Archived decisions
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c/o Kent Fire & Rescue Service FREEPOST NAT9369 Maidstone ME15 6BR |
T: 01622 691121
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Howard Jones Office of the Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser Communities and Local Government 1/A2 1st Floor Ashdown House 123 Victoria Street London, SW1E 6DE |
Contact James Finch Direct Line 01622 698453 |
Date 21 January 2009 Direct Fax 01622 698439 | |
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Dear Howard
Re: Operational Assessment Toolkit and Process Consultation
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the Operational Assessment process and toolkit. Our overall impression is that the toolkit is a significant improvement on the previous iteration, and will help to focus improvement activities where they are most needed. Individual fire & rescue authorities in the region will no doubt feedback to you their views on the toolkit itself. In this response, we have focused only on the issue of peer review. There is little benefit in our opinion in using peer review teams only outside of their home region. Fire & Rescue Authorities in the South East have been working with the South East Fire Improvement Partnership to develop mechanisms to assess performance amongst members of the partnership via peer reviews. This is supported by using lead peer reviewers from a peer review brokering contract, which gives a high level of professionalism independent to the fire & rescue service. Using this process adds impartiality to peer reviews, as well as strong and experienced leadership, but minimises the inconvenience of colleagues being sent to different parts of the country. Forcing FRAs to provide teams outside the region penalises unnecessarily those regions that have taken early steps to engage with regional improvement & efficiency partnerships and gain funding to support peer review as a mechanism for improvement. In the south east it remains our intention to use the peer review contract for those FRAs that want to do so, and to develop a cohort of officers to support the team leader in the peer review process.
Cllr David Rowlands Chairman - South East Fire & Rescue Services' Regional Management Board
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