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Operational Competence

Desired outcome

A fire and rescue service with competent operational and fire control personnel, who have been trained to use the hazard and control measure approach provided in the National Operational Guidance, applying risk assessment, decision-making and risk management skills.

Operational competence provides the structure for a safe and effective response to emergencies, whether:

  • As a single service
  • Working with other local or regional fire and rescue services
  • Working with the National Resilience capabilities
  • Working in a multi-agency structure

The Health and Safety Executive publication, Managing for health and safety, states:

“Competence is the ability to undertake responsibilities and perform activities to a recognised standard on a regular basis. It combines practical and thinking skills, knowledge and experience.”

The same publication also states:

“The competence of individuals is vital, whether they are employers, managers, supervisors, employees or contractors, especially those with safety-critical roles. It ensures they recognise the risks in their activities and can apply the right measures to control and manage those risks.”

Activity

Service Delivery

Business Area(s)

Response

Date approved
Date issued
Review date
Reference number
FSD-RSP02b

What is required to meet the fire standard

To meet this Fire Standard, a fire and rescue service must:

  1. Comply with health and safety legislation when delivering an operational response
  2. Base their operational policies, procedures and tailored guidance on National Operational Guidance, unless by exception its content is not relevant to the service
  3. Have policies, procedures and tailored guidance in place, that provide operational and fire control personnel with current information and instructions about foreseeable hazards and the control measures that can be applied
  4. Base their training for operational and fire control personnel on National Operational Guidance
  5. Train operational and fire control personnel to a level of competence that enables them to carry out operational activities safely and effectively; this includes the ability to recognise hazards and put effective control measures in place to mitigate those hazards
  6. Be following the tactical actions provided in the suite of National Operational Guidance, unless by exception a tactical action is not relevant to the service
  7. Be able to evidence how their policies, procedures and tailored guidance are linked to the training of operational and fire control personnel
  8. Be able to evidence any exceptions to National Operational Guidance, with an appropriate impact assessment
  9. Develop working arrangements with other fire and rescue services and responder agencies, to improve their operational response to multi-agency incidents

To meet this Fire Standard, competent operational and fire control personnel should:

  1. Be able to evidence the training they have received to maintain their competence
  2. Be able to demonstrate their ability to safely and effectively apply risk assessment, decision-making and risk management skills

To meet this Fire Standard, a fire and rescue service may:

  1. Use the training specification component of National Operational Guidance to inform their training needs analysis
  2. Work within regional, national or thematic groups to develop and improve their policies, procedures, tailored guidance and training for operational response

Expected benefits of achieving the fire standard

Expected benefits of achieving the Fire Standard include:

  1. The ability for those outside the service, including coroners or those responsible for matters such as public inquiries, to recognise that the service is delivering a competent operational response
  2. For inspectorates, including His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services and the Health and Safety Executive, to be able to base their expectations of the operational competence of the service on:
    1. Adherence to the legislative requirements for operational response
    2. How comprehensively the National Operational Guidance has been considered and applied
  3. Having competent operational and fire control personnel, who are able to apply risk assessment, decision-making and risk management skills
  4. Constant improvement to the quality of service provided to the public
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Note Please contact the Fire Standards team within the NFCC for any queries or support with regards to this Fire Standard [email protected]

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