How Hampshire Fire and Rescue Services in the UK Work - Case Study Example

Name: xxxxxxxx Tutor: xxxxxxxx Title: Community safety Course: xxxxxxxx Institution: xxxxxxxx Date: 2011 Introduction Community safety is associated with logic of personal security or a feeling of wellbeing at the work or residential place. It refers to a number of tasks which include policing of the surrounding t ensure adequate security. The essay considers Hampshire fire and rescue services in UK and how it works to handle a phenomenon which is considered a community risk. This facility has extended its services to cover all areas of human concern in the society to boost safety. The fire and rescue service facility attended various domestic fires in a building which were occupied by the migrant workers. These fires were as a result of poor cooking facilities of the tenants occupying the buildings, unfunctional smoke alarms and lack of awareness on the basic fire precautions. Methodology The information on this report is obtained from both primary and secondary sources. Primary sources involved direct observation of the activities and performance of the organization while secondary sources entailed obtaining information from the records of the facility as well as other records in the field of community safety like Fire and Rescue services Act 2004, Fire and Rescue National Framework, Regulatory Reform order and other relevant publications. The information is related with the services that Hampshire fire and rescue services offers to the community and the expectation aimed at determining the security of people in their residential and work places. Hampshire fire and rescue services This is one of the most upcoming fire and rescue services in UK with the most recent records and events portraying it as the most famous for domestic fire and rescue services. In November 2011, Aligned Assets announced that it took receipts of the most latest Symphony Blue light software a sign of how Hampshire fire and rescue services has become an inaugural user of the ever definitive and centralized database of address in UK. The facility was the first to start using AdressBase Premium data which is the most detailed on the products derived from the database of the entire nation. This data improved the kind of the services that the facility offers on safety of the community because it offers the workers knowledge on all the properties, streets and pieces of land in UK. This is inclusive of even the most minor areas like the bus stops and car parks. The AdressBase Premium contains mass volume of data from variety of sources thus the facility is equipped on all development activities such that even before the residential houses are occupied they are informed and given a chance to assess on their security. The rescuers ensure that the houses are well wired to prevent issues such as short circuit which are likely to cause fire accidents (Great Britain parliament, 2009). They will also have ideal chances of accessing the designs of these buildings to ensure that the builders consider the security of the occupants. The rooms in the building should not be too squeezed to prevent the spread of fire from one room to another as well reduce the severity of the frames and the impacts it is likely to have. Hampshire fire and rescue services has offered many fire and rescue services in the residential properties because of the good working skills that the workers are equipped with and the good knowledge of the community. The facility is able to get the historic information of these building such that the workers are able to determine the causes of these accidents based on the weakness of the building for example if the occupants have poor cooking facilities, the rescuers know that the fire is caused by cooking fuels like gas, paraffin or firewood hence are able to strategize on the best techniques of attacking it. Role and inter-relationship Hampshire fire and rescue service, other emergency services and the supporting agencies in a range of community safety There are a variety of emergency rescue service providers who works together with Hampshire fire and rescue services to ensure that their targets of maximum safety in the community are achieved. Floods and rescue services are some of the most active safety providers in UK and others like the Red Cross and AMREF. All these rescue service providers stay at stand-by to offer their assistance in case of any emergency in the community (Great Britain parliament, 2009). Issues of emergencies are effectively solved by the most effective responses before the situation gets to complications. All the emergency service providers are inter-related by the common equipments that they share. Lack of good fire alarms is assumed to be one of the causes of the fire in the residential properties that is put off by Hampshire fire and rescue services. The facility can solve this problem by using or teaching and encouraging the occupants to use the alarms installed by the flood rescue service providers to raise alarm in case of any fire emergency for the immediate response. The flood rescues also offers the equipments that they use to vacate their casualties to vacate those of the fire to a safer place. This helps to prevent the complications of injuries through excess burning being hurt by the blocks of the exploding buildings. The members of Red Cross and AMREF work together with the workers of Hampshire fire and rescue services to offer first aid to the casualties of the fire accidents. The police are also involved in the rescue process because their duties are to ensure that there is total security in the community (Smeby, 2009). They help to vacate all the people from these buildings and to ensure that all the safety measures are considered in the planning and construction of these buildings. The police also may help to ensure that all measures essential to stop or prevent occurrences of fire accidents are considered, for example installation of good cooking facilities by all the members to prevent fir outbreak. Working together as partners for emergency services increases the force that is inserted thus it is easier to achieve the targeted goals. The police will come to contact with the migrant workers and force them to change their lifestyle and adapt the one which prevent the occurrence of the emergencies. They should have good cooking facilities like the closed cooking gases and discouraged from using the open frames that they use. All the emergency services providers should come hard to ensure that the migrant workers are aware of all the basic fire precautions to prevent the occurrence of these societal accidents ways of handling them in case they occur (Great Britain: Department for communities and local government, 2006). The rescuers of all the emergency services should take it as their responsibility to educate the migrant workers on safety precautions so as to control the occurrences of societal emergencies as well as the first aid measures to reduce the consequences or impacts that the accidents are likely to have on the victims. The risks and relevant control measures within a range of community safety events These foreigners are at great risks of accidents of fire and other emergencies because they lack knowledge of the most necessary precaution measures. These buildings are fully occupied by the workers from the foreign countries thus the style of living is diverse based on the origin of any individual. The rescuers or emergency service providers have not taken time to educate people on the safety precautions of UK. Their cooking systems are considered as the major causes of fire outbreaks because they use poor cooking facilities. Some of these facilities are old and faulty like the cookers with open live wires thus these cables burn off any time if mishandled causing fire to the entire property. The buildings do not have working smoke alarms which the residents can use to raise alarm in case of any fire outbreak before it spreads to the entire building. Most of the time the rescuers get to these sites when it is too late to save the lives of the individuals or their properties. The congestion in these facilities is also another factor which increases the risk of the emergencies due to lack of space and fresh air. The frames also spread first and burn with explosions. The individuals are not aware of the possible or basic fire precautions thus they live careless lives prone to fire risks. The available electricity cables are overloaded with all the electrical devices causing short circuits thus the explosions are very common. There are a number of the control measures which the rescuers should put into consideration so as to reduce the occurrences of emergencies. The major one is fully equipping the individuals on the general knowledge on the safety precautions (National Audit Office, 2010). These skills will help the residents to know when they are taking risks they minimize the emergencies. The rescuers should also time to study the possible causes of these fires come up the ways of controlling them, the occupants should be encouraged or helped to get good cooking facilities like the closed cooking to keep of open frames. They should also be discouraged from clouding in these facilities as well as avoid overstocking their rooms for some free space. Resources considered communicating on safety precautions to achieve objectives at community safety events. There are many resources which can help these migrants to fully get the basic communication on the safety precautions in UK. Attending first aid sessions is one of resources because the individuals are formally taught on these skills. They are also encouraged to read and keep reference to the most relevant documents in the field like Fire and Rescue services Act 2004, Regulatory Reform Order and integrated risk management plan of Hampshire Fire and Rescue Services. These documents will keep them updated on ways of managing or controlling emergencies of fire (National Audit Office, 2009). Fire and Rescue services Act 2004 The fire rescue facilities in UK operate under different legislative and administration management but there are some documents which control the operations of these organizations in the region. Fire and Rescue services Act 2004 is applicable in Wales and England. The Act protects the fire and rescue services as well as the victims of these risks because the sector has undergone considerable changes due to changes in the style of living of the residents thus there are many activities likely to cause the outbreak. The Act states that the Fire and Rescue service is governed and provided funds by the Fire authority. This has empowered the operations of Hampshire fire and rescue services to protect the entire society (National Audit Office, 2004). Initially these facilities were referred to as Fire brigades and not fully recognized by the authority thus worked as non-governmental organizations but they are currently recognized and empowered by the authority. Regulatory Reform Order works to control the operations of the fire and rescue services. This document is essential for the foreigners to know what to expect from the rescuers and how they are supposed to behave to reduce the occurrences. These documents are regularly updated depending on the changes in the lifestyle (National Audit Office, 2011). Integrated risk management plan of Hampshire Fire and Rescue Services The government of United Kingdom has emphasized that every fire and rescue service should come up with a good plan to deal with the risks of fire considering the changes in the styles of living. It is therefore considered as mandatory requirement for rescue facility to have an Integrated risk management plan (IRMP) which will improve community safety. The IRMP of Hampshire Fire and Rescue service is a three year plan on the operations of an organization to achieve the target, the projects are proposed alongside the proposed procedures of achieving them (Dennett, 2009). This integrated risk management plan enables Hampshire fire and rescue service to achieve its operations and also easily recognize the areas which need improvement for quality services. The recent achievements of the organization are associated with the good integrated plan thus the management was able to improve their database to incorporate the most detailed. The plan also helps the workers of Hampshire fire and rescue services to handle the accidents of fire in the properties occupied by the migrants. This is because each of the workers knows his or her duties in the activity and the specific equipment that they are supposed to use. The plan states that the individuals and their equipment should always be at a standby to respond to any emergencies (Bugbe, 2009). The AdressBase Premium data that Hampshire fire and rescue service is currently used has enabled the orgsnization to efficiently meet its targets as well as meeting the expectations of the entire community. The organization is able to assess the status of all the facilities in the society thus identify the defaults which are likely to cause accidents (Hirschler, 2008). In the plan the organization consider ways of preventing the occurrences of accidents of fire or managing them to reduce the consequences. The data also helps the organization to include the seminars and other learning sessions for the residents to acquire skills on safety precautions. There documents are the best for the foreigners to read so as to have their knowledge on the safety precautions updated. All these resources are regularly updated to include changes on all environmental factors including the styles of living. The contents of various initiative and methods used to effectively communicate these messages to the community There are a number of methods which could be considered to communicate this message to the public. The electronic and non electronic media outlets could be considered to reach as mass audience as possible. Other mediums of communication like the posters can be used as well as public addresses could be considered. The proposed initiative to effectively pass this message to the targeted group is public address through seminars and publications like books and magazines. Below is a plan on the methods and procedures that the rescue group can consider to effectively communicate the community safety tips to the residence and ensures that these goals are achieved. Method Procedure Seminars All the rescuers including the police will would together to ensure that all the residents are well skilled on safety measures. The workers at Hampshire fire and rescue services should organize seminars to educate people on safety measures; other partners like AMREF should also be involved to teach on first aid. The police and others in authority work to ensure that these skills are implemented on daily lives of the residents. Events The migrants should be encouraged to attend events which require them to apply the acquired skills. All the community members should be encouraged to be active allies to support safety. Resources The rescues should ensure that all the community members are equipped with resources like books which will help them improved their knowledge on the field. Other equipments and tools like working fire alarm should be installed and regularly assessed to ensure they are in good condition to perform their duties. Posters Hampshire fire and rescue services should ensure that big posters and billboards are put at strategic areas to always inform or remind the residents on the tips of community safety. The above listed methods can be effective if they are well put into the practical life. It is also easier for the management of the Hampshire fire and rescue services to assess and identify whether their message is fully communicated to the targeted group or not. The methods enable them to know whether all the partners have achieved their goals or not. They will also be able to come up with other ideas of improving public safety in case the proposed initiatives fail. Conclusion Hampshire is currently considered the leading fire and rescue service provider in UK because of the efforts it has instigated to achieve the goals of community safety. The organization has recently attended a number of domestic fires in residential facilities occupied by migrant workers. This is because of the reforms that the management has made on the database to be used so as to keep it update on the situation of all the facilities thus can effectively maintain their safety. The organization also has a well formulated template of the plans on their activities and projects together with other partners in the field. Bibliography Dennett, M, 2009, Fire attack: an integrated strategy, Jeremy mills, Wales. Smeby, L, 2009 Fire and emergency administration: management and leadership practices, Jones & Bartlett, Scotland. Great Britain: Department for communities and local government, 2006, Fire safety risk assessment: theatres, cinemas and similar premises, The Stationery Office, UK National Audit Office, 2004, Fire and Rescue services Act 2004, Edward Elgar, UK Great Britain parliament, 2009, New Dimension, enhancing the fire and rescue services capacity to respond, The stationery office, UK Hirschler, M, 2008, Fire hazard and fire risk assessment, Jones & Bartlett, Scotland Bugbee, P, 2009, Principles of fire protection, John Coleman publishing company, Wales. National Audit Office, 2009, New Dimension: Enhancing the fire and rescue services capacity to emergencies, Edward Elgar, UK. National Audit Office, 2010, Reducing the costs of procuring fire and rescue service vehicles, Edward Elgar, UK. National Audit Office, 2011, Regulatory Reform (Fire safety) Order, Edward Elgar, UK Read More