Fire and Emergency Services Doctrine
This project is now complete. The Fundamentals of Doctrine: A Best Practice Guide is available to members of the AFAC Knowledge Web.
Project Outline: The Need
A resolution from the September 2009 Executive Command Forum was to investigate the need and required scope of a high level national service delivery doctrine for fire and emergency services.Galvanised by the circumstances of the February 2009 Victorian bushfires, and reinforced by projections surrounding the impacts of climate change, the senior operational personnel of AFAC member agencies have indicated work should be undertaken to explore this issue.
With growing intensity, duration and frequency of emergency events, the fire and emergency services are being continually tested and decision makers overwhelmed by the growing complexities of rules, orders and procedures within which they need to make decisions of public and firefighter safety. Experience shows that each time opportunities for improvement are identified through coronial and other inquiries more prescription results; anecdotally it would seem that this may not be the most effective approach and is counter-productive for decision-makers.
Benefits and Strategic Alignment
All member agencies can benefit from having a good practice guide to doctrine that facilitates greater understanding of each others operations, cultures and methods. As the need to support multi-agency operations grow the requirement for a common understanding of doctrine, common incident management systems, interoperability and a consistent and formalised understanding of the principles of operations also increases.Proposal
This project will produce a good practice guide to fire and emergency services doctrine that consolidates the following investigations:- What exactly is required and why?
- Exploration of the understanding of what a doctrine actually is; what it is for and what benefits it would deliver
- Where doctrine fits in any hierarchy of documents and framework of controls
The project would be scheduled to commence immediately following the AFAC Council meeting in April 2010, and present the report to the following Council meeting in September 2010.
Consultation
In addition to all AFAC member agencies, the following groups would be engaged to varying degrees:- Executive Command Forum participants
- All AFAC Operations Group Representatives
- Rural Land Management National Principles sub group
- AIIMS Steering Committee
- Attorney Generals Department
- ANZPAA
- AFAC Community Safety Group
- Various experts in the area of emergency management
Governance
This project will be directly accountable to the AFAC Council.
Project Owner: Naomi Brown, CEO
Project Manager: Jill Edwards, AFAC Manager Strategy
Project Team:
- Paul Considine, AFAC Manager Urban Operations
- Gary Featherston, AFAC Manager Rural and Land Management
- Sandra Lunardi, AFAC Manager Learning and Development
A Project Steering Committee is not recommended at this stage, due to the nature of the work to be done. Subsequent projects to develop and implement a national doctrine (if that is what is decided) will require greater governance arrangements and consultation work.
For more information on this project please contact Jill Edwards, AFAC Manager Strategy.
