Operational Competence

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

1. Have a strategy to embed NFCC Operational Guidance and Fire Control Guidance to maintain employee competency.
2. Comply with health and safety legislation when delivering an operational response.
3. Base its operational policies, procedures and tailored guidance on NFCC Operational Guidance, unless by exception its content is not relevant to the service.
4. Have policies, procedures and tailored guidance in place, that provide operational and fire control employees with current information about foreseeable hazards and the control measures used to reduce the risks arising from those hazards.
5. Base its training for operational and fire control employees on NFCC Operational Guidance and Fire Control Guidance.
6. Train its operational and fire control employees so they are competent to carry out operational activities safely and effectively; this includes the ability to recognise hazards and use control measures to reduce the risks arising from those hazards.
7. Deliver the strategic actions provided in the NFCC Operational Guidance and Fire Control Guidance Frameworks, unless by evidenced exception a strategic action is not relevant to the service.
8. Follow the tactical actions provided in the NFCC Operational Guidance and Fire Control Guidance frameworks, unless by exception a tactical action is not relevant to the service.
9. Be able to evidence how its policies, procedures and tailored guidance are linked to the training of operational and fire control employees.
10. Be able to evidence any exceptions to NFCC Operational Guidance or Fire Control Guidance, with an appropriate impact assessment.
11. Develop working arrangements with other fire and rescue services, including National Resilience, and other Category 1 and Category 2 responders, to improve its operational response to multi-agency incidents.

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

12. Be able to evidence and record the training received to maintain competence through appropriate assessment.
13. Be able to demonstrate their ability to safely and effectively apply risk assessment, decision-making and risk management skills.

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

14. Use the training specification component of NFCC Operational Guidance to inform its training needs analysis.
15. Work within regional, national or thematic groups to develop and improve its policies, procedures, tailored guidance and training for operational response.

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; and
   2. how comprehensively the NFCC Operational Guidance and Fire Control Guidance has been considered and applied.
3. Having competent operational and fire control employees, who are able to apply risk assessment, decision-making and risk management skills.
4. Continuous improvement of the quality of service provided to the community.

Fire and rescue services are responsible, under legislation and regulations, for developing policies and procedures and to provide information, instruction, training and supervision to their employees about foreseeable hazards and the control measures used to reduce the risks arising from those hazards.

It is recognised that fire and rescue services must comply with a broad list of legislation to undertake their duties. This Fire Standard reflects only the most appropriate legislation to this topic and should not be regarded as exhaustive.  Much of the legislation that relates to this Fire Standard can be found on the webpage that describes legislation which applies to all Fire Standards.

• Fire and Rescue Services Act
• Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act
• Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations
• Fire Service Order

Linked qualifications and accreditations:

• Operational Firefighter Apprenticeship

Fire Standards:

• Community Risk Management Planning
• Fire Control
• Operational Learning
• Operational Preparedness

• NFCC Operational Guidance and Fire Control Guidance, in particular:
  • The Strategic Gap Analysis Tool to measure progress against strategic actions
  • The tactical actions throughout the frameworks
  • The corresponding Training Specifications
• Foundation material that supports comprehension of the Operational Guidance, Fire Control Guidance and Training Specifications
• JESIP
• UKRO Extrication Framework
• NFCC Emergency Response Driver and Instructor Framework
• NFCC Leadership Framework
• NFCC Core Learning Pathways