The Fire Services Outcomes Framework Progress Report is prepared and published in accordance with the Fire Services Implementation Monitor’s (FSIM) functions under section 141 of the Fire Rescue Victoria Act 1958. It includes current results, comparisons to historical data, and commentary from FSIM on select results from the Country Fire Authority’s (CFA) and Fire Rescue Victoria’s (FRV) respective outcomes frameworks for the second quarter of the 2024-25 financial year.
FSIM publishes these quarterly reports on its website at www.vic.gov.au/fsim-publications.
In this quarter, CFA reported on 24 indicators (see Appendix A) and FRV reported on 25 measures (see Appendix B).
CFA’s Year 5 Outcomes Framework
CFA conducts an annual review of its outcomes framework as part of a continuous improvement approach. Continuous improvement of outcomes frameworks helps to ensure that agencies focus on the right data and information when making decisions. CFA reported on its Year 5 outcomes framework for the first time in quarter 2.
The most recent review introduced two new annual indicators and four new quarterly indicators, including:
- 2.4.1 Road accident rescue response times meeting benchmark, and
- 3.4.7 Increase delivery of operational training to CFA volunteers.
CFA reported on these indicators for the first time in quarter 2.
In relation to indicator 2.4.1, CFA has clarified that in this quarter (year-to-date), 127 incidents were attended by accredited road accident rescue brigades, with 121 of these incidents meeting CFA’s response time benchmarks (i.e. 20 mins for urban areas and 40 mins for rural areas). This resulted in an overall result of 95 per cent, which is above the sector target of 90 per cent.
CFA also made several tweaks to business rules to improve clarity, and updated the method of calculation from ‘average’ to ‘median’ for the following indicators:
- 2.2.3 Decrease median time spent suppressing structure fires (time spent on scene of incident), and
- 2.2.4 Decrease in median time to control vegetation fires.
FSIM notes that while these updates mean that comparisons to historical reporting cannot be made, FSIM acknowledges CFA’s rationale for this change on the basis that the use of a median calculation is appropriate when data is skewed and includes outliers, as it does in this case.
CFA has also applied the new business rules to baseline calculations.
FRV’s outcomes framework
FRV is developing a revised outcomes framework and anticipate that it will be used for reporting from quarter 1 2025-26. FRV reported on progress against its existing outcomes framework for reporting this quarter.
CFA indicators and FRV measures short-listed for reporting
FSIM has reported on select results based on the following criteria:
- demonstrates a notable achievement:
- CFA: Increase in the number of community members engaging with CFA (indicator 1.2.1).
- FRV: Number of women firefighters in leadership roles (measure 3.2.1b)
- continuing off-track trend over repeated quarters:
- FRV: Percentage of response to structure fire incidents within 7.7 minutes (target 90 per cent) (measure 2.1.3a).
- significant change from the previous quarter (positive or negative):
- CFA: An increase in hazard reporting within CFA locations (indicator 3.1.1) – reflecting a negative change.
- FRV: Number of engagements with Local Government Areas by the Community Safety Team (measure 1.3.1) – reflecting a positive change.
- FRV: Proportion of preventable residential structure fires attended by Fire Rescue Victoria by time of day contained to room of origin (measure 2.1.1b) – reflecting a positive change.
Issues impacting data quality and data availability
Where applicable, FRV has been working to transition to reporting using Australian Incident Reporting System (AIRS) data, following the December 2022 cyber-attack. Consistent with the previous quarter, FRV reported on 6 measures using AIRS data and 2 other measures using Triple Zero Victoria (TZV) Computer Aided Dispatch data. See Appendix B for the list of measures reported this quarter using AIRS data.
FSIM will continue to monitor FRV's progress to restore AIRS for reporting on the 1 outstanding measure (1.2.3), once a full 12 months of AIRS data is available for reporting.
The data quality for FRV’s measures that are reported as a rolling 12-month average is still impacted by industrial action in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 financial years. Therefore, FRV advises that the Q2, 2024-25 result for ‘Measure 1.2.3: Number of properties with six or more false alarms on different days (rolling 12 months)’ cannot be compared with previous quarters. FRV also advises that the accuracy of false alarm data has improved this quarter due to multiple industrial action ending.
Updated