APPENDIX A

Operational Assurance Department

Emergency Response Directorate

Operational Assurance Plan

2015-2016

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Contents

Contents ................................................................................................................................2

Introduction ............................................................................................................................4

Background ........................................................................................................................4

Active Monitoring System .......................................................................................................5

Operational Assurance Assessment Suite .............................................................................6

Assurance Activities for 2015-2016 ........................................................................................7

Allocation of OA Assurance Days .......................................................................................7

Flexible Approach ..............................................................................................................8

Assuring Operational Activities ...............................................................................................9

Role of the OA Officer ........................................................................................................9

OA Proceeding to Incidents .............................................................................................. 10

Assuring Core Activities ................................................................................................... 10

Area Core Assurance Activity Targets .............................................................................. 10

Methodology Applied ........................................................................................................ 10

Station Inspection ............................................................................................................. 12

Assuring Corporate Exercises .......................................................................................... 12

Incident Command Assessor Role ................................................................................... 13

Thematic Reviews ............................................................................................................ 13

Debriefing Operational Activities ...................................................................................... 13

Review of Significant Events ............................................................................................ 14

Miscellaneous Assurance Activities .................................................................................. 15

Online Incident Presentations........................................................................................... 15

Fatal / Possible Fatal Incident Reports ............................................................................. 15

Accident and Incident Investigation .................................................................................. 16

Demand Led Activities...................................................................................................... 16

Identification and Management of Risk ................................................................................ 16

Operational Assurance Risk Management Process .......................................................... 16

Safety Critical Events ....................................................................................................... 16

Recording Mechanisms .................................................................................................... 17

Review and Evaluation of the Ops Assurance Plan .......................................................... 18

Equality and Diversity Impact Assessment ....................................................................... 18

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Appendix One: Emerging Themes Register ......................................................................... 19

Appendix Two: Annual Availability........................................................................................ 20

Document Version Control

Document Version Control

Document

Version Date Document Author

1.0 1 March 2015 Group Manager Ben Levy

Approval Process

Approval agency Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Authority: Audit, Standards and

Scrutiny Committee.

Document Owner Deputy County Fire Officer

Approval date

Reviewed on

Next review date

4

Introduction

Background

Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Authority (GMFRA) has a legal responsibility to ensure

that an effective Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) is provided across the city region.

To help ensure this legal requirement is met, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service

(GMFRS) undertake active and reactive monitoring across a range of operationally focused

activities. These monitoring activities, forming the Operational Assurance Assessment (OAA)

Suite are carried out by a dedicated Operational Assurance (OA) Team and Area based

Officers.

This Operational Assurance Plan (the Ops Assurance Plan) prepared for approval by the Audit,

Standards and Scrutiny (ASS) Committee of the Authority, sets out the OA activities to be

undertaken during 2015-16. It does so by adopting a ‘risk based’ approach to undertaking

monitoring and assessment activities, ensuring issues and risks identified are followed up with

appropriate action.

This approach ensures resources are targeted in an efficient and effective manner in order to

ensure:

i. The Service has a safe, well trained and competent workforce capable of meeting the

demands placed upon them; and,

ii. The Emergency Response element of the Service is working effectively to achieve the

purpose and aims of the Corporate Plan.

This Plan will provide information towards the assurance of GMFRS’s operational

preparedness. In the context of this Plan, operational preparedness is a measurable state of

readiness which will ensure that the Service is ready to respond to foreseeable emergency

events with the highest level of effectiveness. Operational preparedness is achieved by

ensuring that;

Personnel with responsibilities in support of the emergency response function of the

Service are competent in that role, with all training and assessment current and

validated;

Routine vehicle and equipment checks and periodic tests are carried out robustly, with

an appropriate level of diligence and rigour; and

Discrepancies, deficiencies and damages are recorded, accepted and progressed to

ensure the maintenance of a safe and acceptable level of operational performance.

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This Ops Assurance Plan contributes towards achieving the following Service Delivery Goals

(DL):

DL4 Reduce property damage, economic loss and damage to the environment.

DL6 Ensure the public are highly satisfied with our services.

DL8 Maintain a high state of preparedness for emergencies, effective emergency

cover and a high quality response.

DL14 Develop and sustain a high quality, performing, effective, well informed and well

trained workforce.

DL16 Develop and maintain confident, capable leaders and managers, with low levels

of absenteeism, staff turnover and ill-discipline.

DL17 Reduce our carbon footprint, use of natural resources and deliver our services

in a sustainable way.

DL18 Develop and maintain a safe workforce with low rates of accidents and injuries

to our people.

Active Monitoring System

The Active Monitoring System (AMS), is the key tool for the assurance of operational activities,

and replaces the previous standalone Debriefing Procedure, Standards Audits, Tactical

Commander Maintenance of Competence Records (TCMCR), Supervisory Commander

Maintenance of Competence Records (SCMCR), Emerging Themes Register (ETR) and

Thematic Audits. Whilst it does not replace the Maintenance of Skills (MOS) i-Trent recording

system or the Incident Command Academy (ICA) formal assessment process, the

Maintenance of Competence (MCR) and Action Plan functionality can be used to support both

systems through the creation of development plans.

Within the AMS is the ability to create Action Plans following an operational event, supported

by Individual Learning Points (ILPs).

Reporting by Exception

Reporting by exception is the principle of only documenting or recording events or occurrences

that are not standard or normal, and therefore demand or deserve attention. The primary aim

of the AMS is to identify record, action and communicate any event that has the potential to

contribute towards the improvement of our Service. This may include examples of good

practice and not just areas for development.

Active Monitoring System Outputs

The AMS features a high level live dashboard, fed directly by each report produced. At the

highest level this forms the ETR, whilst behind this is the detail of each issue raised,

progressed and concluded through existing processes. An example of the Primary Themes

summary contained within the ETR is included at Appendix One.

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Operational Assurance Assessment Suite

GMFRS has been undertaking formal monitoring and assessment of its operational activities

since May 2005. 2014-15 saw a significant and fundamental workload progressed by the OA

Team to develop the AMS, which has evolved to replace a number of OA focused recording

and reporting processes in place across the Service. Built within the AMS, and launched with

this 2015-16 Ops Assurance Plan is the following suite of OAAs;

i. OAA - Incident Monitoring Report

These reports provide assurance that operational activities are being

undertaken in accordance with applicable standard operating procedures,

policies and guidance, and that equipment, personal protective equipment

(PPE) and guidance is fit for purpose.

i. OAA – Standards Report

The (Station) Standards Report consists of a number elements to provide

assurance that station based personnel are working in accordance with the

‘Work Routines on Wholetime Stations’ guidance and delivers a comprehensive

assessment of the standard to which a range of ‘day to day’ station based

activities, including training and community focused activities are being

undertaken. Areas covered during a Standards OAA include:

Operational Preparedness

Training and Development

Planning and Preparation

Prevention Activities

Station Work Routines

Documentation / Administration

Health and Safety

ii. OAA - Training / Exercise Report

These reports provide assurance that Watch based operational personnel are

undertaking training in accordance with standard operating procedures, policies

and guidance.

Training reports also provide assurance that activities undertaken during

Corporate Exercises are in accordance with standard operating procedures,

policies and guidance.

iii. OAA - Thematic Review

Thematic Reviews are agreed with the Operational Risk Control Group (ORCG)

based upon areas of organisational risk and/or opportunity. Completed

Thematic Reviews are reported to the Leadership Team (LT).

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iv. OAA – Station Inspection

2015-16 sees the introduction of Station Inspections (SIs) through which each

Station will be the subject of an in-depth operational preparedness review. A SI

is a peer based review led by the core OA Team. See below for further details.

Assurance Activities for 2015-2016

Allocation of OA Assurance Days

The OA Team is led by the Head of Operational Assurance and Performance (HOAP), and

consists of a Group Manager (GM) and four Station Managers (SM).

The core role of an OA SM is to provide assurance of the operational preparedness of the

Service, and of the emergency response to incidents. Examination of the OA SM rota identifies

that each Officer is capable of providing a maximum of 152 days per annum, for this purpose.

(Appendix Two).

This equates to 608 ‘days of assurance’ against which the team will deliver its assurance

activities during 2015-16, as detailed within Table 1 below:

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Table 1: Allocation of OA Assurance Days

Flexible Approach

Within this Ops Assurance Plan the annual availability of the OA Team is fully accounted for

and allocated in accordance with a risk based approach to setting priorities. This workload is

subsequently reflected within the Emergency Response (ER) Directorate Plan, which sets out

‘when and how’ the planned activities are to be undertaken during the forthcoming year,

including clear targets and milestones against which delivery can be measured.

Whilst a notional allocation of 33 assurance days has been afforded as a contingency for

‘demand led work’, experience has shown that the identification of significant organisational

risk (or opportunity) can occur at any time. Therefore, to be realistic, this Ops Assurance Plan

must retain a high degree of flexibility, thereby ensuring the OA Team can remain sufficiently

agile to respond to any new developments.

1 Commensurate with the full team available to attend operational incidents. 2 60 day based on 1 day per SI (x 2 SMs) plus 3 day write up = 5 days total SI x 24 Sis per year

OPERATIONAL ASSURANCE TEAM ASSURANCE

DAYS ASSURANCE ACTIVITIES

Total Assurance Days Available 608

OAA - Incident 801

OAA – Station Inspection 1202

OAA - Exercise 30

Incident Command Academy Assessor Role 60

Thematic Reviews 120

Operational Debriefing 45

Miscellaneous Activities, e.g;

Incident Investigations

Online incident presentations

Fatal / Possible Fatal incident reporting

Joint Health & Safety/Accident Investigations

Dealing with underperformance

Review of Significant Events (RoSE)

80

Representation at meetings (including preparation) 40

Total Assurance Days Allocated 575

Contingency for demand/risk led activities 33

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Any variance from the activities contained within this Ops Assurance Plan will be risk based

and will only be implemented in full agreement with the Director of Emergency Response

(DER). Any variance will be captured and subsequently reported as an element of the ER

Directorate reporting process and also within the Ops Assurance Plan outcome reports

produced for the ASS Committee of the Fire Authority.

Assuring Operational Activities

Role of the OA Officer

A fundamental role of the OA Team is to support the achievement of the Service Delivery

Goals. In pursuance of this requirement, OA Team members undertake the monitoring and

assessment of activities across a wide range of operational incidents. To facilitate this, North

West Fire Control (Control) will inform the duty OA Officer of all incidents which meet the

following criteria;

Any ‘Make Up’3 incident

Water Incidents

Special Service Incidents which result in the mobilisation of either a Station Manager

or Hazardous Materials and Environmental Protection Officer (HMEPO)

All ‘Persons Reported’ incidents

Road Traffic Collision (RTC) incidents involving multiple vehicles or where persons are

confirmed trapped

Confirmed acetylene incidents

All fatal (and possible fatal) fires

Other ‘significant’ incidents

Additional benefits achieved through undertaking an ‘Incident OAA’ are that the reviewing

Officer is also afforded the opportunity to:

Mentor and support less experienced colleagues at the incident

Gather and provide evidence in support of the Maintenance of Competency Records

(MCR) process

Review the activities of relief crews to ensure incidents are being adequately

progressed towards a conclusion

Ensure compliance with the Organisational Debriefing Policy (see 12.)

Capture images for use in the production of ‘Online Incident Presentations’

Based upon the 2014/15 levels of activity, each OA SM has been allocated 20 days for

assuring operational incidents. (80 days total, assuming a full establishment of qualified OA

members).

3 A ‘Make Up’ is a request for Fire Service resources, additional to those initially mobilised to resolve an

incident.

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The Emergency Response (ER) Hub will ensure that in order to support this key function of

the OA Team, a duty OA Officer will be nominated on the Officers’ Rota. Whilst members of

an extended team support this rota, Officers from the core Team will endeavour to provide this

function during office hours. This aims to reduce the impact of OA activities on Borough and

other departmental workloads.

OA Proceeding to Incidents

It is anticipated that, other than in exceptional circumstances, OA will not proceed under

emergency conditions when attending an incidents to undertake an Incident OAA. However to

ensure that the early and dynamic stages of an incident are able to be observed and assessed,

OA Officers may opt to make progress where traffic conditions and travel distance would

otherwise prevent timely attendance.

Assuring Core Activities

Within this Ops Assurance Plan the term ‘core activities’ applies to activities that are primarily

focused upon operational preparedness activities and standards on fire stations.

Area Core Assurance Activity Targets

Responsibility for completion of core assurance activities is devolved fully to Area based teams

with a focus on operational preparedness at Station and Watch level.

Methodology Applied

The Borough requirements are based upon delivery of a minimum of one Standards OAA per

Watch per annum. This will ensure that each Watch will be the focus of a formal assurance

process by the BMT on at least two occasions, since the full Standards OAA will encompass

a period of change of Watch. Each Standards OAA will encompass the previously individual

elements of the Evening Work, Standards and Watch Training OAAs.

Borough Managers should ensure that local processes are in place to ensure achievement of

these targets, whilst applying locally agreed arrangements for peer assessment where

deemed beneficial.

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Table 2: Area Core Assurance Activities Targets

CORE ASSURANCE ACTIVITIES

Number of

Stations Number of Watches

Number of OAA Station Reports

per annum (one per Watch)

BOLTON 4 14 14

BURY 3 10 10

MANCHESTER 7 28 28

OLDHAM 3 12 12

ROCHDALE 3 9 9

SALFORD 5 18 18

STOCKPORT 5 18 18

TAMESIDE 4 14 14

TRAFFORD 3 12 12

WIGAN 4 16 16

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Station Inspection

2015-16 sees the introduction of the Station Inspection (SI) schedule, which builds significantly

upon the five percent ‘dip sample’ contained in previous versions of this plan.

The SI process is an in-depth assessment of all areas of the operational preparedness of the

Station, supported by the peer group and subject matter experts where available.

SIs are developed to;

i. Provide LT with a short term check of the efficiency of current operational preparedness

activities at Station level;

ii. Provide a level of assurance to Area Management Teams as to the level of operational

preparedness of Stations under their command;

iii. Provide a level of assurance to SMs, and hold them to individual account with regards

to the Stations for which they have responsibility;

iv. Provide a level of assurance to Watch Managers (WMs), and hold them to individual

account with regards to the Watch for which they have responsibility;

v. Hold individuals, including firefighters, to individual account with regards to the

activities for which they have been devolved responsibility in accordance with their role.

The SI schedule is a 24 month cycle, within which period each GMFRS Station will be the

focus of a detailed assessment. To allow for completion of up to 24 SI, including all

administration, reporting and issue progression activities, OA have allocated a total of 120

assurance days to delivering this aspect of the Ops Assurance Plan.

Assuring Corporate Exercises

The OA Team will attend all GMFRS Service Wide and Large Scale exercises for the purpose

of undertaking the Exercise OAA. Where resources allow, this activity will be extended to joint

exercises taking place within neighbouring FRSs.

These activities will provide the Service with assurance that:

i. The required range of training exercises is being undertaken in accordance with the

Incident Command Academy (ICA) Corporate Exercise Policy.

ii. Personnel are working in accordance with standard operating procedures, policies and

guidance within the training environment.

iii. Supervisory Officers are provided with an opportunity for constructive development and

feedback.

iv. Learning opportunities are being maximised through support of collaborative working

and Peer Review activities etc.

To allow for completion of the required number of Exercise OAA reports and progression of

related issues, OA have allocated a total of 30 assurance days to delivering this aspect of the

Ops Assurance Plan.

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Incident Command Assessor Role

All members of the OA Team are accredited auditors and experienced operational officers and

are therefore included in the ICA cadre of accredited assessors for In-Role Supervisory

Assessments (IRSA), and operational career progression gateways.

Typically such activities extend to OA Officers assessing Incident Command abilities during

dedicated training events (e.g. high rise training), assisting with the assessment of Officer

incident command skills within the ICA simulation suite and during the Crew, Watch and

Station Manager development courses.

In agreement with the ICA, OA have allocated 60 assurance days to delivering this aspect of

the Ops Assurance Plan. This assessor capacity is reported within the bi-annual outcome

report to the Audit, Standards and Scrutiny Committee.

To support this process, OA Officers will work towards Incident Command Level 3 Advanced

Commander qualification.

Thematic Reviews

Thematic Reviews are based upon specific areas of operational risk and/or opportunity

identified within the Emergency Response arena, using active environmental scanning to

review all available sources.

A Thematic Review will typically involve detailed research and analysis of a subject matter, in

order to provide LT with an informed report for due consideration and subsequent action, as

appropriate.

The identification of significant organisational risks (or opportunities) can occur at any time and

therefore a flexible approach is applied to undertaking Thematic Reviews, ensuring OA can

remain sufficiently agile to respond to new developments.

OA will aim to undertake a minimum of one prioritised Thematic Review, per quarter. The topic

for each Thematic Review will be determined and agreed by the Operational Risk Control

Group (ORCG).

To allow for completion of four thematic reviews during 2015/16, OA have allocated a total of

120 assurance days to delivering this aspect of the Ops Assurance Plan.

Built into these assurance days are six days for the sole purpose of Research and

Development operational improvement visits.

Debriefing Operational Activities

Reviewing workplace activity is an effective means of improving performance and therefore it

is the aim of GMFRS to review operational and training activities on a regular basis. The

application of a robust debrief process provides the organisation with an opportunity to learn

from both successes and improvement opportunities identified during operational related

activities.

This activity is managed by the OA Team and achieved through ensuring debriefs are

undertaken following all operational incidents and training activities at which improvement

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opportunities, or successes have been recognised. The OA Team is also responsible for

collating and utilising the feedback gathered through this process.

There are three main types of Operational Debrief undertaken within GMFRS:

i. Level One (Hot) Debrief

Carried out at the earliest opportunity following conclusion of an operational activity.

Conducted either at the scene, or immediately upon return to the normal place of work.

ii. Level Two (Tactical) Debrief

Undertaken for any operational incident or training event which has the potential to

raise significant learning opportunities.

iii. Level Three (Strategic) Debriefs

Strategic Debriefs provide a supportive and confidential environment in which the

performance of the senior incident commander can be discussed openly. All Strategic

Debriefs are coordinated and facilitated by OA and focus specifically on ‘command

decision making’.

Each level of debrief may also be applied to the wider aspect of incident management, notably

the opening and functioning of the Command Support Room (CSR).

GMFRS first formalised arrangements for debriefing operational activities in 2005. This

organisational approach has proven to be effective for a number of years in providing a robust

and credible method for the capture and collation of incident/exercise outcomes.

During 2014/2015 a review of the current debrief system has undertaken and embedded within

the AMS, to capture and progress all learning and development areas within a central ETR.

The OA Team will continually review all debriefing activities to provide assurance that GMFRS

maintains a debriefing system which remains ‘fit for purpose’ and justifies the considerable

resources being invested, through delivering meaningful outcomes and driving service

improvement.

OA have allocated a total of 45 assurance days to maintain and delivering an effective incident

debriefing process.

Review of Significant Events

The structured and deliberate review of significant events has been advocated as a useful way

to encourage reflection within an organisation. This method has been widely used as a way of

helping an organisation understand the direct and indirect cause of events, expose potential

gaps in policies, procedures or capabilities, or cause them to think differently about something.

The OA Team will play a key role to support the RoSE process where the focus is on an

operational incident or event.

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Miscellaneous Assurance Activities As an integral aspect of the working day OA Officers undertake a range of miscellaneous

activities. Examples of some of the more involved activities are provided below.

Online Incident Presentations

In carrying out their role, OA Officers are ideally placed to capture images of activities taking

place at operational incidents and during training exercises, with the aim of highlighting notable

practice, or areas for improvement.

OA have produced 67 Operational Incident Presentations to date, each of which are shared

with all personnel (including non-operational colleagues) and published to the BigRed. These

presentations are available for use for Watch based training and for inclusion in programmed

Corporate Training at the Training and Development Centre (TDC) and the ICA. Where

appropriate, presentations are approved for content by relevant Tactical Advisors and Subject

Matter Experts.

This process helps to ensure that experiences from incidents and training scenarios are used

to advise future practice, identify safety matters and to provide an invaluable debriefing tool.

A presentation focusing on ‘Emerging Themes’ will be produced by OA on a Quarterly basis.

The incident presentations page on BigRed is fully established and is proving to be very

popular with all personnel within GMFRS. In 2014-15 this page received over 10,000 ‘hits’.

During 2015/16 the OA Team seek to develop this resource further, making routine

submissions to TDC and the ICA to assist with developing incident command competences.

Fatal / Possible Fatal Incident Reports

The OA Team capture and report upon fire service actions taken prior to, during, and following

any incident where a confirmed (or possible) fatality has occurred. This procedure aims to

supplement, rather than duplicate, the established fire investigation reports and the Ops 17

Fatal Incident Details report, and does not focus on the suspected cause of the injury or fatality.

This process and procedure was the subject of a full cross-departmental review by the OA

Team in 2014-15.

The OA procedure continues the themes of the assurance of GMFRS activities both prior to

and during the incident and seeks to determine:

i. Any previous GMFRS involvement – for example, any inclusion on a ‘Person at

Increased Risk of Fire’ register, details of prior Home Safety Checks, etc.

ii. The actions taken by operational personnel - incident response times, adherence to

relevant policy, initial actions, etc.

iii. Post incident activities – Home Safety Support campaigns, BeatSweeps arranged, etc.

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Accident and Incident Investigation

Notwithstanding the introduction of a new Accident Investigation Policy in 2014-15, it remains

the intention that OA Team members will attain the National Examining Board for Occupational

Safety and Health (NEBOSH) qualification at Certificate level where possible.

This will ensure that OA Team members are adequately equipped to fully investigate all Safety

Critical events encountered and to provide the Health and Safety department with the requisite

reports.

Demand Led Activities

There are many occasions where the OA Team (at the direction of the DER) undertake short

notice, demand led activities arising from identified organisational risk. Examples of such

activities undertaken during 2014/15 include significant involvement in post-incident

investigations, involvement in a number of protracted incidents and further development of the

Protracted Incident procedures and the Ops and Safety Alerts process.

Identification and Management of Risk

Operational Assurance Risk Management Process

The identification, capture and progression of risks to the operational function of the service is

pivotal to the role of the OA and supporting processes to provide this have been developed

over a number of years. Generally, the operational risks and opportunities identified in line with

OA activities fall into one of two broad categories, namely ‘people issues’ or ‘process issues’.

People issues are typically simple to address and are often resolved at Watch, Station, or Area

Management Team level.

Process issues on the other hand, tend to be more complex in nature, often requiring for

example, the revision of policy or procedure and thus cannot be resolved at local level. Process

issues are therefore collated by OA and progressed through to the relevant department,

directorate or forum for further action as appropriate.

Safety Critical Events

Occasionally during execution of the role, the OA Officer will observe an action or omission

that is considered to have potential to cause serious injury or severe damage to equipment, or

to the environment. Such occurrences are termed ‘Safety Critical’ events.

All safety critical events must be challenged and where possible rectified immediately. The OA

Officer will, at the earliest opportunity, issue a ‘Safety Critical Notice’ to the individual(s)

concerned via their Borough Manager.

Safety Critical Events will be reported upon with 10 days.

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Recording Mechanisms

Emerging Themes Register

The ETR has been an inherent part of the operational assurance process since 2005 and in

2014-15 was fully embedded into the AMS developed within this period. The register is

maintained by OA and acts as a ‘catch all’ for issues identified during the range of activities

undertaken by the OA team. The ETR captures issues also identified by Borough Officers

carrying out OAAs, from the debriefing process and through environmental scanning.

The register is under continuous review to ensure it remains current.

Directorate Risk Register

This register is maintained by the Directorate Risk Champion (Area Manager) to collate the

issues applicable to this level. The Directorate Risk Register is a standing item for discussion

at the quarterly ER Planning meeting.

Corporate Risk Register

The Corporate Risk Register is maintained by the Risk and Intelligence Manager (RIM) and is

owned by the Corporate Leadership Team (CLT). The register is utilised in a range of meeting

forums and reviewed by Members of the Fire Authority (FA) at the quarterly meeting of the

ASS Committee.

Risk and Intelligence Manager (RIM)

The RIM is pivotal to the risk management process and has the responsibility for reporting

directly to CLT and the Fire Authority. The RIM has primary responsibility for maintaining the

Corporate Risk Register including the allocation of risk identifiers in order to track and report

upon the progression of a risk and associated mitigating actions.

The OA undertake collation of the outcomes of all OAAs, SIs and other assurance activites

and as a consequence, are responsible for providing regular update reports to all identified

stakeholders, generally driven by the individual meeting schedules.

Identified Stakeholders:

Emergency Response Directorate (Quarterly Reporting Cycle)

Health and Safety Department

Directorate Risk Champion

Operational Risk Control Group (ORCG)

Operational Procedures and Equipment Forum (OPEF)

Corporate Leadership Team (CLT)

Consultation, Research and Assurance Group (CRAG)

Leadership Team (LT)

Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC)

Audit and Risk Management, Wigan Council (Internal Audit)

Fire Authority Audit, Scrutiny and Standards Committee Delivery against the activities set out within this Ops Assurance Plan for 2015/16 will be

reported to DER, in line with the scheduled quarterly meeting process and to the Fire Authority

ASS Committee.

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Operational Risk Control Group (ORCG)

The purpose of the ORCG is to act as a cross-organisational control group to help manage

risks likely to affect operational activities. The ORCG work to effectively resolve identified risks

from a number of sources, including any unresolved items arising from operational assurance

related activities.

The ETR as captured within the AMS features as a standing item on the ORCG agenda at its

bi-monthly meetings, where representatives from the key support departments work to resolve

or progress the key issues.

Those risks which the ORCG are unable to resolve, or where the issues are considered to be

beyond the authority of the ORCG, are placed on the appropriate Corporate or Directorate risk

register and communicated to the CRAG and LT.

ORCG maintain an action summary detailing progress against all identified risks. This is

communicated to LT, JHSC and CRAG for consideration at the next available meeting and

also forms part of the OA reporting process to the Fire Authority ASS Committee.

Fire Authority Audit, Scrutiny and Standards Committee

To ensure consistency of approach, OA reporting activities directly align with and complement

those utilised by the Internal Audit Service. In pursuance of this requirement, delivery against

the activities set out within this Ops Assurance Plan for 2015/16 will be reported to the Fire

Authority ASS Committee in accordance with the programmed timetable of meetings.

Annual Governance Statement

OA will provide information to support assurance at this level and will report within the Annual

Governance Statement (AGS).

Review and Evaluation of the Ops Assurance Plan

The activities set out within this Ops Assurance Plan will be subject to continual review so as

to ensure they continues to meet with corporate expectation and satisfy the objectives defined

within the introduction to this plan.

Equality and Diversity Impact Assessment

An initial equality and diversity impact assessment has been undertaken and no significant

findings were identified.

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Appendix One: Emerging Themes Register

Active Monitoring System Emerging Themes Register: Primary Themes

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Appendix Two: Annual Availability

Operational Assurance Team Officer (Station Manager)

Annual Availability (Theoretical Number of OA Days Available) 248

Annual leave (including public holidays) 37

Work in support of Corporate Goals* 25

Personal Development;

Core skill requirements

‘One to Ones’ / Personal Performance Reviews

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4

Other Flexible Duty System (FDS) Officer references;

(FDS Role, Hazardous Materials and Environmental Protection Officer, National Inter-

agency Liaison Officer, Hazardous Materials Detection, Identification and Monitoring

Advisor, Senior Accident Investigation Officer etc.)

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Total days allocated to other activities 96

Total Days Available (per Officer) 152

*Relates to activities undertaken in support of delivering Corporate Goals that are not a direct responsibility of OA,

but to which the function makes a meaningful and necessary contribution.