Management of Change and Deliverance of Improvements - West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service - Case Study Example

Name : xxxxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : Organizational behavior Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx @2010 Table of contents Table of contents 2 Organizational behavior 3 Introduction 3 Management of change and deliverance of improvements 3 Sustainability 5 Partnerships 6 Performance management 8 Conclusion 10 Bibliography 11 Organizational behavior Introduction West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service is a rural county within the South East of England. It caters for an area with about 750,000 populations. The retirement age population is higher than average whereby the part of population of working age is below average. West Sussex has several cities, towns, villages as well as coastline. Most of the residents there are whites whereby the non-whites are below the national average. West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service is a portion of West Sussex County Council and normally has an estimated budget of and 28 fire stations with about 800 operational officials and firefighters and about 115 individuals in support responsibilities. The fire and rescue service has four priorities which include management of change and deliverance of improvements, sustainability, partnerships as well as performance management (Thousand 2000). Management of change and deliverance of improvements West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service works very hard to safeguard the local population. Within the last year, damages and injuries resulting from accidental fires within the homes have reduced by 28% and also in the present year there have been 44 less accidental fires within homes and only a single individual has passed on this year as a result of accidental fire when compared to three which occurred the previous year. West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service works efficiently to make the area safer. For instance, the sum of arson linked emergency incidents has gone down by 140 over the year. This has been accomplished as a result of the Service working jointly with Councils which even includes advising and educating the school children regarding the dangers associated with fire and arson(Thousand 2000). Basically, West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service conducts numerous visits to the most susceptible individuals within West Sussex. These visits are always well planned and this is to ensure that the people who need the visits most are the ones who get visited first. Moreover, there is efficient and excellent sharing of information with the West Sussex social care service to ensure that the chief individuals at risk get visited. West Sussex Fire and Service offers training to the Social care workers regarding on how to fit the smoke alarms and this has seen the number of smoke alarms being fitted increase. As a result, this offers good value for money at West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service. Still, the Service works in hand with the national framework for fire and rescue services and ensures that it fulfills the framework’s requirements. This has seen the Service’s fire fighters receiving higher quality as well as improved professional training in addition to excellent standards in the manner the fire service is operated. About 95% West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service gets the first vehicle in less than eight minutes and it has decreased the sum of times fire fighters respond to redundant false alarms which result from automatic fire alarms. To address the rising number of difficult and complicated fire incidents, it attends, West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service has established a technical rescue unit and enhanced its equipment for tackling water linked incidents and road traffic accidents as well (Eberle 2006). Sustainability West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service is decreasing impact on the environment and also has formulated various ways of reducing the quantity of energy it utilizes. West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service working together with County Council over the year has accomplished about 10 percent decrease in CO2 emissions. The service has been conducting a “switch it off” campaign which has saved additional tone of CO2 emissions. West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service has established energy reduction marks for all its fire stations and head quarters and has educated all its staff members on the need and the benefits that comes with saving the energy. To ensure that West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service is well prepared to deal with future incidents, it has implemented a superior manner of recording all incidents that take place. Moreover, it has resulted into the region establishing a regional control centre which is meant to tackle all fire emergencies (Eberle, 2006). West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service has excellent arrangements in place to assisting addressing the major threats in addition to emergencies. The Service is fulfilling the national requirements which are set within the National Framework for all Fire and Rescue services 2008 to 20111. This means that the Service is working hard to ensure that the area is resilient and well prepared to address larger scale emergency incidents, for instance flu epidemic (Eberle, 2006). In joint venture with others, West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service maintains its plans of tackling the large scale emergencies. As a result, it delivers well against its plans and has even made an introduction of new standards for faster response times to emergency fire calls. West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service is aware the targets are very demanding and that it is more challenging to accomplish the targets within the more rural parts of West Sussex. To ensure that the Service is possession of the right workers who are available when it most needed, the Service has introduced changes to the crewing at its three fire stations and on the other hand decreased the number of times the fire crews respond to the false alarms from automatic fire alarms (Revans 2001). Partnerships West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service works with others, including the Police and the County Council to decrease the total number of individuals killed and seriously injured when any accidental incident takes place within West Sussex. Even if the targets have not been entirely met, the number of accidents has greatly reduced. West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service works with other organizations to help decrease the number of road accidents and this has encouraged valuable changes to driver behaviors that mostly results into accidents. For instance, the Service has set “Safe Drive Stay Alive” campaign which has been telling the young people in addition to new drivers regarding the dangers associated with driving and it has also set up schemes like Hard Hit, Fire Bike and also the Service has set Safer Community scheme which is mainly concerned with enlightening and educating the community members on the ways of preventing fires (Schein 2004). Still, West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service works efficiently with the local community. It works together with children and youths acting as positive roles models to decrease anti-social behaviors, arson and improve the safety in the roads as well. The Service has so far enlightened and advised more than eleven thousand primary schools concerning fire safety and what to do in case of fire break out and the most efficient safety and preventive measures. West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service working together with Police and the Councils it is assisting in reduction of anti-social behaviors. Fire Awareness and Community Education as well as Firebreak are some of the projects that have assisted about 208 youth’s allover West Sussex. Fire Cadets have availed 48 positions for the young individuals at Bognor, Burgess Hill as well as Worhting. The Service working jointly with the Prince’s Trust is assisting the support of fifteen young individuals who are not educated, employed or trained. In partnership with others, the Service has offered employment opportunities for two individuals with mental health issues (Graham 2003). Moreover, West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service in partnership with South Coast Ambulance Trust, the Service’s fire fighters offer important medical care up to when an ambulance reaches and this has assisted much in raising the chances of the victims surviving. They have assisted at least 136 life-threatening medical emergencies over the year. West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service has of late reviewed all its partnerships and consequently it has started with the most vital ten and has established that they the partnerships are offering value for money. Performance management West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service is dedicated to improving its services to the local population. The Chief Fire Officer offers strong leadership and he is strengthening the focus on effective management to ensure that things at the Service endeavor improve. The Service revises its performance repeatedly to ensure that it is enhancing yet it requires putting more focus on holding the people responsible for deliverance of the service to account. West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service seems not to be fully utilizing the performance management structure to assist it in improving its services. The Chief Fire Officer is ensuring this improves and is as a result establishing new arrangements into place. The quality of some of the information the service is utilizing is poor, nevertheless, action is being taken to improve this sector. West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service compares itself against the same fire services to assist it improve more and make sure it provides value for its finances. For instance, the service has made saving and has become more resourceful through revising its shift patterns. West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service working and taking actions on how to enhance poor performance, for instance the recent action was implemented to stop a rise in the number of intentional fires (Davis 2006). However, the Service is not fully aware of what staff and expertise it will require in the future in each and every area. This is better in some parts when compared to others. West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service makes use of preserved duty system fire fighters but it is still hard for the Service to recruit adequate staff. The Service has established a recruitment campaign which encourages additional people to apply and cover arrangements through making use of full time fire fighters from other stations. This is aimed at ensuring that each and very area within the county is covered. The Service works together with the modern apprenticeship scheme which offers the Service’s fire fighters technical training. The fire Service ensures that its workforce symbolizes the local community. It has raised the number of women fighters by 2%. The number of personnel from minority ethnic backgrounds is improving. West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service has improved the manner in which it tackles sickness among the sick personnel. As a result, the service is able to more easily identify workers that might require support and assist and maintain sickness levels low. This has seen sickness levels significantly reduce. West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service has plans in place to accomplish the higher government goals for attracting female firefighters as well as those from minority ethnic backgrounds to join the Service. There is good leadership in West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service whereby the Chief fire Officer is focusing on competent management to ensure that service continue to get better and has made several changes to the management system and they are major changes to the personnel within senior positions. Councilors together with the managers work well jointly to offer a competent and efficient fire series to the local community. They have of late requested the local people regarding on what they think is important for the Service to focus in future. This is entirely assisting the Service in setting out its ambitions more clearly (Davis 2006). Conclusion In conclusion, West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service has ensured that Councilors and senior managers take an active role in their duties as well as in their communities. For instance, senior officers have a vital role within the six District-based Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships, and the West Sussex Strategic Community Safety Partnership. Both of them also have an active responsibility and involvement in the development of the fire service regionally and hence West Sussex is leading on developing a regional control centre due to its effective management system. Bibliography Eberle, T., 2006, West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, Newsroom publishers, New York. Graham, K., 2003, Organization Behavior: Human Behavior at Work, New York. Thousand, J., 2000, A framework for thinking in West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service change, Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Baltimore. Revans, R., 2001, West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service operations, Chatwell-Bratt, Hunt, England. Schein, E., 2004, “Organizational and the Profession of Management in West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, London, Brookes Publishing Co. Davis, K., 2006, West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service, McGraw-Hill, Sydney. . Read More