are faced with. They have to have the right kind of problem solving skills and the ability in them to take the initiative to resolve issues quickly and calmly. The aim is to make them work closely with primary school students and other members of the public at times when they would be confused and distressed. They have to educate them by increasing their level of awareness and also to ensure that such incidents don’t take place again and again. The candidates for the two posts would be found through advertisement and word of mouth publicity. Advertisements would be placed in the career section of local news papers. This will attract eyeballs and would send in applications from interested candidates. The primary reason for using local newspaper is its far reach at low costs. Instead of paying campus and site visits to various areas, the use of advertisements will prompt quick response in favourable numbers. As a result, we will have a pool of candidates to select from. Similarly word-of-mouth promotion is a cost friendly way of attracting potential candidates. Related training organizations will be informed via word of mouth of openings in our agency. Word of mouth will also be generated through face book and blogs. Face book is a social website and has a huge member database. It can be used to connect to people cost free and inform them of our recruitment process. An event and a separate page for the same will be created and as many people will be invited as many possible. This will be a major word-of-mouth trigger at perpetually no cost at our behest. Once the buzz about the recruitment process will be created, potential applicants will have to go through a number of stages before they are recruited in. As a rule of thumb, the following characteristics would be what we’d look for: be confident, be adaptable to different situations, have to have good communication skills Be open to diversity and committed to it Have to be sincere and passionate about their work The first stage in the recruitment process would be the filling out of the application form by candidates. The application form will be provided at our office and will have to be submitted by the applicant in person. The form will inquire the applicant about his work history and qualifications. It was him on his suitability for the role and if he carried the aforementioned attributes. Application form filling would be the most important part of the entire recruitment process. It is in this phase that more than 90% of the applicants are screened out because of their inability to fill in the application form appropriately. All candidates who will possess the necessary attributes will be shortlisted and called in for the next stage of the entire selection process which will be the interview. The application form will also ask the applicant to complete a declaration of any criminal conviction that has been unspent by him. This is in accordance with the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. If there are any unspent convictions, then each of them will be considered on an individual basis and circumstances revolving around each offense will also be taken into account. The disability discrimination Act of 2005 regulates the Fire and Rescue service. It allows people even with disabilities to apply as well. If there are any disabilities and yet the applicant fits the profile, then the Brigade doctor will look into them on an individual basis. It is after this that a decision will be taken and it will be decided if the applicant needs any further adjustments or training. Employment terms: The employees will be expected to deliver 12 hours a day and will be paid at the rate of $ 15 per hour. Any over time work will be accommodated at the rate of $ 20 per hour. They will be allowed leave on all national holidays and on Sundays. They will be provided transport by the company alongside costumes and equipment needed for the drill. (Chaiken, 1979) On appointment, the employees will be bound to the company by a contract for a year. If they want to resign then a 2 month notice period will have to be served by them. What resources will be needed to run the programme in addition to the staff? – Literature, equipment etc – what will the costs is and how will you demonstrate that you have used best practice? How will you obtain these resources? Resources required running the programme: Staff: A well trained and well equipped staff would be needed to run the programme. The two new recruits along side some 2 trainers would be needed. Children: Since this programme is about making primary school students aware of fire safety awareness, they would obviously be needed. Children can be trained and explained in batches of 30 each and at times convenient to their respective schools. Equipment: Fire safety extinguishers, alarms, whistles escape ladders and smoke detectors would be needed to train the children and give them a live demonstration on fire safety awareness. For class room explanation, white boards and markers would be needed. (Ahrens, 2009) Prices for fire extinguishers would vary from company to company. The best bet I think would be Kindle Pro. It costs somewhere between $ 38 to 86 and is of good quality. 3 pieces of them would be more than enough. Around 3 escape leaders would do and each piece will cost roughly $ 50. Alarms will cost around 30-50 $ and 2 of them would be needed. Miscellaneous items like markers, papers etc would cost roughly $ 200. How to obtain the resources: For the resources needed we can go about methodologically. To cut down on costs and ensure that we have the best supplies at the cheapest price possible, a request for proposal will be issued in our advertising magazines and on the web. Suppliers interested in supplying us the required equipment will send in their proposals. On receiving them, the team will sit down and evaluate each proposal. The short listed suppliers will be called in for interviews and on site evaluations after which the suppliers will be further short listed and the best suppliers chosen. Best practice: This is the best practice method because careful thought and deliberation has been done before zeroing down on a final plan. The standards have been completely followed and so have all the details been looked after. For purchasing equipment, careful evaluation of all suppliers will be conducted. Of the shortlisted suppliers only the best ones will be chosen. This will ensure that the company receives the best of the best at the cheapest cost available in the market. In the process, long term relations with suppliers will be sought after. This will keep the supply from the suppliers steady at rock bottom prices amidst further incentives. Where promoting safety awareness is concerned amongst primary school children, the new recruits will first be trained before taking them on floor and giving them complete charge. It will help ensure that the children are looked after and taught amidst trained well taught community petitioners. The sense of awareness in the minds of children will henceforth be brighter, deeper and they will be better trained then ever before on the dos and don’ts of fire safety. The member of staff will need a job description, which will fit with the employee handbook of the organization and must also comply with legislation... Consider Health and Safety. Consider discrimination etc. As per legislation all eligible persons will be an equal chance for employment. There will be no discrimination on the basis of gender, religion, race and sexuality. The rates of pay will be with respect to the amount of physical exercise indulged in and the hours an employee provides. Safety of the employees will be our top priority and for this, all prior precautions will be taken care of and looked after. According to OSHA, an employee is entitled to a safe and healthy work environment. This means any risks related to health and safety will have to be properly controlled/ Safety will be provided free of cost and employees having any concerns related to their safety will be allowed to leave work without any explanation. They will have rest breaks during routing work days and will also be obligated with annual paid holidays as specified by the law. Healthy workers would as a result lead to direct cost savings for the project. This will mean there will be less insurance costs, minimal medical expenditures, comparatively few faulty products and less money allocated to over time benefits. It will also give rise to increased productivity, higher better quality products, better employee-management relations, reduced turn over and better use of human resources (Behn, 2003) The recruited employees will have to be both physically as well as academically fit. They will be given the employment contract within thirteen weeks from the start of the employment. For their job descriptions, employees will be expected to routinely adapt to changing work environment, techniques and equipment. They will have to work closely with the community and will have to be there to resolve any work related queries. They will be expected to visit schools, community centres and people in their homes to educate them about fire safety. They will also be expected to prevent fire and incidents from taking place and to advise people about planning their own escape routes. On the whole they will have to learn to be adaptable in diverse environments and be able to value individuals and groups. For their own training and development, they will be asked to take a continuous training program where they will be attending various lectures, exercises and practical training session to be competent enough. They will have to be fit and healthy at all times because this kind of work demands them to be both physically as well as mentally fit. Aims of the project: The aim of this project is to promote fire safety awareness amongst young children. This is to ensure that they are well guarded against any eventuality striking their way and are able to scot free unhurt in emergency situations. It also aims at training them on the necessary dos and don’ts during a fire drill, how to use basic equipment, how to sense fire, smoke, what will make a separate route and how to tackle the situation safely. It also aims at teaching those ways to prevent smoke and fire in the first place and the necessary precautions that need to be taken care of. Benefits of the project: As a result of this project, the primary school going children will be well aware and well informed of fire safety. This will help them tackle themselves in challenging situation and circumstances. They will be more protected and at more ease in dramatic and disastrous circumstances. Damage incurred will be loss and fewer lives will be lost because the society will be better educated of the challenges associated with fire breakouts. They will hence be able to fight them more efficiently, instead of taking lousy steps in such circumstances. Performance Measures: There are various ways in which performance can be measured of not just the students but also of the new recruits to see how quickly they have learnt and have adapted themselves to the knowledge transferred to them. A mock fire drill can be done to check how efficient the whole process is. (Ammons, 2001) In the fire drill the following should be measured: Elapsed time from fire start till the fire is suspended: the lesser this time is the better it is. Faster response time would lead to less loss and citizens should be able to see the fire department respond immediately. This will drill in them the responsiveness of the company which is also indicative of their own security. Various other factors also determine response time. It can depend on when fire starts, its detection time, how efficiently firefighters tackle the situation and the weather. (Hall J. &., 2006) Total turn out time: the lesser the total turns out time, the faster the response. The turnout time is a measure of the difference between notification from emergency response facilities and emergency response units as soon as the alarm is triggered with the starting point of travelling time. As per NFPA, the turn out time for fire incidents should not take longer than 80 seconds and the time taken by the arriving company should not be longer than 4 minutes. (Hall, 2008) (Hatry, 2006) Travel time: this is the time interval that starts when a particular unit leaves for an emergency incident and ends when they arrive at the emergency scene. This time should be minimized to as little as possible. (Folz, 2004) Total response time: this is the time interval from the moment the alarm is heard to when the first unit gets into action and takes charge of the situation. (Cline, 2008) If all the aforementioned dimensions are accurately measured, results can be evaluated very efficiently. Each time has to be reduced to a minimum and standards have to be followed at all times. Conclusion: Fire safety awareness is a very important community service that has to be promoted in all age groups. Of them the most vulnerable age group is that of primary children. These kids are naive, and tend to panic easily. As a result, they induce more damage on themselves then it would have been under more informed circumstances. It is important to ensure that these children are aware of ways in which to deal with fire, how to ensure safety. This is only possible by promoting safety awareness within the community by experienced professional trainers. The practitioners need to be both academically as well as physically fit because unless they are not, awareness program will not receive its desired purpose. Works Cited Ahrens. (2009). Smoke Alarms in US Home fires. NFPA. Ammons. (2001). Municipal Benchmarks: Assesing Local Performance and Establishing community standards. Sage Publications. Behn, R. (2003). Why Measure Performance? Different Purposes Require Different Measures,”. Chaiken, W. I. (1979). Fire Department Deployment Analysis: A Public Policy Analysis Case. A Rand Corporation Research Study. Cline, D. (2008). Organizational Benchmarking and Performance Evaluation,. NFPA. Folz, D. (2004). Service Quality and Benchmarking the Performance of Municipal Services,. Public Administration Review. Hall, J. &. (2006). Second Needs Assessment of the U.S. Fire Service,. Hall, J. J. (2008). Measuring Code Compliance Effectiveness for Fire-Related. National Fire Protection Association and Fire Protection Research. Hatry, H. F. (2006). How Effective Are Your Community Services. ICMA. Read More