A NEW modernisation initiative aims to make the Fire Brigade more responsive to locally identified needs and better able to deliver community safety. Its integrated risk management plan has been launched. The 60-plus page consultative document sets out the proposed strategic objectives for the brigade over the next three to five years.

In June 2003, the UK Government published a White Paper entitled Our Fire and Rescue Service, which set out a national view of its future and proposed changes in the structure, management and working practices.

It also proposed a broader role for the service in responding to all types of emergency, re-directing resources from emergency response to prevention and a change from national standards of fire cover to local integrated risk management plans.

While the UK Government reform policy is not applicable to Guernsey, its service is a natural comparator for service delivery on the island, albeit with a localised interpretation due to the scale and isolation of Guernsey.

The Home Department has resolved that an integrated management plan for the island should be produced on similar lines to the UK to provide a strategic overview that can be used to determine immediate and future policy decisions.

‘We don’t have to do this, but the Home Department felt that it was opportune that we also carry out the same exercise in writing a plan which calls for a detailed review of the whole process and allows us to examine our past performance,’ said fire chief Ron Taylor.

‘We will seek to improve where necessary our ability to serve the community.

‘Although standards are comparable to the UK, an island brigade has constraints. When we looked at the agenda for change that was being proposed for the UK Government, quite a number of issues were already taking place locally’.

Mr Taylor said that it aimed to take note of UK practices and, where relevant for Guernsey, could take on those new initiatives that sought an improvement in general community safety.

‘The main aim of the agenda is to move from the reactive nature of the fire service in the past to a more proactive move to prevention rather than purely intervention,’ he said.

‘This process has been gradually filtering in over a number of years and the agenda has placed a greater emphasis on prevention than in the past.’

The brigade already has much in place which has been implemented over many years to make the island safer. But a key element of the plan is the need to consult the community to give everybody the chance to express their views on the options for change that are being considered.

A total of 19 action points is included in the plan. These include: seeking to enter into partnership with the police and other agencies to assist in the promotion of road safety; monitoring in more detail the provision and use of appliances and personnel to effectively determine the most appropriate level of response; and a possible name change to Guernsey Fire and Rescue Service to reflect the broader role now being carried out.

The plan will be reviewed at three-yearly intervals.