Role and Inter-Relationship of the Fire Service, Other Emergency Services and Supporting Agencies - Essay Example

Name: xxxxxxxx Tutor: xxxxxxxx Title: Community fire safety Institution: xxxxxxxx Date: xxxxxxxx Community fire safety Introduction Protecting the community against fires is not only about prevention of accidental fires, Fire and Rescue services work hard to handle deliberate fires. In the year 2010/11, numerous deliberate fires in UK were attended to and hence there is a need to address the issue of deliberate fires since these fires damage property, take fire fighters away from training and fire safety work and can even result into individual being killed or injured. In 1998, the Home Office propose the scoping study; “safer communities towards successful control of arson”. This facilitated the decrease of incidents concerning arson and hence deliberate fire setting was included in the plan of the current UK government (United Kingdom Government 2009). One of its main proposals led to the establishment within 2001 of the arson control forum and a lot of progress has been made. Community Safety Partnerships now acknowledge the connection between deliberate fires and other kinds of anti-social behavior. Nonetheless, deliberate fire setting is one of the most destructive and life threatening crime and is projected to cost UK over £40 million weekly. Nationally, deliberate fire setting is the major sole cause of key fires within UK. The UK standard is about 2000 deliberate fires weekly and the effects include, life loss, grave injuries, considerable economic loss, encourages or results from other antisocial behavior, and a steady degradation of communities and community spirit (George 2008). The role and the inter-relationship of the fire service, other emergency services and supporting agencies in a range of community safety events or activities Several people are supposed to assist South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue in tackling arson and they include; fire investigation units who are the teams who attend fires after firefighters have put the fire out. Fire investigation units make use of specialist equipment and techniques and can also call on fire investigation dogs, trained for sniffing out accelerants like petrol, an arson tasks force, this joins together the fire and rescue service, the police as well as government departments, to lower the deliberate fires and all damages associated with arson, and juvenile fire-setters intervention team, which works with youths who have shown that they have fire-setting behavior (Cote 2004). The partners will constantly play an imperative part in the success of the fire service. In this regard, it will be possible to make a difference in the lives of the youths through raising their projection, boosting their confidence levels and offering openings for the young people to demonstrate what they can do. This will so important in breaking the clique of anti-social behavior as well as crimes allied to fire. An uneven amount of fire crime carried out by the young individuals and hence this is supposed to be stopped. In addition, development programs are supposed to be there for delivering the bold goal of the fire and rescue service through utilizing various delivery methods that taps into the reputation of firefighters. The presence of educators for the young individuals is a major element in assisting maximizing the potential and development of the work area. As a result, the youth programs should focus of what works for the youths and the programs should be applied across all the ages. Moreover, embedded firefighters should improve the face to face aspects of the firefighting work as well as the incorporation of nationally accredited qualifications which will offer the young people real worth for furthering their education, training or employment (George 2008). Partnerships with external organizations should be established and outstanding lasting working relationships with bodies like children’s service’s, crime & disorder partnerships, local strategic groups, police in addition to the youth offending team and others. Efficient links should be developed between other county council departments and district councils with the aim of accomplishing developments through working within partnership and go on to set up written agreements to support these arrangements if need be. As a result, great success will be accomplished if the fire & rescue service works with the countrywide crime & disorder reduction partnership collaborators. This will also strengthen the ‘golden thread’ through constant collaborative working with the partners, stakeholder as well as young individuals to shore up targeted youth allied schemes (George 2008). In this regard, a much efficient work will be done when it comes to targeting disadvantaged and disaffected youths. This is a compelling and effectual strategy, although is at the reactive end of prevention. What’s more, this will be helpful in improving and sustaining the community outreach and also early intervention work and endorse positive connections with the young people. The proactive strategy is additionally fortified by the community safety strategy, which upholds the aimed delivery of community safety activity to the people who are principally at risk (George 2008). Risks and control measures within a range of community safety events Community fire safety engages various initiatives targeting the promotion of a fire-safe environment, more so at home. Such initiatives can decrease fire incidences generally but aiming the areas having highest social deprivation, where number of deliberate fires, can have a disproportionate impact in decreasing the overall number of injuries and fatalities caused by fires. Together with the need to lower deliberate fires, the control measures can assist in reducing health inequalities. South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue has a good record of working with several disadvantaged communities and this should be further encouraged. Through focusing on these regions and through working with other stakeholders within the community, South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue will play an important role in the renewal of some of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods where deliberate fires are common (Paul 2008). Generally, fire fighters are basically perceived as making great contributions to a positive community philosophy. Fire fighters can be perceived as being positive role models for the young people. Therefore, it is recommends as a control measure the South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue to open several ‘community fire stations’ for the provision of recreational and meeting facilities and also functioning fire stations, in areas where these are badly required. Fire fighters should also take a lead within local working with the youths, either within young fighter associations, Prince’s Trust or equivalent schemes. They should also be involved within outreach programs, taking fire safety lessons to schools as well as community groups (Paul 2008). The fundamental objective should aim at changing fire and rescue service to a preventive service since prevention is better than cure. The South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue is very efficient at putting off fires and rescuing individuals after arriving at a fire incident. However, figures regarding fire fatalities and injuries illustrate that this is not adequate. For example, the probability of death taking place during night is greater as compared to during the day, even if numerous fire fighters are available to address any fire incident. This is due to the fact that at night many people are sleeping and hence less alert and fire can spread before anyone noticing. Additionally, death can also be caused by the smoke even before an alarm is raised. More importantly, even the fire fighters are at high risk of dying or getting injured while putting out the fire (United Kingdom Government 2009). The key control measures to lower such injuries and fatalities are to address the root causes which include; Individuals smoking while in bed Individual who are tired or are drunk being not careful with candles or electric fire Individuals not have efficient smoke alarms Taking an effective action to reduce such risks is the form of preventative work that saves numerous lives (United Kingdom Government 2009). Selection, location and access to a range of resources used to achieve objectives at community safety events Local authorities working with youth’s programs will have an access of the requirements of local young individuals, establish existing public, private as well as voluntary sector provision and also plan an inclusive and efficient range of service through the young people plan, indentifying various providers of educative services. Informing and guiding young individuals should be offered continually and systematically. New models for the aimed support for the youths, together with early intervention for everyone at risk, will be evaluated suing various pathfinder programs. Additional guidance should be planned, which should encompass the role of multi-agency teams. Additionally, there will be other bodies who will be involved in the investment in working with young people. As a result, these bodies will donate funds to provide the required resources to establish prevention initiatives, in collaboration with other partners counting the fire & recue service. There should be systems for development of information sharing systems, requirements examination as well as workforce development (Paul 2008). The South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue has been for a long time supporting and working with youths but the strategy should be reconsidered in order to avail adequate resources to enable it reach its goals. The strategy should target preventing the youths from being injured or dying within accidental dwelling fires in addition to being involved within road traffic collisions, fire crime and also antisocial behaviors. The required resources in achieving this include the skill and standing in the community to have a positive impact of the behavior of young individual within South Yorkshire. This will be achieved by the South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue working together with county-wide partners, other fire and rescue services, organizations and youths and related organizations to develop them, improve life opportunities and also assist in reducing fire crime as well as anti-social behavior (George 2008). Many youths go through numerous and different problems and this include unemployment after education, mental illnesses in addition to being crime victims. Whereas these problems impact youths throughout UK, disadvantage is often concentrated within the most underprivileged neighborhoods. Furthermore, there can be a sense of disengagement, frequently leading to antisocial behavior, youth crime, and drug abuse and school omissions. Therefore, resources should be identified and availed from the government, local authorities, agencies as well as associated organizations to help raise finances to help the underprivileged young people to access education and employment as this will help them desist from getting involved in antisocial behaviors which include setting deliberate fires. Moreover, the gathered resources can be used in establishing educative programs for educating the young people regarding the dangers of fires, drug abuse, and the value of education as well as other antisocial behaviors; accordingly, this will help the young people from getting involved in deliberate fires and other crimes (Paul 2008). At a national scope, the fire & rescue national framework should obligate all fire and rescue authorities to always consider the youths with their work, in addition, the national framework also establishes the foundation for each and every audit commission performance evaluations of fire and rescue authorities. The national acknowledgement for the specific roles the fire and rescue service in the development of young people should be fortified within the prevention programs and fire and rescue services; this should consist of establishment of formal partnerships and department for communities and local government. This acknowledges the role of the fire and rescue service within the prevention of youths from engaging in offences. In support of national agreement, the South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue should sign a countywide memorandum of understanding with the youth offending tem for South Yorkshire to work jointly with the aim of delivering preventative intervention to young people within South Yorkshire (United Kingdom Government 2009). The contents of various initiatives and methods used to effectively communicate these messages to the community Developing community self-help plans The community self-help plans are important in handling major fire emergencies as it will help communities in helping themselves during major fire emergencies. Business-continuity management will be included to provide advice to organizations during the fire-safety audit program and building up the initiative of “parish total safety’, where everybody within the community looks after themselves as well as other community members (Department for communities and local government 2007). Working with schools This strategy should be a fundamental element of the community safety program which is education of young people regarding the dangers and risks associated with fire. Through educating children and young people at an early age, both children and young people will learn regarding fire safety as well as desist from engaging in fire crimes. To communicate the messages, various activities for children and youths should be coordinated and they include: Informing them regarding dangers of fire Providing explanations about the dangers of matches and lighters Giving them information about how to stay safe from fire while at home Informing them regarding the dangers of hoax calls Educating the older children and youths regarding the consequences of arson Promoting safe and responsible driving Additionally, the educative programs in schools will include packages availed to schools and colleges for teachers to deliver to their class. Other ways of delivering the messages could entail the young people and school children visiting the fire station or the fire service and the partner agencies involved visiting the schools and colleges. Offering the community, particularly youth groups with motivation, skills, and resources give them the necessary skills of tackling fire incidents (Department for communities and local government 2007). Home safety visits The South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue ought to engage the most susceptible people and groups within the community to provide home safety visits. This consists of installation of smoke detectors in the homes, providing fire safety advice definite to the house and the lifestyle of the occupants and performing informal risk assessment of the homes to identify any fire risks and providing solutions to decrease the noted risks. The inspection department of fire and rescue services must enforce actions to safeguard residents from fire at premises, to offer safe escape routes from buildings minimize damage to the environment and property and decrease the risk presented to operational crews involved in fire intervention activities (Department for communities and local government 2007). This strategy is aimed at delivering a successful and targeted decrease of fire risk and fire crime involving young individual together with road safety education schemes. This should be delivered though the community safety strategy as well as the existing effective fire safety education, youth diversion work and working together with young people who are involved in antisocial behaviors and other offences. This will make great contributions to fire prevention by decreasing deliberate fire settings and hoax calls as well as an increased awareness regarding fire safety. It will also assist in tackling broader issues of crime and antisocial behaviors and enhancing school attendance in addition to employment opportunities for young individuals (George 2008). Conclusion Essentially, deliberate fires caused by youths is acknowledged as another, frequently more potentially risky, form of antisocial behavior which needs close partnership working through the “problem solving” strategy espoused by both police and community safety partners. South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue tackles the problem of deliberate fires by working closely with organizations such as the police and also by raising awareness of the problems of deliberate fires through publicity and campaigns. This is also tackled by engaging the youth who are in most instances involved in causing deliberate fires; the youths are engaged in programs where they are educated regarding the consequences of crimes such as arson in addition to hoax calls. The intensity of problems allied to fire in UK needs a greater awareness of general public regarding fire risk Bibliography Cote, A., 2004, Organizing for Fire And Rescue Services, Jones & Bartlett Learning, Dewsbury. Department for communities and local government, 2007, The new performance framework for local authorities and local authority partnerships: single set of national indication. London. . Viewed 8th December, 2011. George, B., 2008, The Fire and Rescue Service: Session 2005-06, The Stationery Office, England. Nick, C., 2006, Btec National Public Service, Nelson Thrones, Europe. Paul, G., 2008, Euro Fire-fighter, Jeremy Mills Publishing, London. United Kingdom Government, 2009, Fire and Rescue Service National Framework 2008-2011, The stationery office, London. Read More