Contrast colour high contrast | A A A |  |  Privacy & Cookie Policy |  Site Map
DFRS Logo Fire Kills Dorset Fire and Rescue Service

    working in partnership to make Dorset safer

Key Organisational Strategies   

Dorset Fire and Rescue Service uses our Community Safety Plan to outline what we are going to do, how and when we are going to do it, and why we are going to do it and is available to view in full from the link at the bottom of this page. 
 
We have a clear corporate vision and supporting priorities that provide direction for us to improve and this is shown in the following model:

Vision

Our vision is:  Working in partnerhip to make Dorset safer
 
But what does that mean for the staff and for the people who live, work and visit here? We have developed the following aspiration to be achieved by 2020:
 
2020 Aspiration (what we want for Dorset)
 
We live and work in one of the safest parts of the country. We have no avoidable deaths as a result of fire, and serious injuries are very rare. We have supported our partners so that the number of people killed or seriously injured on our roads is very low. We are part of, represent and really know the people in our communities and help those who need our support to live independently. Our safety education schemes are some of the best in the Country and every home has a smoke alarm that is regularly tested. Dorset people and businesses think ‘safety first’.
 
Our staff are extremely competent and highly motivated. Communities are confident that our resources are in the right place and we have the best equipment to tackle any task under all conditions. We care passionately about protecting our environment, heritage and local economy.
 
Strategic Aims
To work towards this aspiration, we focus on five strategic aims:
Prevention
Reducing risk by educating our communities to prevent fires and other incidents occurring.
Protection
Ensuring that buildings are well regulated and can offer a safe means of escape in the case of fire.
Response
Ensuring that our response delivers a swift and professional service in an emergency.
People
Ensuring a safe and competent workforce who are well managed and effective.
Resources
Maximising the value we get from the resources we use and reducing the impact on the environment.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
These strategic aims allow us to tackle existing and potential risks to our communities through an appropriate and proportionate combination of prevention, protection and response and by providing well trained and effective staff with the right resources, which is the basis of our Integrated Risk management Plan. For each of the strategic aims we have set clear priorities for our work.
Our Targets, Priorities and Strategies
 
These aspirations and aims however, are meaningless unless the Service can show how we intend to deliver these to our communities. Each strategic aim is therefore supported by strategic targets and priorities and has defined strategies to deliver them.
 
Strategic Targets
 
Each strategic aim is supported by strategic targets. These are important as they set out ‘milestones’ so that our communities can see exactly how we are doing. By setting out our strategic targets in this way we ensure that we can be held accountable if we do not deliver them.
 
Priorities
 
Each of our strategic aims has a set of clearly defined priorities which are crucial to improving the services we provide. These priorities allow us to target our limited resources where they will do the most good.
 
Strategies
 
This plan is supported by three organisational strategies; Community Safety, People and Resources which show how we intend to prevent incidents from happening, protect buildings from the risk of fire and where necessary respond effectively to emergency calls. It also shows how we invest in our people and manage our resources. Protecting the environment is at the heart of everything we do.
 
We must also ensure that we actually do what we say we will and demonstrate how we are doing to our stakeholders, communities and staff. Our organisational strategies therefore explain the:
  • priorities we have set
  • key activities we are delivering
  • performance indicators we are using to measure performance. 
These organisational strategies are available:
  • Community Safety Strategy 
  • People Strategy  
  • Resources Strategy.  
Some of our strategies have sub-strategies such as information technology (IT) which, although a large programme in its own right, is part of the ‘parent strategy’ - the Resources Strategy. Why have they all been developed and how are they going to be implemented? A strategy provides a pathway for people and organisations to follow and are absolutely essential in order that goals and objectives are reached. Dorset Fire and Rescue Service’s goal is to achieve even greater community risk reduction so that we continue to be one of the safest counties in the country – “Working in partnership to make Dorset safer”.
Each of the strategies is supported by our medium term financial plan. All DFRS teams  have action plans to ensure that the Community Safety Plan agenda gets delivered and all strategies are fed into these action plans. A summary of each of the three key strategies, together with information on our values and medium term financial plan  is outlined below.

Community Safety Strategy

The Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004  and the Fire and Rescue Framework document lays down the focus and duties for fire and rescue services. Key amongst these is the statutory duty to promote community fire safety within our Community Safety Strategy publication. There are five strategic aims in our Community Safety Plan  and our vision of “working in partnership to make Dorset Safer”.
 
Our plans fully meet with the expectations of a modern fire and rescue service and the targets of the Fire and Rescue Service National Framework Document. Our five-year plan identifies the key areas of focus and how we can make sustainable progress towards improving community safety. We make immediate differences by targeting our activity towards those most vulnerable to risks in their homes and will be enhancing this by helping to provide added protection from risks.
 
By reducing the unwanted demands on the service and by working with partners we improve our capacity and capability to help reduce death, injury and loss. We focus on delivering against our priorities (for example prevention,  improved investigation, working with youth, in education, our legal fire risk management and enforcement duties) and be working towards improving our abilities to respond to an ever-widening range of emergency demands.

Medium Term Financial Strategies

All well managed authorities will be expected to produce a Medium Term Finance (MTF) plan (920KB pdf) . This is basically ‘how we pay’ for the changes and improvements that we are about to undertake. This is especially important for precepting authorities – or ones that generate some of their funding through the council tax.
 
The MTF plan identifies exactly how much money or income that the fire service has available to it and how it is going to pay for things that we need to achieve our objectives to make Dorset safer.

People Strategy

(incorporating learning and development and Equality) The national framework sets out a number of people management areas that the Government consider as priorities and objectives for fire and rescue Services. These range from attracting, recruiting, developing and retaining a diverse workforce that reflects the community it serves, building up the base of human resource management expertise, and having effective policies and procedures in place for the handling of discipline and grievances, sickness management and ill-health retirements and pension provision. We are also being encouraged to continue to work closely with our regional partners in the South West to ensure that we have the best possible working practices for our staff.
 
Our People Strategy is about the people who are involved in delivering the services that DFRS provides. These include those who are directly employed by DFRS as well as those who work with us as partners or in providing certain services such as building contractors, cleaners, etc. Without people, DFRS will not achieve its aims and objectives. Each of the items in our action plans are aligned to a strategic target or a medium term objective and will support DFRS in achieving that target or objective. The People Strategy is a three-year plan, which will be reviewed annually.

Resources Strategy

(including radio and telephony, property, procurement, fleet, equipment and ICT and Information Security) The Resources Strategy is a fundamental part of our Community Safety Plan. It is still in development but elements of it (sub strategies) such as the IT strategy are already in place. Having a Resources Strategy is seen as good practice and good governance although it is not a requirement imposed on fire services.
 
It also ensures that all the authority’s assets are procured, managed and maintained effectively and meet our aims and objectives. There are two key elements or sub-strategies to the Asset Management Strategy: Operational assets and ICT and more information can be found about each of these either through our website link below or within the Community Safety Plan itself.