NFRS Response Strategy
Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service
2012 - 2015 Response Strategy
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1 Introduction
In Line with its statutory responsibilities under the Fire and Rescue Service’s Act
2004, The Civil Contingencies Act 2004, the Fire and Rescue Services
(Emergencies) Order 2007 and the Fire and Rescue Services National Framework,
Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service (NFRS) is committed to providing a
range of response capabilities to ensure it is capable of dealing with the full range of
emergencies that it could reasonably be expected to attend. These Emergencies
may take place within the County of Northamptonshire or outside it and may be
National or Sub-National in nature, i.e. wide area flooding.
In order to achieve this response capability, NFRS will maintain a fleet of vehicles,
systems, and equipment to meet these expectations and also ensure that their staff
are trained to use them in the circumstances that they would reasonably be expected
to operate.
This Strategy is designed to illustrate how NFRS intends to meet the challenges of
operational response, both now and into the future, to ensure the safety of the
community and its own staff. It takes into account all of the risks that can be
reasonably anticipated in line with the concept of Integrated Risk Management
Planning (IRMP) and meet the Northamptonshire County Councils (NCC) core aim of
“helping those that cannot help themselves”.
The Strategy is supported by a suite of more detailed documents including local
policies, such as National Operational Guidance, the mobilising policy and Standard
Operating Procedures (SOPs).
NFRS demonstrating the use of Cobra
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2 Principles
The main principle behind the NFRS response strategy will be to mobilise the most
appropriate resource to an emergency taking onto account the incident type and the
time it would take for a resource to arrive. The determination of the resources
mobilised will be based on having the appropriate capability to be able to deal with
the immediate risk, stabilise the incident and bring it to a satisfactory and safe
conclusion. The most appropriate initial resources, known as the Pre-Determined
Attendance (PDA) will be mobilised by our control operators based on the
information available to them at the time of the emergency call, further resources will
be mobilised at the discretion of the incident commander in line with their risk
assessment and operational plan.
In order to achieve correct mobilisation NFRS will continue to develop a response
model that allows us to mobilise a range of vehicles, equipment and personnel in a
more flexible way. This more flexible response model will not be based solely on the
mobilisation of fire appliances in the traditional way, but on the capabilities and
personnel required to firstly, make a lifesaving intervention and secondly, to bring the
incident to a satisfactory conclusion. To achieve this NFRS will continue to utilise
traditional fire appliances, but will also utilise a range of specialist vehicles and
appliances crewed with varying numbers of firefighters with a range of different skills.
Initial Intervention Vehicle (IIV)
To support the main principle of the response strategy NFRS will locate capabilities
around the county based on the risks that exist in that area, whilst maintaining the
overall organisational capacity to deal with large scale incidents. To achieve this
NFRS will regularly review the capability of its appliances and personnel in order to
ensure the service is capable of dealing with the risk both on a locality basis and as
part of a service wide response. Thereafter vehicles, equipment, training and
mobilising policy will then be adapted to ensure that the service is responding in line
with these principles.
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3 Command and Control Systems
In order to ensure that NFRS are able to meet the principles set out in the response
strategy, we have invested in a new command and control system. This system will
enhance our ability to answer calls more quickly and respond to emergencies in a
more flexible way. This in itself will enhance our ability to further improve our
performance against our standards of operational response. Our old Command and
Control system had come to the end of its life and utilised old technology, therefore
following the Government’s announcement to end the nationally led Regional Control
Centre (RCC) project, the County Council decided to invest in a programme of
projects to ensure that we are able to implement the flexible capability led approach
that is required to serve the communities of Northamptonshire into the future.
The system operates by being able to calculate the time it would take for a resource
to arrive at an incident by utilising road routing information together with the station
location. This will be further enhanced through the activation of Automatic Vehicle
Location Systems (AVLS), a feature that allows the mobilising system to be able to
know the exact location of any vehicle wherever it is.
A further enhancement will also take place in the shape of an Integrated Command
and Control System (ICCS), which will enable a better interface between the
mobilising and communication systems. We are also exploring enhanced means for
transmitting a larger amount of data than is currently possible, to enhance our ability
to be able to supply risk information to the incident ground as well as enhancing
officer mobilisation, while at the same time reducing voice transmissions that are
more time consuming and costly to initiate.
The new command and control system will also bring other benefits, including
enhanced resilience in regard to business continuity and also increased
interoperability with other Fire and Rescue Services.
To further enhance this approach NFRS will carry out a strategic review of its back
office software provision. The outcome of this review will be a new Information
Management Strategy, the objective of which will be to improve the use and
governance of information across the service through the integration of current
information management systems, leading to improved efficiency and better user
outcomes. This will ensure that we have the back office solutions required to be able
to implement the principles as set out in this strategy.
4 Risk
Fire and Rescue Services are organised on the basis of risk and not activity. Risk is
defined as the likelihood of an event occurring multiplied by the severity of the
impact, should that event occur. These risks can be generic or specific in nature. For
example, a generic risk would include the type of incident that firefighters would
attend on a regular basis all over the Country i.e. fires in buildings or Road Traffic
Collision (RTCs), whereas a specific risk would usually relate to a particular property
i.e. a factory that incorporates a hazardous manufacturing process involving
hazardous materials etc.
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These risks may fall within the County’s border; they may be in an adjoining County
or in other parts of the Country.
NFRS are required to produce an IRMP. The IRMP is the method by which the
Service determines risk and also articulates the Fire Authorities priorities in relation
to organising the business of the Fire Service in mitigating these risks. Integrated
risk management consists of three interdependent parts, these being Prevention,
Protection and finally Response. The current IRMP can be found at
www.northamptonshire.gov.uk under ‘Fire and public safety’, ‘Policies and
publications’, ‘Our strategic plan’.
NFRS is also required to co-operate with other services and agencies within the
Local Resilience Forum (LRF), in line with its responsibilities as a category one
responder under the Civil Contingencies Act. The LRF’s main responsibilities are to
ensure that local risks are assessed and that preparedness, in terms of response
and recovery arrangements are in place to deal with the range of potential
emergencies that could affect the County.
In order to comply with relevant legislation NFRS are required to be able to respond
to this full range of risks, this includes the ability to be able to respond to incidents on
a national scale and utilise the resources hosted by NFRS, which form part of the UK
Governments National Resilience Strategy. For example NFRS host a high volume
pump capability, should a serious flood occur in another part of the country NFRS
would be required to mobilise that capability with appropriately trained personnel to
assist with that incident. Therefore NFRS’s response strategy must include
appropriate policies, procedures and training in order to allow us to meet this
obligation.
One other important aspect of risk is having the ability to provide risk information to
our incident commanders on the incident ground, to assist them in their risk critical
decision making. NFRS have a risk intelligence process in place to ensure that the
county’s major risks are inspected and appropriate risk information is collected. This
information is then formatted and made available to Incident Commanders via Mobile
Data Terminals (MDTs) on fire appliances. NFRS will refine these processes and
prioritise the sites in the county, risk graded in line with the national risk intelligence
grading protocol. We will ensure that information is formatted on the national
template and made available, along with any tactical information plans where
appropriate. A risk based process will then be put in place to ensure, as far as is
reasonably practicable, that this information is kept up to date.
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5 Health and Safety
As an employer NFRS are required to be compliant with all relevant employment
legislation, including Health and Safety law. The key piece of legislation in this
regard, applicable to both employers and employees, is the Health and Safety at
Work Act 1974 (HASAWA). In addition to the HASAWA there is a raft of additional
Health and Safety regulations, guidelines and codes of practice that are pertinent to
the work of the Fire and Rescue Service. These seek to ensure that Fire and
Rescue Service operations and activities are carried out in such a way as to maintain
the safety of both employees and the wider public. In order to fulfil this obligation,
NFRS will utilise the principles set out in Health and Safety Guidance document 65
(HSG65) produced by the Health and Safety Council, and also the National Fire
Service Health and Safety Framework.
Hazardous material training
It should be recognised that Fire Service activities, particularly operational response,
can be dangerous, in the main because of the unpredictable and dynamic nature of
emergencies, and the fact that Fire Service staff are required to make decisions and
act with incomplete information. This dichotomy has been recognised by the Health
and Safety Executive and is outlined in their “striking the balance” document which
deals with “the conflict between operational response and Health and Safety in the
Fire Service.” NFRS recognise the significance of this document and will strive to
meet the principles set out within it.
In order to overcome some of these issues it is important that Fire and Rescue
services have in place policies and procedures to deal with the range of incidents
that they could reasonably be expected to attend. To achieve this NFRS will
continue to develop a range of operational policies, SOPs and Specific Incident
Procedures (SIPs) in line with the list of incident types to which we will mobilise
resources.
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These policies, SOPs and SIPs will be underpinned with risk assessments and task
analysis that will allow us to mobilise the appropriate resources to an incident while
giving the incident commander additional information to inform the decision making
process. This will assist in ensuring that the most appropriate tactics and
procedures are utilised to bring incidents to a safe conclusion.
In addition NFRS will continue to strive to improve its operational activities and
response. In order to do this NFRS have put in place an operational assurance
framework. This framework ensures that there is a formal monitoring and review
process of operational performance. This process is in line with the principles set
out in HSG 65, which in turn will allow us to put in place improvements where they
are identified and required. Whilst ensuring that NFRS learns from its own activities,
the operational assurance framework also takes into account learning that may be
gained from events that happen in other places, both nationally and internationally.
NFRS will ensure that it has in place processes that allow it to analyse information
from other sources i.e. investigations/report into significant incidents elsewhere
including incidents where firefighters have been killed or injured. This is to ensure
that any identified learning is analysed and compared to NFRS practices and
procedures in order to identify where improvements may be made.
Training is also a key element in ensuring the Health, Safety and Wellbeing of staff.
NFRS has a workforce development strategy, which, among other things, outlines
how NFRS intends to train and develop its staff to meet the challenges of the
operational environment and to meet the challenges of this response strategy. This
will include defining the core, and specialist competencies that firefighters and
officers are expected to fulfil in order to ensure they have the requisite skills to deal
with incidents in a safe manner.
6 Infrastructure Requirements
NFRS is a strategic service designed to meet the needs of the whole of the County.
It is therefore important that our infrastructure requirements are based on that
strategic requirement. This means that whilst fire stations are locality based, they
each support and form part of a countywide response capability. Resources are not
just mobilised to an incident from the nearest location, but also from neighbouring
locations further afield to deal with it. It is therefore important to understand that for
this service, a ‘site specific’ impact extends beyond the locality. Traditionally fire
stations have been built in the areas where most fires occur, predominantly in the
County’s major towns and large villages. However due to the increasing range of
incidents attended, the need for a more integrated emergency response, and the
growth and development of the County, there is a need to ensure that the strategic
needs of the service, in relation to the infrastructure required to meet our emergency
response obligations, is recognised. Therefore NFRS will utilise information about
the County’s development and growth, together with its risk modelling software, to
determine the most appropriate location for our resources.
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The provision of adequate fire and rescue service resources is essential in the
delivery of a safe, healthy and attractive place to live, a key policy requirement of
national planning guidance in Planning Policy Statement 1 (PPS1). In addition,
Section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 requires local authorities and other
agencies to consider crime and disorder reductions and community safety in the
exercise of all their duties and activities. The above legislation imposes a
requirement on fire and rescue authorities and local authorities to ensure efficient
and effective fire and rescue provision, and that the service contributes effectively to
the wider community safety agenda. These are in addition to the statutory duties
placed on Northamptonshire Fire Authority under the Fire and Rescue Services Act
2004.
New developments and associated infrastructure attract people to live and work in
the county and lead also to an increase in traffic movements and volumes. This
inevitably results in an increase in incidents involving fire and non-fire (e.g. RTCs).
This places additional demands on fire and rescue resources to ensure safe places
are maintained, consistent with national Government expectations and guidance.
As a result of this additional demand, resources may be moved across the county to
maintain initial and supporting intervention capabilities. This will result in increased
levels of risk in surrounding areas and affect performance against our response
standards. It is therefore reasonable for the fire and rescue service to request
developer contributions which are relevant in scale and kind of developments, to
ensure that the Service can maintain its Standards of Operational Response (SOR).
The location of resources is determined by risk and likelihood. The aim being; that
when called upon, resources are mobilised in a timely and efficient manner without
negatively impacting likely outcomes. Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Authority
recognise that specified attendance times cannot be achieved on all occasions but
will ensure resources are strategically located to minimise risk. This will be achieved
through:
 Analysis of societal risk;
 Modelling the impact of resource locations through indicative casualty/fatality
rates;
 Modelling the impact of resource locations on changes in indicative levels of
risk.
The aim of this analysis and modelling work is to ensure response standards are
achieved and where possible improved.
These response targets are detailed within Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue
Authority SOR and cover a complete range of incident types that could be expected
as a consequence of this development. The NFRS SOR document can be found on
the NCC internet site, via the following link:
http://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/en/councilservices/fire/fireandrescue/policy/Pag
es/SOR.aspx
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Maps showing the current locations of our Fire stations together with the projected
growth areas for the county up to year 2026 are shown in appendix 1.
7 Mobilising Policy
The NFRS mobilising policy provides the detail on how resources are mobilised, in
line with the principles set out in this document. Currently, this is in accordance with
the designated incident type as determined by our control operators, which in itself is
determined by the information available to them at the time of the 999 call. These
incident types are a defined list and are based on work carried out nationally by Fire
and Rescue Services working in collaboration. Each of these incident types has
attached to it a PDA. The PDA is the pre-set number of capabilities that will be
mobilised to an incident immediately on receipt of a call for assistance.
Water rescue capability
In all there are around 90 generic incident types, some of these are further broken
down into more specific incident types, in order to ensure we are able to determine
as accurately as possible what type of incident we are attending. For example, there
is an incident type for a building fire, however due to the large range of different
buildings and the potential for different resource requirements; these are further
broken down into different types of building i.e. high rise, factory, residential etc. This
then allows us to mobilise the correct PDA, made up of the correct capabilities to
deal with this type of incident.
NFRS in collaboration with other Fire and Rescue Services will continue to work
together in order to further refine the Incident types and ensure that not only are
common PDA’s designed, but also that common SOPs and SIPs are developed.
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These SOPs and SIPs will be developed using robust risk assessment and task
analysis, which will ensure that safe systems of work are able to be employed at
incidents for the safety of our staff. This collaborative approach will further enhance
our interoperability, which is our ability to work with other Fire and Rescue Services
using common methodology, procedures and practices.
As highlighted earlier NFRS may be required to mobilise resources and equipment to
other parts of the country in line with the requirements laid out in the National
Resilience Strategy, therefore NFRS will ensure that its policies and procedures
consider the need to mobilise resources to support a national event.
As NFRS further develops its response capabilities, the mobilising policy will be
adapted to deal with any changes required.
NFRS performing an animal rescue
8 Firefighting and New Technologies
Along with other Fire and Rescue Service’s NFRS have historically applied
traditional firefighting methods in order to resolve operational incidents. This
generally included the ability to be able to fight fires from both the inside and outside
of premises.
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In order to fight fires from the inside of buildings firefighters are required to wear
Breathing Apparatus (BA) and to be trained to understand the behaviour of fire in a
compartment. Fighting fire from the inside of buildings is extremely hazardous, over
the last 10 years a number of firefighters have been killed on duty fighting fires in this
way, therefore NFRS is actively working to exploit new technology in order to
enhance both its firefighting capability and the safety of firefighters. Exploiting new
technology will not completely replace traditional firefighting methods; however it will
provide alternative tactical options that can be employed by incident commanders.
This new technology includes the COBRA extinguishing system. COBRA allows the
service to fight a fire in a compartment without the need to commit firefighters into
that compartment. It does this by piercing a small hole through solid objects i.e.
doors, windows, brick, steel etc. and delivering a high pressure, atomised water mist
into the compartment. This then dramatically reduces the temperature and either
fully extinguishes the fire or dramatically improves the conditions in which firefighters
can then operate. The advantages of this system are numerous and include:
a) It can be deployed quickly and requires fewer personnel to set up.
b) Firefighters can tackle building/compartment fires from the outside, reducing
the risk to them.
c) It increases the survival chances of casualties by rapidly reducing the
temperature within the compartment.
d) It makes it safer for firefighters to enter buildings and compartments and
enhances the chances of successful rescues and firefighting.
e) It reduces water damage to the affected property, thereby reducing
consequential losses and enhancing business continuity.
To complement the COBRA technology NFRS have recently been involved in the
European Firefight 2 project, a European Union project funded through the Leonardo
De Vinci innovation fund. The aim of the project is to promote safe firefighting
techniques by bringing together a combination of new technologies. These include
utilising thermal imaging, by using Thermal Imaging Cameras (TICs), Positive
Pressure Ventilation (PPV) and COBRA. NFRS were chosen to be part of this
project due to its position as the UK leaders in the use of the COBRA system.
NFRS aim to roll out the methodology across the service, which will enhance
NFRS’s knowledge and capability in tactical firefighting, and increase the tactical
options available to incident commanders in their duty to deal with incidents in a safe
and effective manner. This training will be rolled out at our new Tactical Firefighting
Centre (TFC) which will be located at Chelveston. This TFC will incorporate the
facilities to consolidate our training in traditional firefighting as well as develop our
new technologies for rollout across the service.
In addition to the integration of the TIC, PPV and COBRA methodology within the
service, NFRS will also use its influence to promote the technology on a national and
international basis.
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NFRS will also look to other new and improved technology to enhance both the
operational response of the service as well as the Health and Safety of its staff. This
will include the procurement of new breathing apparatus (BA) and associated
equipment. BA is the single most important piece of equipment provided for the
safety of our personnel, it is also vital in allowing firefighters to be able to enter
irrespirable atmospheres to carry out fire fighting and rescue operations. The new
system will be rolled out across the service in 2012 and will ensure that firefighters
are equipped with the most up to date technology. This will also assist us to meet our
obligations in relation to new national BA guidance due to be updated in 2012.
In addition, NFRS has plans to set up projects to look at Telemetry and new
firefighting Personal protective Equipment (PPE). Telemetry is a way of tracking
information from firefighters once they have been committed into a building. It
enhances their safety by allowing those outside to monitor the ambient conditions
inside the building as well as the air consumption from the BA set; therefore
providing the opportunity for early intervention should a problem occur. Our current
PPE contract is due for renewal in 2014, and we will use this opportunity to
investigate the range of new PPE available on the market taking into account the
range of response and emergency activities that personnel will be required to
undertake in the future.
9 Vehicles and Equipment
In addition to the new technologies outlined in this section, NFRS will also review its
fleet and equipment requirements in order to ensure it has the right vehicles and
equipment to deal with local risks and organisational resilience. This review will
incorporate the possibility of providing specialist capabilities over a wider
geographical area in collaboration with other Fire Services as well as private sector
partners.
NFRS currently has a fleet of 28 Fire Appliances, 26 traditional appliances plus 2
Combined Aerial Rescue Pumps (CARPs), based over the 22 Fire stations in the
County. These appliances make up the backbone of our current response capability.
At present these appliances are built to carry largely identical equipment. In addition
to these appliances NFRS also has a range of specialist vehicles and equipment to
provide a range of specialist capabilities. These include:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
h)
Technical rescue – with specialist heavy rescue equipment
Water rescue – including a flood rescue and powerboat capability
Large animal rescue
Line working – for rescues from height
Bulk water via a Water Pod and Water Bowser
Bulk foam via a Foam Pod
Initial Intervention Vehicles (IIV)
COBRA Intervention Vehicle (CIV)
The IIV is a single crewed vehicle that can be strategically placed around the county
to fulfil a range of functions. These include being placed at known RTC blackspots in
order to enhance our response to them.
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The IIV is equipped with the capability to make an initial intervention at RTCs in
order to increase the life chances of a casualty. IIVs can also be used to give
managerial support to Retained Duty System (RDS) stations and supplement any
crewing deficiencies at those stations in order to keep appliances available. In
addition the specialist skills of the IIV operators mean that NFRS has additional
resources to roll out specialist training around the service where required. It is the
intention to have seven IIVs in service over the next 3 years.
The CIV is a two person crewed vehicle that has a standalone COBRA capability.
This vehicle again can be utilised to supplement crewing deficiencies at RDS
stations in order to keep appliances available and can also provide additional
COBRA capability at a range of incidents where appropriate. There are plans to
increase the number and capabilities of the CIV to further enhance its use.
NFRS will also implement further trials of different appliances in order to evaluate
their suitability and contribution to the response strategy. This includes trialling
different fire appliances designed to better match the risk in the geographical area in
which they predominantly operate. These vehicles will have the core firefighting and
rescue capability of a larger appliance, but they will not be classified as a heavy
goods vehicle and will carry a reduced range of equipment. The advantages of these
smaller vehicles will be greater fuel efficiency, a reduced training burden and the
ability for more flexible crewing arrangements.
In regard to equipment, NFRS will evaluate its requirements based on the lifecycle of
equipment as defined in the Fleet or asset Management Strategy. Where equipment
is due for renewal, evaluations, including, where appropriate, trials, will take place in
order to identify the most appropriate replacement. Areas currently identified to
investigate for replacement are the provision of PPE, and also the provision of
specialist hydraulic cutting equipment for use at RTCs.
RTC training exercise
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10 Incident Command
Incident command is an integral part of the NFRS response strategy and key to
ensuring that the service’s response to emergencies is effective, whilst ensuring the
safety of its personnel. NFRS have adopted national guidance on incident command
and the principles set out in the Fire and Rescue Manual - Volume 2 – Operations Incident command. The manual sets out a full set of principles and procedures for
incident command, that are scalable depending on the size, type and complexity of
incident attended, including incidents where a national response is required. The
Incident Command System is the recognised "nationwide safe and effective system
for managing operations". It presents the key elements of effective incident
command in three functional areas; these are:
a) Organisation on the Incident Ground – this gives the Incident Commander
a recognised system from which to work when organising and using
resources at an Incident.
b) Incident Risk Management - the principal consideration of Incident
Commanders is the safety of their personnel. Therefore, prior to deciding
upon the tactics an assessment of risk must be performed. The Incident
Commander must identify the hazards, assess the risks, and implement all
reasonable control measures before committing crews into a risk area.
c) Command Competence - considers the skills, knowledge and
understanding required by an Incident Commander and the importance of
maintaining such competencies.
The Fire and Rescue Service, nationally, have recently reviewed the competency
framework for incident command and have identified four levels. NFRS will adopt
this framework and utilise it to train, assess and mobilise its incident commanders.
The principles behind the four levels of command are to ensure that staff are trained
and assessed against the competencies commensurate with their role within the
organisation and in relation to the type and size of incident they would be expected
to take command at. In addition NFRS’s mobilising policy will set out, as part of the
PDA, the level of incident commander required for incidents in their initial stage, as
well as the level required as the incident grows in size or complexity.
NFRS will also adopt terminology in order to describe incidents in line with these four
levels of incident command, for example a Level 2 incident would be one that
requires an officer competent at Level 2 Incident Command, to be in charge. Details
of the compentencies for the 4 levels of incident command can be found on the
sector skills council’s website www.skillsforjustice.com.
In order to assist Incident Commanders (IC’s) in their decision making NFRS will
also ensure that it maintains its ability to mobilise officers with specialist capabilities
in order that that IC’s have all the specialist advice they require for command
decisions to be taken. These include such capabilities as Hazardous Materials and
Environmental Protection Officers (HMEPOs), access to scientific support, Fire
Investigation Officers (FIOs), Fire Protection Officers (FPOs), flood managers, water
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rescue advisers, large animal rescue advisers etc. The mobilisation of these officers
and capabilities will be set out in the mobilising policy. NFRS will continually review
these capabilities to ensure that specialist advice where required can be maintained
and enhanced where appropriate. NFRS will also investigate whether these
specialist capabilities can be shared with other Fire and Rescue Services.
In addition to this, NFRS will maintain the ability to be able to access additional
support to enhance its response capability from outside of the organisation. It will do
this through maintaining contracts with specialist providers of personnel, vehicles,
equipment or specialist knowledge, where it would not be economically viable for us
to maintain this capability ourselves. This will enhance our incident commander’s
ability to be able to resource their operational plan and tactics and bring incidents to
a safe conclusion.
In addition to command at operational incidents NFRS may also be required to
participate in command structures for specialist events or incidents. These may be
during the pre-planning phase of incidents, during the response phase or both. In
order to ensure that NFRS are in a position to fully integrate into these structures
NFRS will fully implement the Inter-agency Liaison Officer (ILO) role within the
Organisation. The nominated ILOs will receive specialist training in line with the
national ILO course at the Fire Service College (FSC). This training allows the ILO
to act as both a tactical adviser to the incident commander or as a capability adviser
to other Services and agencies, in order that they better understand Fire Service
capabilities and therefore what we, as a Fire and Rescue Service can offer at any
given incident.
To ensure the on-going effectiveness of Incident Command and Incident
Commanders, NFRS will continue to focus on it as part of its operational assurance
framework. In addition to Incident monitoring and debriefs via the electronic debrief
system, Performance Reviews of Command (PRCs) will take place in line with the
PRC policy. PRCs are aimed at isolating and debriefing the command function at
operational incidents in order to identify both individual and organisational learning
and development, as well as identifying good practice which can then be shared
across the service. This information can then be used to inform future training
requirements of the organisation around the area of incident command.
In regard to Incident Command training, NFRS have invested in a Command
Development Centre (CDC) at Daventry. This Centre utilises the most up to date
technology and can be used to simulate operational incidents. NFRS will use this
facility in order to train and assess its incident commanders commensurate with the
level of incident command they would be required to undertake as part of their
normal role. In addition to the incident command simulator, the CDC also
incorporates a Hydra training facility, Hydra is the world’s leading technology in
regard to collegiate learning. This Hydra facility will enhances the services ability to
train in a multi-agency environment and will enhance both the Fire Service and the
wider LRF Multi-agency response to operational incidents, by allowing major
contingency plans to be tested.
NFRS Incident Command Unit (ICU)
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NFRS Incident Command Unit (ICU)
11 Conclusions
This document sets out a vision for operational response for NFRS over the next 3
years. This vision is to move from a response based on the mobilisation of Fire
Appliances, to a more capability led flexible response, aimed at improving outcomes
both in terms of firefighter safety and for the community by giving us the ability to
deal with incidents in safer and more effective manner, utilising the latest vehicles,
technology, techniques and procedures.
It is our belief that adopting the principles set out in this document for operational
response will ensure that NFRS is positioned to meet the challenges of the future
and meet its statutory obligations to provide a safe, effective and efficient emergency
response service to the people of the County.
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12 Action Plans
In order to ensure that NFRS are able to meet the demands of the future, taking into
account both national and local risk as well as a growing county, an action plan has
been created to show the distinct improvements, work streams and projects required
to contribute to achieving the goals set out in this strategy. Details of these actions
can be found in the IRMP, department business plans or within project
documentation via the programme manager.
Section
3
Action
Strategic
Owner
BM OD
Action Owner
AM CS
Control
Project
Manager
ICT Manager
Target
date
2012
2014
2012
3
New Mobilising Systems/Fire control
Centre
Information Management Strategy
6
Property Strategy
AM Res
NCC Property
2013
7
SOP development and implementation
AM SD
2014
7
Update mobilising policy in line with new
incident command competencies levels
1 to 4
Investigate Flexible Crewing/Mobilising
Options
AM SD
Operations
Manager
Operations
Manager
2013
AM SD
5
Out of County deployment
arrangements
Develop competence framework for
operational training
Immediate IEC rollout
Emergency
Response
Manager
Operations
Manager
Training Manager
2013
8
Community first responding
AM SD
8
Resilience training plan
AM SD
8
Tactical firefighting training and
implementation.
AM SD
8
New BA sets and technologies
BM OD
9
Power boat implementation
BM SD
9
Fleet Strategy
AM Res
9
Alternative pumping appliance trials
AM SD
9
Review RDS equipment/training/incident
type capability and capacity
AM SD/AM
Res
10
Incident command competence/CDC
AM SD
Group Manager
SD
Group Manager
SD
Operations
Manager/Training
Manager
Operations
Manager/Training
Manager
BA
project
Manager
Operations
Manager
Transport/Fleet
Manager
Operations
Manager
Operations
Manager/Training
Manager
Training Manager
7
7
5
NFRS/RS/DD/2012/v01.0
AM SD
AM SD
AM SD
to
2013
2013
2013
2012
2013
2014
2013
2012
2013
2012
2013
2012
Page 17
13 Appendices
Appendix 1
NFRS/RS/DD/2012/v01.0
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NFRS/RS/DD/2012/v01.0
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