Operations
Joint Committee -2 Minute Briefing
Issue 8, March 2014
Quick snapshot of the priority issues and actions worked through at the most recent Joint Committee meeting between CFA and VFBV.
Due to Operational Activity, this Joint Committee Meeting was cancelled & did not go ahead.
The following issues have been pursed out of session over the Fire Season. More detailed information will be available after April’s State Council meeting.
2013/14 SEASON DEBRIEFS
The CFA Chief Officer has written to VFBV to address our concerns about inadequate opportunities for Volunteers at Brigade and local levels in particular, to be involved in previous years post season reviews.
The Chief Officer has written to all Operations Managers, expressing his intent that they be responsible in the first instance to develop a process in each of their Districts, that caters for inputs from brigades and individual members in this year’s post season review.
Last year’s review was largely silent on items that many front-line Volunteers constantly raise as important to them, due mainly to very few opportunities for Volunteers to be involved in post season review workshops that were held during weekdays and during normal business hours.
VFBV encourages all members who think they have something to contribute to this year’s post season review, including lessons learned at the local levels, to contact their Operations Manager to find out what opportunities have been scheduled for them to be involved in.
VFBV representatives are also meeting with the Fire Services Commissioner to provide input and suggestions on what measures the FSC can take to encourage & support increased Volunteer participation in this years review.
VOLUNTEER UTILISATION IN IMTs
In late January 2014, VFBV started receiving wide ranging reports from many Volunteers qualified and endorsed for senior IMT roles, who were reporting that no opportunities were being provided for them to provide their services.
On the 29th January, following advice that CFA was reporting that the demand for IMT personnel was starting to exceed available resources, and they were at capacity & seeking interstate resources, VFBV requested the Fire Services Commissioner establish a transparent resource utilization tracking process to assure himself that all available resources had in fact been utilised.
Initial results from that review, showed a high incidence of personnel who had not yet been used, and confirmed Volunteer reports that there appeared to be no systemic or centralized system that proactively sought their availability ahead of time, to plan for projected demands. On the 30th January, CFA was instructed to proactively utilise each District’s IMT resource list, and manage IMT resources on a rolling 14 day resource plan for the next 6 weeks. All personnel on the IMT resource lists were to be contacted to advise of their availability.
VFBV will be following up with the FSC and the CFA Chief Officer to ensure those barriers that were identified such as Volunteers being overlooked or “designed out” byway of unreasonable shift lengths (such as 7 day shifts) or short notice requests for same day or next deployments are addressed for next season.
