Managing of Resources of a UKs Fire and Rescue Service - Case Study Example

Assignment Topic: A Case Study On Managing of Resources Of A UK’s Fire & Rescue Service Table of Contents Page No. 1- Introduction 3 2- Procurement 4 3- Resources and its Types 5 4- Fire and Rescue Services Response towards Emergencies 6 5- Resources Management at the time of Crisis 7 6- Risk management and Fire and Rescue Services in UK 9 7- Hampshire Fire and Rescue Authority and its resource management 12 8- Conclusion and Recommendations 16 9- Bibliography 18 1- Introduction: The purpose of this case study is to identify and critically review the means of a fire service plan and the management of its available resources. The paper describes in detail how a fire service manages its resources i.e. finances, operations, human resource, equipment / appliances and extinguishing media (water supplies) and communication infrastructure to achieve its objectives. The last part of the study recommends an improvement plan for the management of the Service. This part emphasizes the best use of resources necessary for the core functions of a fire Service. To conduct the study analysis of how the fire and rescue services are applying principles of resource management to manage their overall resources. Management of human resources, application of principles of managing financial and physical resources, procurement processes, and operational assurance and evaluation in fire & rescue services are also discussed in detail. This case study also evaluates the application of Crisis Management Theory on specified tasks within fire and rescue services. During a crisis, how the front line emergency services –operates in respect of deployment of resources on the ground, management of hindrances during operations and effective management of crisis in the UK. 2- Procurement usually means the system for assessment, specification, purchase, evaluation and contractual costing and aftercare of equipment, personal protective clothing, appliances, furniture & fitting and all service contracts. In simple procurement repetitive purchase happens while for complex procurement companies try to seek out long-term partners. For instance, the British government licensed Fire Bay Limited to procure firefighting equipment for 47 Fire and Rescue services in UK. The purpose is to get the best value for the lowest price because of bulk buying of vehicles, protective clothing and respiratory equipment for all fire & rescue services. For Example, Fire Bay Limited is in the process of purchasing and arranging the fixing of digital radio equipment in all fire fighting vehicles at a reasonable cost. The question is how Fire services authorities raise funds to finance. Some of the money could be generated through increase in rate of council tax, government grants, national business rates, and fees from customers for ‘special services’. The Fire and Rescue Services spend their money as per priorities for payment of salaries and pension to staff and purchase of fire engines, boats and hovercraft (for sea), helicopters (for air rescue), equipment like winches and harnesses etc., training equipment, personal protective equipment, firefighting equipment and high rise rescue equipment. 3- Types of Resources Fire not only damages property but also raises environmental concerns. Resources of fire and rescue service could be material as well as immaterial. Material resources include manpower, appliances and equipment. Immaterial resources include technical know-how and response to emergency situation. Technical knowledge requires being familiar with routes, power and water supply net-works and rationale of crisis management (equipment, standard operating procedure, practice and routine) to handle type of emergency. However material and immaterial resources must work together tightly, to achieve desired outcome. For instance if fire fighters know how to operate their firefighting equipment well and are satisfied that they have what is necessary to do the job then an, increase of resources may not be necessary. Technical know-how to respond to a particular emergency situation by a fire rescue service is very important. For example during the Beuncefield depot fire, the employees of Essex fire and Rescue Services (a fifty year old organisation could not perform due to lack of technical knowledge about company processes. Firefighters must have good knowledge of telecommunication, road net-works, power, hydrant locations. All fire and rescue services are required to exercise emergency plans regularly – so that in case of emergency, teams know how to implement the plan. Firefighters should be able to assess the direction of the wind and understand the importance of wind-direction. Experienced fire fighters are a valuable asset and their experience can be used to train new staff. New hiring should be done on professional grounds. 4- Fire and Rescue Services Response towards Emergencies Hardy & Philips (1998) as cited by Chlimintza, ‘Emergencies are inter-organizational, inter-jurisdictional and inter-disciplinary domains’. (Comfort, 1994). Two or more fire & rescue services working together develop a common platform to communicate and cooperate to achieve interoperability to respond to emergencies. Litwak & Hylton (1962) as quoted by Chlimintza, “Up until the late 1970’s, inter-organizational co-ordination was hindered because of the lack of structured authority.’ But since early 1980s, the development of an incident command system has organized the role of responding organizations to emergencies and thus generated a structured authority. The system to respond major incidents in UK consists of three stages of decision-making: i.e. gold (strategic), silver (tactical) and bronze (operational) command. Gold command sets strategic objectives for incident. Silver command manages the organisational tactics to deploy its resources. And the bronze command supervises operations at the fireground. The three-stage decision-making process has an effect on outcome. However operational command is considered as an important decision-making function as the Operational Commanders are on top of the situation. Operations for the Beuncefield oil depot fire in Hertfordshire in 2005 lasted for three days and were considered as major incident as lots of agencies responded to this crisis and the damage was widespread at a huge financial cost. The extinguishing of the fire required a unified command structure for the co-ordination of different organizations involved in operations. More than 1000 fire fighters participated to extinguish fire on 20 oil storages. Operation took 59 hours. Forty three people received injuries and the cost to extinguish the fire was 7 million pounds. Emergency situations in Britain in the first instance are responded to three organisations in the order of police, fire and rescue and ambulance services and if necessary military resources may contribute after the first 24-hours of an emergency situation (terrorist attacks or natural disasters). If further assistance is required it must be paid for as a ‘special service’. Such plans lead fire and rescue services to a higher degree of preparedness to handle crisis. Military liaison with fire and rescue services is for prevention and intervention for a major disaster. 5- Resources Management at the time of Crisis Major incidents like 9/11, hurricane Katrina and forest fires, not only pinpoint the shortcomings of emergency systems but ineffective co-operation among participants responding to such emergencies. If the decision-making process in crisis management is not well defined it encourages mismanagement while responding to emergency situations. If a three-tier decision-making process is not applicable then crises are managed at national, regional and local level. When lots of organizations become involved in responding to an emergency – then strategic decision-making is not the responsibility of one single organisation and the 3-tier command structure needs additional resources. Failure to take strategic decisions at national level leave tactical decisions in hands of separate organisations for deployment of their resources – thus creating management of the emergency on ad hoc basis. Operational command at ground level is not organized as receiving contradicting orders from their commanding officers. Inter-organisational co-operation during disaster management is very important and is based on knowledge and material resources e.g. sometimes fire brigades self deploy themselves. Another issue is communication among different services present on ground. Communication breakdown occurs due to different protocols, practices and equipment of different organisations. A fire fighter’s prime responsibility is to save lives and fight against fire. Evacuation of affected areas due to a lack of an evacuation plan creates problems for fire fighters. Delegated authorities are unaware of such plans and contradictory civilian roles create problems for successful operation. Inter-organisational co-operation is very essential for effective crisis management and, should be based on a very clear hierarchy. Resources like firefighters, logistics, water bombing planes, helicopters may be essential but their integration within planned operations is very important. For example if a telecommunication system in water bombing planes is not compatible with the systems used by the fire fighters on the ground does not generate desired results. In case of major crisis European countries involve other countries to manage the situation known as international cooperation. For better communication among respondents and resources distribution, language plays a major role – so teams should speak English and officers should know language better to instruct the teams on the ground. The rotation of firefighters on the ground is essential to save lives and reduce injuries as well as to achieve the desired outcome. Proper material to extinguish fires is another important resource factor as per emergency. For instance with a special type of foam, fire could be extinguished quickly. Material resources like fire engines, fire equipment and fire fighting aircraft should be adequate to have a control on crisis. 6- Risk management and Fire and Rescue Services in UK All fire and rescue services in United Kingdom through legislation are required to provide a risk management plan along with action plan for implementation. The purpose of legislation is to move fire services to proactive instead of reactive organisations to meet the challenges of 21st century. Through this approach, the UK is trying to manage community risk- as public demand is that the emergency services organisation’s prime responsibility is to protect them from harm. According to Cotton, (the project manager of West Midlands Fire and Services) “the core business of the Fire services is risk and its management. Managing risk is exactly what we do. The Service deals daily with the consequences of other peoples’ failures of risk control by responding to and fighting fires and carrying out the many and various special service calls. We deploy resources on the basis of the perceived risks likely to occur (emergency response). We educate the community about the risks posed to them from fire and other non-fire issues such as vehicle accidents (prevention). In the UK we enforce fire safety legislation (protection). We provide equipment and training to our staff in order to mitigate the risk of injury or worse”. Fire services deliver services to people, businesses, protecting the environment and the nation’s heritage. Fire services must have the ability for risk assessment, risk analysis, risk evaluation and risk control. In the case of risk control, different options are available – and should be selected by having more benefit than cost. Preparation of control plans as per selected options to manage / control risk and finally implementation of control plans to overcome emergency situations. According to the West Midland’s Fire Service Integrated Risk Management plan – all fire stations should be resourced and attendance times for first and second appliances should be 5 and 7 minutes respectively. To achieve it WMFS go for proper mapping, priority to life risks as compared to other (property, environment, economy and heritage). To deal with contingencies apparatus and manpower resource availability should kept on the higher side but without wasteful deployment. The Service is working on a prevention risk approach; assessment of home fires, increases in time spent on prevention activities, improving preparedness to respond to emergencies, relocation of vehicles, changes in resource management by controllers and ensuring the best communication and information systems to deliver the service. This can be achieved if organisations operate as per safe working practices and industry standards. Communities will be safer if we work towards a prevention approach. (This is the WM Fire Service plan for the 1st year) The 2nd year plan reduces fire appliances and vehicles and 3rd year action plan requires deployment of fire apparatus nearer higher fire risk areas. A multi – skilled business team of a fire and rescue service, which can assess risks and report to senior management to set objectives and use an information system, which is up to date and reviewing their performance regularly. An information system which can provide different control approaches to treat the identified risk, allowing anyone to access it and to extract advice to handle emergencies while on route and can compare different services and adopt best practices in the industry. The work force of a fire service can communicate and understand risk and have up to date risk information. 7- The Hampshire Fire and Rescue service and its resource management The service has set a budget of £ 66.6 million to be met through revenue support grant, national non domestic rates, and council tax to pay for employees’ costs, maintenance of premises, transport, supplies and services and reserves for the year 2009/2010. They manage their resources – manpower, equipment, buildings and communication system in a most effective and efficient way. They are trying to achieve the target ‘government efficiency saving of £ 1,055,000’ in a year and increase the number of women firefighters by 18%, increase the number of staff from ethnic minorities, and get more funding by working with other organisations. They have reduced the number of fires by 5,500 in past five years. Fires in buildings, deaths and injuries due to fire, fires started deliberately, and number of people died in road accidents has also reduced considerably in past five years. They have achieved ‘Level Three of the Equality Standard for Local Government’ in 2008 is a proof that they are meeting people’s needs successfully. The fire service is working with South Central Ambulance Services as co-responders since 2004 to reduce life threatening emergencies. According to this program fire fighters provide medical care until an ambulance arrives. In the year 2008, they have attended 2,890 emergencies. In the year 2008 14 fire stations are working with co-responders and the number will increase up to 19 by the middle of next year. The service has introduced the idea of ‘beacon station” – stations achieving their performance targets are offered rewards. The service is considering implementing the idea at department level to improve performance over all. Hampshire’s task force is working on prevention of fires started deliberately. The Service manage its resources efficiently and effectively to keep their image. They think that identity is a powerful tool – through which people recognize us and remember. The Service plan for year 2009-2012 explains how they can meet the changing needs and risks within the community. They know that they have to keep the community safe with effective and efficient use of their resources. They are trying to achieve Level 4 of the Equality Standards for Local government by the year 2010- show their commitment to understand the need of wide range communities. They focus to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide released into the environment during operations. Their objective is to keep people, property, the community and the environment safe or to reduce damage caused due to fire and other disasters They have achieved ISO 27001 – British Standard for Information Security. To achieve their objectives and manage their resources efficiently, working to reduce preventable incidents, find activities for volunteers, introducing diversity liaison officers, promoting fire protection systems, improving safety standards in home, relocating resources, and learning from past performance. The service is focusing on risks within their community and how to respond; developing response vehicles, trained and efficient crews at service stations and developing core skills for fire fighters. The service is focusing to reduce preventable incidents through educating communities so they can use their resources for other things. They are trying to find out ways and activities to work with volunteers. Introduction of diversity liaison officers at different fire stations ensure efficiency to meet peoples’ demands. They work with voluntary community advisors enable them to provide service to group of people whose life styles expose them to more risky situations. At higher risk areas – fire stations are providing services 24 hours a day. The fire service has extended its ‘sprinkler and automatic water suspension system strategy’ to homes, business buildings and community buildings to promote fire protection system. To improve safety in homes the service has contacted about 87,000 people in Hampshire to carry out fire safety check. The service is focusing now to use its resources on elderly, low income groups and ethnic minorities. The fire service has opened new community contact points to allocate its resources at higher risk areas. To make roads safer, the service started a campaign’ Safe Drive Stay Alive’ is welcomed by all communities. The fire service is in process of building new fire stations according to BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) to have environmentally friendly building. The Service is working as per Government’s ‘Fire and Rescue Service Strategy for Children and Young People’. The achievement level is 85% and would be 100% by the end of year 2010. The service ‘retained duty system’ has professional firefighters on board is on-call to respond to emergencies in their areas. They also pay fire safety visits to homes. The fire service has also placed a fire engine at Popley Fields, Basingstoke to reduce the risk of fire and counter anti social behavior in that area with the help of community. The Service is committed to use its resources in best possible way. To achieve savings, working with other fire and rescue services and exploring opportunities to share services with other partners and local authorities to improve further. The service has a strategy to buy equipment and services collectively with other fire and rescue services to reduce cost. LACC – Local Authority Controlled Company has been established to act as control centre. The service is developing risk-based response systems to meet their standards efficiently. The service is operating on flexible working hours to make the best use of their staff however not compromising on provision of quality services. This is legal responsibility of a fire and rescue service to respond to emergencies. The service has developed various ‘self- help’ plan to educate community to reduce risks and respond to major emergencies. 8- Conclusion and Recommendations We can conclude the discussion as the basic rule of fire fighting is to contain fire in first few minutes - if it’s not it is difficult to contain it. The communication system with ear-pieces in fire fighting vehicles should be reliable, accurate and operational so that fire fighters can communicate with each other. There must be a backup system so that if the first communication system fails because of poor conditions – the back-up can work... There must be direct link between control centers and fire vehicles / fighter on ground. The most important resource available to fire brigades is water supplies – It must be three fold. Fire Vehicles must carry some infrastructure to ensure that their vehicles have enough water supplies without interruption. Alternate sources of power supply like fuel engines / generators should be available to perform. Water authorities should be at operational sites to regulate the system of drainage, water supplies and other infra-structure. Managing crisis is not the sole responsibility of local and central governments but should be supplemented with specialized private organisations. By this way a shortage of resources and infra-structure issues can be managed effectively Flexibility, adaptability, and integration should be the base for resource allocation by fire and rescue services on ground. On key positions best professionals are required to lead the team. Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service cover an area of 1,455 square miles having a population of 1.7 million people. To deliver the service effectively, service stations are divided into fourteen group areas – to manage risks and make life safer. Group plans are used to manage resources effectively and measuring performance of each area. Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service is one of the largest Fire Service in the country spending about £ 12 million every year to procure works, services and goods. The service procurement process is well planned and professional to get best value. Hampshire’s procurement process covers not only acquisition of goods and services but managing resources throughout their life. This objective can be achieved by modernizing the way to do things, optimal use of assets and improving service standards. The service plan to reduce fires by 20% by the end of 2010 can be achieved by promoting an educated community and prosperous economy. Bibliography 1. Chlimintza, M. E., Resource Management in Fire Fighting Organisations: Lessons from the Buncefield Oil Depot Fire and the Greek 2007 Forest Fires 2. Cotton, D., Integrated Risk Management, West Midlands Fire & Rescue Service, In: PERI - Public Entity Risk Institute – Symposium, Fairfax Available at: Web: www.riskinstitute.org 3. Fire Watch, HR & Asset Management, HRM Solutions for the Fire & Rescue Service Available at: www.firewatch .co.uk 4. Fire Management Code, 2006, Food & Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations 5. Hampshire Fire & Rescue Authority, Statement of Accounts, 2006-2007 6. Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service, Available at: http://www.hantsfire.gov.uk/theservice/plan/hfrsplan-newobjectives.htm 7. Lecture notes 8. Young, P., Integrated Risk Management and Fire Fighter Safety in United Kingdom Fire and Rescue Service, Devon Fire & Rescue Service, UK, In: PERI - Public Entity Risk Institute – Symposium, Fairfax Available at: Web: www.riskinstitute.org Read More