National Operational Guidance Programme: what's next?

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National Operational Guidance Programme: what’s next?

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A parliamentary seminar marked the launch of the new National Operational Guidance Programme. FIRE Correspondent Catherine Levin outlines its importance and what future impact the programme might make

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DCLG View Inevitably, some of the focus at the seminar was on the sustainability of the model up to March 2018. Claire Cooper, Head of National Fire Policy at DCLG, described the programme as an “exemplar” of how work should be

done in the future. “We are in a good place in terms of the case for this programme.

The engagement of everybody in this room, in terms of being able to say that all fire and rescue authorities are signed up and are playing an active role, is really important”.

Claire advised that in this “challenging and difficult economic environment DCLG is looking at a year-on-year reduction in resource budgets of around eight per cent throughout the spending review period”.

It was interesting to learn that there had been over 600 responses to the recent government consultation on collaboration between the emergency services. Claire reminded delegates that this consultation and its implications for fire and rescue services “are such a big part of the context in which we are operating in”.

The changes to governance models for fire and rescue services that could see mergers with police and crime commissioners represents a considerable departure from existing structures and the government response to the consultation is much anticipated.

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here is something special about a meeting in parliament. Portcullis House, next to the iconic Palace of Westminster, was a fine, modern setting for a gathering of senior officers and elected members of fire and rescue authorities. The National Operational Guidance Programme parliamentary seminar took place on November 10 to consider its achievements so far and look at what challenges it faces going forward.

The All-Party Parliamentary Fire Safety and Rescue Group hosted the seminar. This is a group of parliamentarians drawn from both houses of parliament with an interest in the fire and rescue sector. The group has a long history and meets regularly to consider a wide range of fire-related interests. Two of its members, Mary Glindon MP and Chris Davies MP, chaired the seminar and this was divided into two sessions.

The National Operational Guidance Programme has been running since 2012 and was originally established by London Fire Brigade. The London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority agreed to fund the programme up to £6 million over three years.

Gareth Bacon AM, Chair of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, reminded the audience that this “was the first agreement for the fire and rescue services to fund a national work programme”.

However, London could not commit to fund it forever and a different funding model has since been developed. This model now involves every fire and rescue service in the UK funding the programme on an annual basis, the size of the contribution dependent on the size of the organisation. The devolved administrations also provide funding along with £1 million from the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) for 2015/16.

The APPG seminar debated the next steps for the National Operational Guidance

“The engagement of everybody in this room, in terms of being able to say that all fire and rescue authorities are signed up and are playing an active role, is really important”

The Scottish Perspective In the light of this policy discussion, the case study provided by David Goodhew from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service gave a fascinating insight about what it is like to manage the merger of eight distinct organisations into one new one. Given the potential for new governance arrangements for fire and rescue services in the future, the audience could take some solace from the example described by David. He talked about the benefit of a national approach to developing guidance and how that removes the need for a newly merged organisation to adopt one of the merged organisation’s approaches over another.

In Scotland, with 356 fire stations, 8,500 uniformed personnel, 440 appliances responding to 100,000 incidents a year, the ability to have a standard approach to operational response is critical. After a risk assessment, the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service determined that it needed 46 standard January 2016 | www.fire–magazine.com | 13

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at so far and more needs to be done. He cited training as a gap. He argued for more training to be carried out across the Service in line with these new procedures.

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Having moved closer to HSE, CFO Wilsher says lessons from incidents can now be shared faster

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Partnership Approach CFO Roy Wilsher, who is the Chairman of the Operational Guidance Strategy Board, talked about the importance of the partnership between the Local Government Association, Chief Fire Officers Association and the London Fire Brigade in delivering the programme.

His views were echoed by Gareth Bacon AM, who told delegates: “The job from my perspective is far from done and while we started things here in London, we must finish them together.”

Claire Cooper was also highly supportive of this partnership approach as a means to create a sustainable future for the programme. She said: “We want to work in partnership with the fire sector, but this (the programme) is really something we want the fire sector to take ownership of and move forward with.” She concluded that the business case (for funding from DCLG) was successful (for 2015/16 funding) because it had “sector ownership and sustainability built in”.

Nick Collins, Programme Director, set out how he saw the programme fitting in with the broader agenda of the Fire and Rescue Service. He set out what is well known: that reduced demand for response has reduced opportunities for operational exposure. He told delegates: “If we are to continue to be successful at driving down the numbers of fires, it does not mean that they (the fires) will not happen. And that when they do, we need them to be dealt with in the most high quality and professional way possible.”

The focus of the programme is on firefighter safety and public safety. Andy Dark, Assistant General Secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, noted: “There isn’t a difference in how you improve public safety or improve firefighter safety; we believe they are the same.”

Andy talked about the role of guidance. It is not just for policy makers to produce standard operating procedures; it is for them to inform their operational chain of command about what is required to deal with incidents and to get resources to reflect those needs through the fire and rescue authority.

He went on to urge that “when operational guidance is produced, someone (at a local level) is translating it from national guidance into good procedures and more importantly into good practice, resulting in creating firefighter safety and safety for the public”. For Andy, only half of this process has been looked 14 | January 2016 | www.fire–magazine.com

Learning Opportunities One opportunity for this training comes from the Institution of Fire Engineers (IFE). Roy Bishop, currently Vice Chairman of the IFE, confirmed that the IFE training offer reflects national operational guidance. Phil Loach, speaking earlier in the seminar, thanked the IFE for recognising the guidance coming out of the programme and for integrating it into its syllabus for examinations. He commended it as “contemporary and current”.

Roy Bishop is leading a new project that aims to produce a best practice framework for operational learning across the fire and rescue sector. This builds on work coming out of JESIP and from CFOA in this area. Roy emphasised the need for the project to embrace the whole fire sector to deliver this project. He cited the need to be aware of, and adapt to, (where necessary) research and development coming out of organisations like, for example, the Building Research Establishment. The project is due to complete in late summer 2016.

While all chairs of fire and rescue authorities were invited to the seminar, very few attended.

Cllr Kay Hammond, Deputy Chairman of the LGA Fire Services Management Committee, who spoke at the seminar, was asked why that was the case. Cllr Hammond replied “the clue is in the name: Operational”.

She went on to explain, “Because members should not, technically, be interfering with operational matters”. Cllr Hammond reminded delegates that the elected members’ role is to challenge, look at performance and, “if, at the end of the day, things go wrong, it is the authority that has (to deal with) the problems”. Concluding on a positive note, Cllr Hammond confirmed that it was really important for elected members to be interested in the programme.

One of the goals of the seminar was to consider what the programme might look like post March 2018 when the guidance has been delivered. Phil Loach suggested that “the challenge for the programme and the fire sector is embedding the guidance and ensuring the programme of maintenance and regular update are part of the plan”. He said the success of the programme to date had demonstrated “that the sector can deliver successful improvement”.

Continuing on that journey post 2018 the fire and rescue sector needs to support the programme in some form, but how it does that is open to debate.

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operating procedures to deal with the most common incidents.

Since its merger in 2013, it has completed 22 of these and has used the National Operational Guidance as “it saves work and duplication” and ensures that their procedures are “fit for purpose and current”. For David Goodhew, the results have been highly effective and received extremely well.

safety; we believe they are the same”

To join the debate and get involved visit: www. ukfrs.com