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Community Risk Management Planning

Desired outcome

A fire and rescue service that assesses foreseeable community related risks and uses this knowledge to decide how those risks will be mitigated. A service carrying out community risk management planning will:

  • Be able to demonstrate how protection, prevention and response activities have and will be used collectively to prevent and/or mitigate fires and other incidents to reduce the impact on its communities (including Business), firefighters and to promote economic wellbeing;
  • Effectively consult and engage (in line with its governance arrangements) with communities, FRS staff and stakeholders at appropriate stages of the community risk management planning process;
  • Use a robust risk analysis process (giving due regard to existing and emerging local, regional and national hazards) to support evidenced, transparent and inclusive decision-making regarding resource deployment;
  • Ensure resource deployment decisions are balanced against an assessment of internal and external resource availability (including collaborative and cross-border working opportunities and via national resilience) and other key organisational influences that inform the overall strategic planning process; and
  • Create, and be able to evidence, its community risk management plan in line with a nationally approved structure which involves the key components detailed within this standard.

Activity

Strategic

Business Area(s)

Strategic & Business Planning

Date approved
Date issued
Review date
Reference number
FSS-RMP01

What is required to meet the fire standard

A fire and rescue service must:

  1. Utilise and share accurate data and business intelligence (from both internal and external sources) to support key activities such as evidenced-based decision making, horizon scanning, cross border risk identification and organisational learning;
  2. Ensure transparency in the community risk management planning process through either implementing and/or supporting ongoing engagement and formal consultation processes, ensuring these are accessible and publicly available;
  3. Ensure that organisational decisions and the measures implemented support equality, diversity, inclusivity, are non-discriminatory and are people impact assessed;
  4. Meet its legislative, framework and governance requirements linked to Community Risk Management;
  5. Be able to evidence its external and internal operating environment and the strategic objectives the community risk management plan is seeking to achieve;
  6. Identify and describe the existing and emerging local, regional and national hazards it faces, the hazardous events that could arise and the risk groups (People, Place, Environment and Economy) that could be harmed;
  7. Analyse risk, consider its risk appetite, determine the risk levels and prioritise risk accordingly;
  8. Make decisions about the deployment of resources based on the prioritised risk levels and planning assumptions involved. This should be carried out with consideration to internal and external resource availability (people, financial and physical) including collaborative, cross-border and national resilience assistance. Consideration should also be given to other strategic influences such as consultation feedback, stakeholder engagement and political objectives;
  9. Continually evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency and delivery of the community risk management plan and the organisational impact of risk management decisions;
  10. Be able to clearly define who has overall accountability for the community risk management plan and responsibility for the various components contained within it; and
  11. Provide training and/or support (where required) to all who are involved in the development, management and implementation of the community risk management plan.

Expected benefits of achieving the fire standard

  1. National approach and improved understanding in the development and evidence base of local community risk management planning;
  2. Improved standardisation in the use of data and business intelligence within community risk management planning will aid information sharing, evaluation of activities and sharing of good practice;
  3. Standardised and nationally approved approach to Community Risk Management planning will help to maximise the efficiency of cross border, collaborative and national working opportunities.
  4. Evidenced, inclusive and transparent resource deployment decisions that target FRS resources in an efficient and effective manner to mitigate community, firefighter and economic risk;
  5. Through effective consultation and engagement communities, FRS staff and other stakeholders will be able to understand, scrutinise and/or influence risk management objectives and plans; and
  6. Community risk management plans that can withstand the requirements of external scrutiny and inspection.

Linked qualifications, accreditations or fire standards

Fire Standards

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You Said, We did

If you have taken part in a consultation, you may be interested to read our post-consultation “You said, we did” report to see how your feedback has shaped this Fire Standard.

Community Risk Management Planning

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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