Inspection of Operational Assurance in the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service

Areas of Good Practice

Area of Good Practice 1: Staff involved in the processing and management of OA provided positive feedback on the OLG and its development as a ‘clearing house’ for actions. It has been a positive addition to the governance process.

Area of Good Practice 2: The Service has developed a positive connection within the UK OL community and is viewed as a productive partner. Having a GC as NOLUG chair and the Service SPoC is an extremely encouraging indicator of the success of this relationship and should be given ongoing support.

Area of Good Practice 3: The OA debrief tasks cards are a positive addition to the internal administrative procedures and the OAD should be commended for their innovation.

Area of Good Practice 4: The C&C benchmarking process is good management and performance practice and provided constructive recommendations for improvement. The OAD should be commended for undertaking this process and proactively identifying these actions.

Area of Good Practice 5: The station audit report process is good management and performance practice in line with the SA strategy and provides positive recommendations for improvement. The OAD should be commended for undertaking this process and should be encouraged to repeat it.

Area of Good Practice 6: We found that altering the core practical and technical skills element of the station audit to include practical operational preparedness testing to be a positive innovation. The Service should be commended for this and consider it for incorporation into any future review of OA process.

Area of Good Practice 7: We found examples of the changing culture to include PISP and MHW within the Hot Debriefs to be incredibly positive and that this good practice should be used to influence future IC development.

Area of Good Practice 8: The development of the OC-specific forms was pleasing to observe and staff should be commended for the innovation.

Area of Good Practice 9: The development of CS is considered good practice, supported by most staff. This practice supports the ORL and LO concepts.

Areas for Consideration

Areas for Consideration 1: The SAIG, SAC and SALO are an integral part of the OA management and governance process. There is scope to improve the understanding of these roles for middle and supervisory managers. The Service should consider this potential improvement for any future training, development or review in relation to OA.

Areas for Consideration 2: The Service should consider the prioritisation of the OARRS replacement to improve OA data analytics and output development.

Areas for Consideration 3: We are confident that the OAD is performing but within its limitations as detailed. The Service should consider a review of the team size and responsibilities as well as use of automation and analysis tools to help improve ORL outputs.

Areas for Consideration 4: Structural positioning of a department within the organisation is a management function and there is no intention to recommend this be reviewed. However, there is a need for the Service to consider whether the current structural position allows for OA to be given the appropriate focus, visibility and profile, whilst ensuring managers can resolve issues as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Areas for Consideration 5: The Service should consider reporting improved measurement data in order that performance management and improved outcomes are able to be scrutinised effectively.

Areas for Consideration 6: The Service should consider the different frequency standard being applied to the CFS audit process and review guidance to ensure consistency of application and most efficient use of managerial capacity.

Area for Consideration 7: The limited-notice station audit pilot was well received throughout the pilot area with most staff reporting that it would be a positive development. The Service should be commended for this innovation and consider the outcome of the pilot for incorporation into any future review of OA process.

Areas for Consideration 8: The station audit output and subsequent improvement action plan is an effective process; the Service should consider reviewing its local management systems to ensure continued understanding and engagement with improvement from all staff.

Areas for Consideration 9: The Service should consider conducting more thematic audits as the recommended changes from robust data analysis are tangible and can be aligned to continuous improvement.

Areas for Consideration 10: The Service should consider how integrated OC is within the current OA processes and ensure that OC staff are fully involved in the development and review of future ‘during incident’ process change.

Areas for Consideration 11: The Service should consider reviewing how local OL is informally transferred within its management structures and reinvigorate the need to ensure that learning is reported appropriately.

Areas for Consideration 12: The Service should review the OA13 process to ensure that effective and appropriate debriefing of consolidated OA13 is being conducted.

Areas for Consideration 13: The Service should consider expanding the audience of structured debriefs and allow observation as a tool for learning and development.

Areas for Consideration 14: The Service should consider reviewing the current debrief triggers as recommended within the benchmark process to identify if improvements can be made.

Areas for Consideration 15: The Service should consider how integrated OC is within the current OA processes and ensure that they are fully involved in the development and review of future ‘post-incident’ process change.

Areas for Consideration 16: The Service should consider reviewing whether there is a bias in the OA process towards predominantly developing improvements from high-profile, acute-risk issues that are more visible and easily identifiable.

Areas for Consideration 17: The overall culture towards OA was positive but the Service should consider these specific cultural issues in any review and further development of OA.

Recommendations

Recommendation 1: We recommend that measurement of OA be reviewed in order that appropriate indicators be developed for robust performance management and scrutiny.

Recommendation 2: We recommend that there be a review of the monitoring and audit processes to provide assurance that the Service has a complete understanding of OA trends and potential ORL throughout the organisation.

Recommendation 3: We recommend that the Station Audit GIN should be reviewed to include OC sites. In the interim period the Service should consider publishing the OC-specific procedure to complement the existing GIN.

Recommendation 4: We recommend that the Service review its leadership, managerial and command development processes to include generic OA training for all staff and that it further reviews its development of OAD staff or those with a specific OA remit to ensure they have suitable competency-based training for their role.

Recommendation 5: We recommend that the OAO role be reviewed to ensure development is provided, correct competence is assigned and involvement in the OA debrief process is ensured to appropriately support ORL and the IC.

Recommendation 6: We recommend that the Service review how it gathers debrief information from L1 incidents and analyses this, to ensure that ORL encompasses issues generated from all incident types.

Recommendation 7: We recommend that the Service review how and when it debriefs training and exercising to ensure that there is suitable proactive learning to enhance ORL outcomes.

Recommendation 8: We recommend that the Service develop a system to easily demonstrate the link between inputs, outputs and ORL outcomes to help maintain staff engagement.

Recommendation 9: We recommend that the Service develop a system to record change, or significant ORL, which can be referenced and utilised for long-term strategic management and decision making.