This report is prepared and published in accordance with the Fire Services Implementation Monitor’s (FSIM) requirements under section 141 of the Fire Rescue Victoria Act 1958 (FRV Act). It provides commentary and analysis on the Country Fire Authority’s (CFA) and Fire Rescue Victoria’s (FRV) respective outcomes frameworks for quarter 2 (Q2) of the 2023-24 financial year (FY).
FSIM publishes these quarterly reports at Fire Services Implementation Monitor publications.
Reporting on outcomes
CFA and FRV have each developed an outcomes framework that sets out their respective outcomes-based fire services performance measures, in accordance with section 140(1) of the FRV Act.
For this quarter, CFA have reported on 29 indicators and FRV have reported on 19 measures (against 12 indicators). Reports on CFA and FRV progress against their respective outcomes frameworks for Q2 FY 2023-24 are provided in the appendices.
In this report, FSIM has provided commentary on indicators and measures that meet the below criteria:
- demonstrates a notable achievement:
- FRV: Number of sessions of FireEd and risk reduction programs delivered to the community.
- CFA: Increase in the number of community members engaging with CFA.
- continuing off-track trend over repeated quarter:
- FRV: Percentage of response to structure fire incidents within 7.7 minutes (target 90 per cent).
- FRV: Increase in support and maintenance of firefighters’ physical and psychological health.
- CFA: Decrease average time spent suppressing structure fires (time spent on scene of incident).
- significant change from the previous quarter (positive or negative):
- CFA: Decrease in workplace injuries (significantly changes from quarter to quarter).
- varies more than 5 per cent from the agency’s baseline or average over time:
- CFA: Decrease in the number of house fires.
FSIM observations
In this quarter, FSIM continues to observe the trends highlighted in the last fire services outcomes framework progress report. For example, trends of agencies not meeting targets (e.g. FRV structure fire response times), agencies reporting on indicators which are heavily influenced by factors outside of their control (e.g. CFA number of house fires and number of grass and scrub fires and FRV number of preventable non-structure fire incidents), and a significant lack of data (and therefore fulsome reporting) by FRV.
As FSIM has previously noted, FRV continues to work to restore systems impacted by the December 2022 cyber-attack and are using interim approaches to address the lack of data (for example, from the Australian Incident Reporting System (AIRS)).
FSIM appreciates that it takes dedicated time, effort and resources for agencies to be able to fulsomely report on and use their outcomes frameworks to drive meaningful change. FSIM looks forward to the agencies’ continued work on outcomes reporting that demonstrates how factors within their control are contributing to these results.
Maturing outcomes frameworks
CFA and FRV regularly review their respective outcomes frameworks to ensure the outcomes, indicators and measures continue to align with their strategic priorities and remain fit-for-purpose.
CFA’s outcomes framework
CFA advised that they are finalising the annual review of their outcomes framework, with changes expected to be applied in the Q3 2023-24 report.
FRV’s outcomes framework
FRV advised that their outcomes framework review is likely to commence in March or April 2024 and will take 12 months to complete.
FRV also advised that this process will include a review of their Health, Safety and Wellbeing Framework. This review will inform FRV’s outcomes framework measures under indicator 3.1.1 ‘Increase in support and maintenance of firefighters’ physical and psychological health’ to enable meaningful reporting on occupational health and safety.
Industrial action impacting data quality
FSIM observed that data quality for some indicators continues to be impacted by industrial action.
FRV advised that the (rolling) false alarm data reported in the below indicators was impacted by the United Firefighters Union’s industrial action during 27 October 2022 to 20 April 2023 and 12 August to 13 October 2023 and the industrial action affecting Triple Zero Victoria (TZV) (formerly Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority) from 18 December 2023 to date:
- 1.2.3: Decrease in unwanted false alarms to reduce unnecessary emergency responses.
- 1.3.3: Decrease in preventable non-structure fires and other hazard related incidents.
- 3.4.1b: No. of incidents outside FRV district.
For measure ‘2.1.3b: Total operational fleet availability’, FRV report that protected industrial action being taken by some CFA staff has meant that FRV cannot access total fleet availability data in the regions for formal reporting. CFA advise that, via agreement, this industrial action did not impact on appliance-related emergency response or related activities.
FRV cyber-attack impacts on outcomes framework reporting
As previously reported, the December 2022 cyber-attack continues to impact FRV’s information and computer technology systems and FRV’s access to the Australian Incident Reporting System (AIRS). As such, FRV are unable to provide the results on several operational measures as they are dependent on fields captured by the AIRS system.
In the interim, FRV report on the below five operational measures impacted by AIRS using data obtained from the TZV Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system:
- No. of properties with six or more false alarms on different days (rolling 12 months).
- No. of structure fire incidents within FRV districts.
- No. of incidents other than structure fires and other non-fire related incidents.
- Percentage of response to structure fire incidents within 7.7 minutes.
- Percentage of response to EMR (emergency medical response) within 9.2 minutes.
FRV report the TZV CAD data has been validated to ensure its integrity and comparability with AIRS.
FRV advised that work continues to be undertaken to restore AIRS for reporting from 1 August 2024
(i.e. data will be entered into AIRS from the beginning of the 2024-25 financial year).
FRV also advised that recovery of FireCode, which was also impacted by the cyber-attack, is expected to be completed by June 2024.
Updated