The role of GFRS operational assurance team is to monitor and review operational incidents/exercises, gaining patterns of good practice and areas for improvement to share and learn from. These areas are shared service-wide through internal communication mechanisms and if the area of interest has a national impact, then the operational assurance team will share learning through the National Organisational Learning (NOL) and/or Joint Organisational Learning (JOL) portals.
As an active member of the LRF GFRS work to the Joint Emergency Services Interoperability Principles (JESIP). This clearly sets out who, when and how a major incident can be declared in Gloucestershire.
Through the Gloucestershire LRF, GFRS interact with both category one and two responders. Our Senior Response Officers are all qualified through the National Standard, Multi Agency Gold Incident Command (MAGIC) course which supports Major Incident Command competence.
To assure and support operational competence, learning and preparedness we identify and implement National Operational Guidance.
Fire and Rescue incidents are wide ranging and varied. Historically we have created Standard Operating Procedures to deal with them, created from written risk assessments that inform our training and provide ongoing guidance for our incident commanders. Unfortunately, every Fire and Rescue Service in the UK has done the same and there can be some slight differences in approach and terminology.
Consequently, National Operational Guidance has been written that provides Fire and Rescue Services with a clear framework for attending and training for all operational activities. This ensures a more joined up approach when working at over boarder incidents or at national large scale multi-agency incidents such as flooding events, acts of terrorism and incidents that threaten our environment.
Finally, where we attend incidents, we will debrief and share our learning nationally. Aligning our guidance and training will not only help us to prepare and plan for emergencies but to contribute to improving firefighter safety and the safety of the much wider community.