Year 5 (2024/25) marks the final year of the current Year 2-5 Implementation Plan.
Agencies are expected to have completed all the actions in the Year 2-5 Implementation Plan by June 2025. FSIM notes that while agencies have delivered most of the actions, of the 14 actions that remain, agencies report that 7 are on track and 7 are experiencing delays. FSIM has concerns about the limited progress made on some of these actions and the risk that these actions will not be delivered on time and in line with the action objectives.
In Year 5, FSIM will track agency progress against key milestones for the outstanding actions. FSIM will also monitor actions taken by existing governance and oversight mechanisms to address implementation barriers for the outstanding actions using complementary fire services principles. There will be a focus on actions that carry a high risk of not being completed on time (actions 3.8, 3.9, 3.12 and 5.1). FSIM will do this by reviewing agencies’ quarterly progress updates provided to DJCS, making formal information requests to agencies to enquire about a particular action, and discussing outstanding actions and issues in regular monthly meetings with the agencies.
FSIM will also monitor actions taken by agencies to address the strategic, operational and child safety risks from non-compliance with the Child Safety Standards. FSIM will enquire about the outcome of the planned Consultative Committee meeting in September 2024 and pending the outcome of this meeting, seek FRV’s advice on the steps it will take to ensure all current and future FRV secondees meet CFA’s child safe requirements. This has relevance to actions 3.8, 4.5 and 5.1. FSIM will also examine the effectiveness of actions taken by CFA in 2024/25 to address feedback from the Commission for Children and Young People on CFA’s Action Plan to become fully compliant with the standards.
To support FSIM’s understanding of the effectiveness of agency actions to achieve government’s vision for a modern, interoperable fire service, FSIM may assess:
- the planned roll-out of the new Crew and Strike Team Leader courses (action 1.4) and the updated GFF training program (action 1.6)
- CFA’s actions to move towards a new operating model (actions 1.7 and 4.7)
- the effectiveness and impacts of FRV’s Health Model (action 2.3)
- collaborative efforts by CFA and FRV to deliver agreed capital works in co-located stations (action 3.4)
- the implementation of the firefighter registration scheme (action 4.2)
- the effectiveness of FRV’s actions to demonstrate progress towards supporting the government’s commitment of 400 women career firefighters in FRV (action 4.9)
- the extent to which FRV’s workforce plan, and related activities, incorporate CFA’s capability requirements (action 5.4).
FSIM looks forward to working with agencies in 2024/25 to support its monitoring and effectiveness assessment activities and thanks them for their ongoing cooperation.
FSIM also looks forward to further advice and direction from government about its fire services reform priorities for Year 6 and beyond.
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