VFBV

Issue 4, 24 March 2013

Quick snapshot of the priority issues and actions worked through at the most recent Joint Committee meeting between CFA and VFBV. (Meeting held 24/03/2013)

2012/13 SUMMER CAMPAIGN DEBRIEFS

Delegates to the CFA/VFBV Joint Operations committee have requested CFA to actively plan, support and engage with volunteers as part of this year’s debrief process, in order to provide sufficient opportunity for feedback and comment on any issues encountered during this seasons summer campaign fires, and to ensure issues relating to volunteer utilization, support, welfare and optimisation are not overlooked in any multi-agency, whole of sector debrief process.

Concerns that issues raised and documented in previous years reports go unanswered and continue to occur, and that volunteers are becoming increasingly reluctant to participate in formal debriefs due to the perception that ‘nothing ever changes’, delegates have requested that CFA make a strong commitment to volunteers that any issues arising from this year’s debriefs be analysed and acted upon, and that a formal reporting process be put in place to address any issues arising and track progress against actions.

The committee is formally writing to the CFA Chief Officer to seek his endorsement and support of this approach, and seeking the involvement of the Joint Operations Committee in the planning and subsequent analysis of issues arising.

Delegates have requested closer collaboration and volunteer engagement with CFA following the release of CFA’s first quarterly progress report. The committee has identified 10 actions that relate directly to the Operations committee, and whose reported status highlight a lack of engagement with both the committee and volunteers in general. The committee is pursuing greater transparency in each actions reporting, and a more proactive approach to engaging with both the committee and volunteers in general over the desired outcomes and strategies not only in the implementation stages, but more importantly in the planning and strategy phases of each action to ensure volunteers are not just passengers to reform, but active and influential partners.

An example of actions the committee is seeking closer engagement on is reforms to the Section 29 process, Removing barriers to volunteer involvement in IMT’s, Implementation of a Brigade support and planning model that focusses on building, supporting and maintaining volunteer capacity at brigade level, developing inclusive and proactive action plans for Integrated Brigades, reviewing and modernising the discipline process to enable early and local intervention and identifying any practices that inhibit volunteer utilisation in the delivery of any portion of CFA service delivery such as specialist response and IMT training in accordance with 6(i) of the CFA Act.

CFA REGULATIONS REVIEW

The CFA Regulations have a sunset clause of January 2014, however CFA have requested and been approved for an extension to January 2015. CFA has agreed to work with VFBV to document the structure and process by which they will be receiving comment and feedback on any planned changes to the regulations, to ensure volunteers have sufficient and adequate time to be consulted on any changes proposed in the review. Delegates are reviewing a draft timeline and process and will shortly be seeking feedback on changes that volunteers may wish to propose.