Quality and Standards of Fire and Rescue - West Midlands - Case Study Example

Name : xxxxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : Quality & Standards - West Midlands Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxxx @2011 Abstract The report highlights the benefits and validity of the previous Quality Assurance system that existed prior to government abolition of Comprehensive Area Assessments and the cutting of the local government inspections. The case study of West Midlands Fire Services provides backing concerning the effectiveness of the previous system. The organization was able to adopt the Value for Money approach which was also commended by the Comprehensive Area Assessment. The approach improved the cost and quality of serves offered by the organization. Lastly the report proposes the Value for Money approach as an effective strategy for quality assurance. Table of Contents Table of Contents 3 Comprehensive Area Assessments, 2010 Retrived 17 1.0 Introduction Quality systems in Fire and Rescue Service organizations are vital, essentially because they have facilitated the delivery of quality services to the community we serve. However with the recent changes in the United Kingdom government and the political direction, the abolishment of Comprehensive Area Assessments and the cutting of the local government inspections since October 2010, will to some extent have a major impact on systematic evaluation and monitoring of services offered by Fire and Rescue Service organizations. This particular report seeks to highlight the benefits of the key quality assurance (QA) systems used by the Fire & Rescue Service (FRS) pre government change July 2010. The report will further evaluate the appropriateness of the West Midlands Fire Services Quality systems in relations to the organizations stated objectives. In addition the report provides a proposal of an effective approach that can be used in undertaking quality assurance. 2.0 Methodology The methodology entails analysis and evaluation of secondary data. These include the ;West Midlands Fire Services strategic documents such as Audit reports, financial records, Integrated Risk Management Plan and the organizations corporate plans. In addition secondary data from external sources such as the National Framework 2008/2011 and various Acts such as the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 will be very much useful in the compiling of this particular report. 3.0 The Validity and Benefits of the key quality assurance (QA) systems used prior to government changes in 2010 The West Midlands Fire Service was initiated in 1974, after the coming into being of the West Midlands County. The headquarter of the organization is located at the Lancaster Circus in Birmingham City .The organization mainly operates under the control of the “West Midlands Fire and Rescue Authority", which composes of chancellors who originate from West Midlands local authorities .The organization is evidently one of the second largest fire rescue organizations and one of the best, essentially in terms of performance. West Midlands Fire Service is currently serving a population of 2.6 million (West Midlands Fire Service Report 2010). The quality assurance system that existed earlier can be termed as beneficial and valid basing on the performance outcomes and the improvements made by the West Midlands Fire. This is signified by the organizations quality service delivery initiatives, made over the years. Earlier reports by the Audit commission and the Comprehensive Areas Assessment indicated that West Midlands Fire and Rescue Authority is evidently effectively managing its performance well and giving quality services to the community it serves(Comprehensive Area Assessments, 2009).The organizations chief officer Vijith Randeniya attributes the good results to the recent significant changes in the nature of emergency response and the dedication of the workforce to provision of quality services to the community. According to the West Midlands Fire Services Integrated Risk Management Plan (1RMP) (2008) risk analysis and risk management has over the years been a fundamental and major priority for the organization. Risk management in the organization incorporates resource allocation and planning across three key areas which include protection, prevention and response. As indicated by the Integrated Risk management plan, the organization has been able to enhance protection and prevention of the community from risk. This was accomplished through being proactive in undertaking targeted incident prevention in various key areas which facilitated risk reduction therefore making West Midlands area safer. A good case is the Home Fire Safety checks that were initiated to target local community groups that are usually more vulnerable to the risk of fire and other non-fire related risks. The organization has also been targeting life risk by a developed program of fire safety inspections .In addition safety management is a carried out by a team of specialist officers who carry out audits on safety standards in order to evaluate the organizations capability in terms of managing community risks(1RMP 2008). Despite the initiatives of facilitating community safety, the West Midlands Fire Services Integrated Risk Management Plan also focuses on risk management for the fire fighters. As we know the firefighting occupation is surrounded by a lot of risks, as a result the organizations priority has also been to ensure the safety of the workforce while they attend to emergency incidents. In order to mitigate risks for fire fighters, the organization has developed specialized intensive training and personal protective equipment (PPE).The organization has also actively researched and developed new types of specialized equipments and fire engines that assist in controlling the risks that fire fighters face in their everyday duties. For instance the organization recently introduced vehicles for targeted response in order to target particular types of incidents (1RMP 2008). West Midlands Fire Services has also devised a variety of corporate plans which highlights the future intended plans of the organization. Based on the outcome of the 2009, Comprehensive Area Assessment the performance of the organization was ranked as one of the most efficient and qualitative, thus the organization devised a 2010-2013 strategic plan which aims to continue improving the quality of services delivered by the organization and reduce the number the number of incidences that occur .The plan entails the targeting of resources in order to deliver outcomes. The strategy basically involves priority areas such as partnerships and communities. The strategic objective of focusing on the two areas is to improve on response and create value for money. For instance in terms of partnership and community initiatives, the plan intends to focus more on individuals who are more vulnerable to risks. While working with various partners, we are basically planning to tackle a range of issues which entail the agenda of healthier living, concentration of vulnerable groups and elimination of antisocial behaviour (West Midlands Fire and Rescue Corporate Plan, 2009). The West Midlands Fire Services 2010- 2013 corporate plan also entails to continue delivering value for money (VFM) through the application of various approaches. One of the approaches is the aspect of review performance management. This will be done by the evaluation of the impacts of our performance with the service users needs through strategies such as; adoption and sharing of good practice, promotion of learning and continued improvement performance through benchmarking our organization with other organizations within the fire and rescue sector. Another strategy of the development of value for many as highlighted by the corporate plan is people management. We plan to support our workforce through programmes and plans that invest, retain, attract and develop suitable workforce which will in turn result to reducing the costs linked to frequent recruitments. In terms of financial management we are consideration options for focusing more on external funding and also developing an annual statement of efficiency that entails the forward backward approach. We also have made plans to improve on governance through regularly reviewing the efficiency of our partnership in order to ascertain that we enhance value for money and provide effective outcomes (West Midlands Fire and Rescue Corporate Plan, 2009). From the West Midlands Fire Services Integrated Risk Management Plan, and 2010-2013 corporate plan the validity and benefits of the key quality assurance (QA) systems used prior to government changes in 2010 have been witnessed. Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA) gives and independent assessment of how best people are being survived within a particular local area, as a result due to the availability of such a watch dog across England it is evident that fire rescue organizations will always be focused on quality performance through their corporate plans and their 1RMP, As highlighted by the case of West Midlands Fire Services. 4.0 The appropriateness of QA systems that relate to the key strategic objectives set out in the current IRMP projections According to the National framework of fire and rescue service 2008-2011, quality assurance becomes an essential practice in an organization if development and learning standards that exist in fire and rescue service are to be improved and maintained. The West Midlands Fire Services IRMP is a fundamental tool in evaluating the appropriateness of the earlier Quality assurance systems. One of the key strategic objectives of the organizations 1RMP is to ensure that the organization has the right skills and equipments in order to facilitate the mitigation of risks(Luis 2007).The ISO 9004 provides guidelines for support, in order to assist organizations attain sustainable and quality improvement of the overall performance of an organization. West Midlands Fire Services objective of developing a workforce with the right kind of skill and further providing them with efficient equipments can be termed as strategy of improvement of the overall performance of the organization. As a result, the ISO 9004 management standard has been very much effective for West Midlands Fire Services strategic objective of developing the right skill and having the right equipments to reduce risks and also improve on response. For instance in 2009, the report on Operational Assessment highlighted that the organization is well prepared essentially in terms of response to emergencies. The organization managed to be credited for improvement of response essentially due to continues performance improvements attributed to a skilled workforce and the provision of efficient equipments. This implies that the earlier quality assurance systems were actually beneficial the organization (Organizational Assessment 2009). According to Colleen (1999) the objective of continuous improvement of employee skills can also be linked to the management principle of customer focus whereby through continued training of the workforce, they are able to gain proficiency in their work as a result improving the quality of services that are offered by the organization to their customers. Another objective of the organization’s IRMP is the aspect of putting into consideration evolutionary changes that occur in the community. Some of the areas of consideration include social and economic change, development plans within the local level, and regulatory/legislative changes such as environmental change (Luis 2007). West Midlands Fire Services has a good track record of knowledge management. The organization does a lot of research on the characteristics of individuals who work and live within the area. In addition, we also have collected data from other external agencies such as Highway agencies and other fire rescue organizations, environmental agencies and the local authority (1RMP 2008). Allee (2001) argues that knowledge keeps on changing as a result the best approach is to keep on managing it, while also keeping all options open. The integration of evolutionary changes that occur in community into the organizations Risk management Plan is an indication of the effectiveness of knowledge management within the organization. In recent years, there has been a shift in the practice of risk management from aspects of planning to placing people first in order to protect them from fire emergencies and other kinds of incidences. This is also one of the objectives of IRMP of West Midlands Fire Services. One of the major areas of consideration has been health and safety management. As highlighted by chapter 3 fire and Rescue services National Framework 2008-2011, it is essential for fire and rescue organizations enforce the health and safety of the staff. Reports by the Comprehensive Area Assessment also proposed that in order to facilitate the health and safety of employees, training and development is one of the key areas of improvement. West Midlands has actively been involved in enhancing health and safety of the staff essentially through organizing training and development (Annual Report 2009). In my view point, the strategy of balancing finance with corporate risk can equally be beneficial and valuable in the practice of QA. As highlighted by the 2008-11, National Framework, Fire and rescue organizations are obligated to meet the tax payer’s expectations. As a result organizations should closely focus on delivering better services that are more efficient and also enhance value for money which entails a balance between quality and cost. The strategy of balancing corporate risk with financial strategy is therefore a good way forward of ensuring that emergency related organizations attain their goals, which is a fundamental aspect of quality assurance. 5.0 The validity and benefits of the quality assurance (QA) systems for West Midlands Fire Services post government change July 2010. Following government abolition of CAA in May 2010, I suggest that the value for money approach is a good system of undertaking quality assurance. One of the major factors to back the approach is that; research indicates that value for money is a framework that provides equal consideration for both quality and cost. The approach has the sensitivity of reflecting on local conditions and the central feature of service. It is also essential to take note of the fact that cost should not be perceived as the sole determinate for the creation of value for money. The significance of the service provided by fire rescue organizations is equally important. Quality and cost of services provided are set in a matrix of cost /quality, which brings about a service description known as low cost' and 'reasonable quality(Colleen 1999). The development of value for money can thus be described as an effective method of balancing the cost attached to services and their quality. 6.0 The Application of the Value for Money Approach as a proof to Enhancement of Quality within West Midlands Fire Services According to West Midlands Fire Services 2009/09 audit Report, the value for money approach has been beneficial in improving the performance of the organization and also enhancing effective resource utilization. The organization got involved in the value for money approach through various initiatives which have proven to be beneficial. One of the initiatives involves managing finance while performing adequately. From West Midland’s financial records, the organization has a good track record of managing finance essentially due to strong levels of reserves and balances. For instance a three year plan was developed for the purpose of area improvement which highlighted the organizations understanding of the cost base and the quality of services offered by individual services (West Midlands Fire Services 2009/09 Audit Report). Another initiative to enhance value for money which has proven beneficial for West Midlands Fire Services is the aspect of governing business. Areas of strategic interest involve; focusing on the needs of the community, clarity of the organizations strategic focus and direction, services and supplies, policies and procedures. All these aspects have been used to ensure the effective running of the organization. For instance West Midlands was able to strengthen its process of risk management over the years however continuous action is needed in order to ascertain that the process becomes more effective(West Midlands Fire Services 2009/09 Audit Report). Value for money within West Midlands Fire Services was also facilitated by managing resources. The organization has established appropriate arrangements in order to ensure that the human resource is effectively developed. For instance, detailed training is usually organized every year in order to enhance employee productivity. The organization has also made initiatives of increasing the number of woman working in the service which is in consensus with the national framework 2008/11, which proposes the development of workforce diversity within fire and rescue organizations (West Midlands Fire Services 2009/09 Audit Report). 7.0 Conclusion The analysis above presented an insight of the how effective the previous QA system was. This was done through the evaluation of the validity and benefits of the system to the West Midlands Fire Services. What is evident based on this particular report is that quality assurance is vital element essentially in the attainment of organizations objectives. West Midlands’s fire service was particularly able to provide quality performance due to positive response given by the Audit commission and the Comprehensive Areas Assessment. In summary whether QA in the U.K is performed by the newly devised (TSA) Tenant Service Authority or the Audit commission, organizational assessment should be undertaken effectively in order to ensure that Fire and Rescue organizations meet their objectives. (Words 2610) 8.0 Appendix Benefits and Validity of the previous QA system West Midlands Fire Services Integrated Risk Management Plan Initiatives undertaken by West Midlands Fire Services to improve performance Benefits and validity of the value for Money approach 9.0 References Allee, (2001), Principles of Knowledge management. Colleen L, 1999, Managing quality and standards, Open University Press, 1999 Fire and Rescue Service National Framework 2008–11, 2008, Department for Communities and Local Government. Luis, J, 2007, Quality systems and standards for a competitive edge, Bank Publications. The Civil Contingencies Act 2004, 2006, Risk, Resilience and the Law in the United Kingdom, Oxford University Press. West Midlands Fire and Rescue Authority Organizational Assessment, 2009 West Midlands Fire and Rescue Corporate Plan, 2009, The plan making west midlands Safer 2010-2013 Retrived Comprehensive Area Assessments, 2010 Retrived West Midlands Fire and Rescue Authority Annual Audit Letter 2008/09, 2009, Retrieved From< http://www.westmidsfire.gov.uk/digitalAssets/106/106474_Annual_Audit_Letter_2008-2009.pdf> Read More