Report
To: Senator W Kinnard, Minister for Home Affairs
From: Paul Brown – Group Manager (FRS)
Date: 31 December 2008
Subject: External Inspection of the Fire & Rescue Service
1. Purpose
1.1 The purpose of this report is to provide relevant information in seeking permission to commence arrangements for an external inspection of the States of Jersey Fire & Rescue Service (SJFRS).
2. Background
2.1 The Service’s last external inspection was carried out by Her Majesty’s Fire Service Inspectorate for England and Wales (HMFSI) in 2002 in line with the policy to invite such reviews every four years.
2.2 Since the last inspection, which resulted in four main recommendations and the reappearance of some recommendations made in 1998 that remained extant, HMFSI for England and Wales has been disbanded and replaced by the Chief Fire & Rescue Advisor’s Unit – this has, in fact, occurred since the last letter to you from the previous Chief Fire Officer in 2006. The role of this new unit is to advise Ministers on Fire related matters and provide operational guidance to COBRA during major emergencies; however, it no longer conducts inspections of Fire & Rescue Services as these are now carried out by the Audit Commission and focus mainly upon governance and management direction. The Audit Commission has indicated that they do not currently have the resources to undertake an Inspection of SJFRS and in any case their assessment process does not appear suitable due to the political and governance differences between the UK and local fire and rescue services.
2.3 HMFSI for Scotland remains however, under the direction of the devolved administration and continues to conduct general inspections of management and operational performance of fire & rescue services. They have recently conducted an inspection for Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man Fire & Rescue Services. Initial discussions with HMFSI (Scotland) have revealed that they would be willing to do the same for SJFRS and Guernsey Fire & Rescue, who are also seeking some form of external inspection.
2.4 With your sanction, it is proposed that the inspection would be carried out in the third or fourth quarter of 2008, with the proposed Terms of Reference being to review and make recommendations to improve:
§ Service strategic management, governance and direction
§ Workforce management and development
§ Risk analysis
§ Prevention and protection services
§ Operational preparedness
§ Call management and incident support
§ Emergency response
2.5 The Chief Fire Officer and the SJFRS’ Strategic Management Board consider that maintaining the facility of an external inspection programme through HMFSI (Scotland) is a vital, objective tool to validate current plans and for helping to shape and inform future plans to efficiently protect the Island’s community.
3. Recommendation
3.1 The recommendation is made to the Minister to approve the commissioning of HMFSI (Scotland) to conduct a full service inspection and to instruct the Chief Fire Officer to ensure that all necessary arrangements are in place.