Inspection of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service North Service Delivery Area

Recommendation 1: The SFRS should engage with fire station staff to ensure that the importance of the Good Governance Framework, and how it should be used to guide their work at a local level (including appraisals) and also provide linkages to Service strategic plans, is understood by all staff. This is particularly important for Watch Officers who need to manage local work outputs and outcomes, and who will be the middle and strategic level managers of the future.

Recommendation 2: The SFRS should work with partners to develop and implement an evaluation system that scores and grades the inputs, outputs and outcomes of the many CS initiatives that it undertakes. This evaluation system should allow qualified decisions on where, and on what, initiatives to focus the resources of the Service.

Recommendation 3: The SFRS should consider the current arrangements that allows external funding for initiatives to be brought into the Service with a view to streamlining them to facilitate these financial inflows. These processes should consider the entry of external funding as well as the most appropriate value for money route to spending which maximises outcomes.

Recommendation 4: The SFRS should engage with Information Governance, CAT, LALO, PP&P and operational personnel to review how Firefighter safety critical Information should be recorded and then disseminated following HFSVs. This should be done as a matter of urgency.

Recommendation 5: The SFRS should produce national STL guidance for use across the Service SDAs. They should produce national STL governance documents for issue to licence applicants that makes clear the role of the SFRS and the primary role of the LA issuer. The SFRS should engage LAs to allow a common understanding of the role that both parties play in the issuing of STL licences.

Recommendation 6: The Service should consider how best to plan for any reduction in FTE in geographically isolated stations such as Inverness when personnel are drafted in to fill temporary vacancies.

Recommendation 7: The Service should continue to explore and use innovative approaches to ensure the availability of On Call operational responses and should consider the merits of these innovations and actively seek to use current governance processes to facilitate them.

Recommendation 8: The SFRS should continue to develop its successful use of On Call Support personnel. The use of this approach could be considered for extension to other roles such as Crew Commander and firefighter, who could perform elements of work currently undertaken by OCSWCs, thus freeing them up for more impactful management focused work.

Recommendation 11: The SFRS Assets Team should consider and introduce a communications and engagement process that ensures that staff at SDA, LSO and station level are informed of property upgrade works that are planned or are in progress.

Recommendation 10: Assets should review the age and condition of its spare appliance fleet and make provision to reduce and improve it as new vehicles enter service making less aged appliances available.

Recommendation 11: The SFRS should conduct a review of fleet maintenance options and consider if added value and cost savings can be made. They should consider any added benefits that could be achieved through delivering a minor repairs serviced via local garage establishments in remote and island locations.

Recommendation 12: A Command Support Unit is a critical appliance for the successful management of operational incidents. The current arrangements for temporary CSUs are unsuitable and the new units should be brought into service as soon as is practicable.

Recommendation 13: The SFRS should review the effectiveness of EV in more remote areas of Scotland. They should consider the charging infrastructure that is necessary to support the use of these vehicles, and local access to charging facilities when they are not located on Service premises. Where necessary, to ensure operational readiness, combustion engine vehicles should be strategically placed for use by SFRS personnel.

Recommendation 14: The Service should review the suitability of PPE for personnel who are not from designated wildfire stations, but who are known to provide significant capacity in any response to these incidents. Currently firefighters can access strategic stocks of spare PPE, if necessary, the SFRS should follow a similar route to ensure that personnel who are mobilised to these incidents are dressed to the same standard as their designated station colleagues.

Recommendation 15: Assets should consider the process for the repair or replacement of kit and equipment and introduce a system that gives regular feedback to station based personnel regarding the progress or any delays in the repair or replacement of kit and equipment.

Recommendation 16: While we acknowledge the development of a newsletter by the Assets team, there is a need to actively engage with NSDA personnel on a range of matters. The Assets team should consider, and where necessary review its communications and engagement with the SDAs with a view to informing them of ongoing work and progress across a range of issues. Engagement should be systematic and inclusive to ensure station based issues are able to be resolved and that all partners are informed of progress.

Recommendation 17: Assets should consider and design a process for business case presentation for the issue of equipment to the level of a WT station appliance. These cases should be reviewed at an appropriate level and the outcomes clearly communicated back to the SDA, LSO and fire station involved.

Recommendation 18: The Service should review the system for collection and return of firefighting PPE laundry. The aim should be to identify opportunities to reduce lost time within the end to end system and to make PPE available for use by operational fire crews as soon as possible. A communication and engagement process should be planned and undertaken to explain the full process to operational personnel.

Recommendation 19: The SFRS should consider the best and most appropriate management structure to address the fundamental management oversight weaknesses of the OCs. Staff should be fully engaged and opinions considered. FDOs should be canvassed for best practice views that can be worked into any final proposal.

Recommendation 20: The Service should design and introduce site-specific plans for the OCs, similar to fire station plans, which align to SFRS governance and planning frameworks. Alongside these plans, the OC function should have a workplace audit process designed and modelled on a station audit to allow a full review of the workplace and its processes. The outcomes of the audits should be reported back to the individual sites and any issues raised made the subject of an action/improvement plan.

Recommendation 21: The SFRS should work to ensure that the DOC staff group are actively engaged and communicated with to build evermore positive working relationships.

Recommendation 22: The SFRS should consider how best to reflect the known reality of managing operational incidents using the ICS at remote locations or on islands across Scotland. This should be reflected in the ICS Policy text.

Recommendation 23: The NSDA should actively engage with its local emergency service partners and deliver input on the role of the SFRS at incidents. Partner roles and mutual support should also be clearly set out.

Recommendation 24: The SFRS should review its role within the resilience and response planning process for large scale energy renewable systems and similar which could present operational challenges for its crews in future. The Service should put in place a system that allows for the notification of new projects and appropriate processes that would enable the initiation of any response planning, training or future equipment that may be required to meet these challenges.

Recommendation 25: The SFRS should actively engage the owners of Whisky distilleries in the NSDA to discuss risk details and ownership in the event of an incident at their sites.

Recommendation 26: The ongoing planning within the SFRS to reintroduce Tactical Ship Firefighting courses should include consideration of the need that presents itself in the NSDA.

Recommendation 27: The Service is involved in a wide range of intervention activity with LA partners. This work aligns to the aims set out in LOIPs and tackles the priorities of both the LAs and the SFRS. We would recommend that these interventions are subject to robust evaluation that quantifies the outputs and outcomes that they achieve, thus ensuring the ability to direct resources most appropriately for future joint planned activities.

Recommendation 28: The Service should strengthen the connection between LSO teams and operational staff and the Civil Contingency and resilience teams. Efforts should be made to understand the local emerging operational risks to ensure that suitable procedures can be developed for them and training can be designed to test their adequacy.

Recommendation 29: The SFRS should review the reasons for On Call course cancellations and where possible put in place appropriate solutions to minimise such occurrences.

Recommendation 30: The SFRS should review the administrative capacity that is available for the efficient and effective management of the On Call Tracker system. This review should include seeking the views of those who manage the Tracker within the People Directorate and those who act as recruitment managers in the SDAs. If necessary additional capacity should be made available for this small team.

Recommendation 31: The People Directorate should reengage with SDA personnel who have responsibility for local recruitment and user management of the Tracker system to fully set out its use for optimal outcomes.

Recommendation 32: The Service should review the entry standards for personnel applying to join the On Call with a view to introducing a range of metrics that support the entry of candidates from smaller demographic pools.

Recommendation 33: The Service should consider if the current administrative capacity for the allocation and management of TTM and follow on courses for On Call trainees is suitable and sufficient. If necessary, addition capacity should be introduced with a view to facilitating courses and making trainees available for operational deployment.

Recommendation 34: We recommend that the NSDA reviews its delivery of Core Skill TFoC training with improvement in levels of attainment at On Call RDS and Volunteer stations considered a priority.

Recommendation 35: We recommend that the Service reviews the delivery of its Core Skills National Refresher programme and works toward achieving its stated levels of attainment. Attainment levels for On Call Volunteers should be treated as a priority.

Recommendation 36: We recommend that the Service reviews the delivery model for its Specialist Skills National Refresher programme, and works toward achieving its stated levels of attainment for those areas that are currently deficient.

Recommendation 37: The SFRS should consider the utilisation of current NFCC Supervisory and Middle Manager development pathways as a means to close the leadership and management training delivery deficit gap.

Recommendation 38: The SFRS should review the training and organisational development outcomes that it is seeking for developing existing leaders and managers, and then consider if the existing structures and separation between TSA and OD will allow these to be achieved. If necessary structural change should be considered to achieve strategy planned outcomes for OD.

Recommendation 39: The Service should consider the training requirements for managers across the SDAs that would equip them with the necessary skills to deal with absence management. Support from People Directorate partners for this purpose should be redefined and agreed.

Good Practice 1: An example of the important and value adding work that is undertaken by CSA, CAT, and LALO teams was on an island that has no fire station (of which there are six within WIOS). One individual formed a partnership approach with the local GP to gain an insight to the people living within this community. Of the 94 properties on the island, 49 had elderly residents who had a range of vulnerabilities. Each elderly resident household on the island was subsequently visited and a HFSV carried out, with important safety messaging shared and vulnerabilities noted.

Good Practice 2: The Service recently introduced a change the STL licencing process, to emphasises the ‘advisory’ role played by SFRS in the process, is a positive move that should reduce the capacity that is required for this function.

Good Practice 3: Personnel have been placed on training courses to allow them to gain Fire Safety modules qualifications in advance of them joining PPP as FSEOs. This learning is supported by time allowances by the Service.

Good Practice 4: The use of the Operational Intelligence System to log and make Site-Specific Information that is gathered during HFSVs accessible to operational crews via appliance Getac tablets is a good example of innovation.

Good Practice 5: The introduction of fire stations that have decontamination infrastructure fully integrated into their fabric is a positive step forward for the SFRS. These new facilities have been well received by the personnel who utilise them.

Good Practice 6: Additional structural firefighting PPE stocks have been provided by the SFRS as a result of an identified need and following significant capital investment.

Good Practice 7: The introduction of the new On Call contract arrangements is positive and should offer greater degrees of flexibility for the existing personnel in the group, and for future firefighters that may be able to commit to the new terms.

Good Practice 8: HMFSI note the increase in attainment levels for the Core Skills National Refresher training programme.

Good Practice 9: An initiative to allocate dates for training courses for On Call trainees following TTM has been a success in parts of the NSDA. The SFRS should consider and where possible replicate the initiative and its outcomes.

Good Practice 10: The Quadrant reporting system has added to consistency of reporting and messaging of information across the NSDA.