Chief Fire Officers Association Annual Conference 2016 Operational Discretion – Making the right choices Andy Bowers – Hampshire Fire & Rescue Service

Operational Discretion Background What it is What it isnt Situational awareness Why the UKFRS needs operational discretion.

Context and Background 99.9% of Incidents Managed Well

Context and Background Lessons to be learnt from some Incidents

Background Overly prescriptive policies Too many policies Perception of risk aversion Falling experience levels Effectiveness of decision making.

Other drivers UKHSE Striking the Balance UK Govt. – Health, Safety and welfare framework HSE Reducing error and influencing behaviour Significant incidents in UK Fire services Concerns about application of health and safety The prosecutions in Warwickshire Background ‘noise’ about risk aversion.

Striking the Balance ‘many incidents firefighters face can develop at speed, some can develop in unexpected ways – and firefighters may, from time to time, be confronted with situations outside their experience’ ‘they have to prepare individual employees to be able to make decisions in dangerous, fast-moving, emotionally charged and pressurised situations, even when there may sometimes be incomplete or inaccurate information about the incident’

Health, safety and welfare framework for the operational environment ‘S tandard operational procedures need to be sufficiently flexible to allow the IC to exercise discretion on the resources and procedures required to resolve the emergency’ ‘The decision to exercise operational discretion…should be based on a balance in terms of risk versus benefit’

Reducing error and influencing behaviour 80% of accidents caused by human error How do we train our people? Do we adequately prepare for the unexpected and unpredicted? Do we assess with only achievable scenarios?

Risk aversion A perception Individual or organisational? Default to defensive Public and firefighter safety Prescriptive policies Decision aversion?

The actual issues Falling experience levels Overly prescriptive policies Too many policies Unrealistic or inappropriate training Too much reliance on specialists and experts? Fear of discipline / litigation / blame Senior management ‘tone’.

Falling experience levels Fires in the UK have fallen by around 50% in a decade Fires needing 5 pumps or more have fallen by 32% in the last 5 years IC’s who don’t regularly take command BA wearers who don’t regularly wear BA Retirement profile Loss of organisational ‘memory’ Reliability of recognition primed decision making.

Decision making Previous thinking, RPD etc CFOA research How do we train and assess? Preparing for the unexpected Decision control process.

What is operational discretion? A necessary concept? A smaller number of well written policies? Flexible application to suit the circumstances Professionalising incident command Trusting our people.

What operational discretion is not! A criticism of standard operating procedures An attempt to side step health & safety Stepping outside of policies An excuse for not knowing policy A free for all Used at every incident.

What next Continued drive for operational effectiveness Decision making Improved situational awareness Improved learning from incidents Focus on people as well as support systems More realistic training Flexible policies sensibly applied.

Conclusions Operational discretion is a current necessity Rarely used Assists in moving the UKFRS forward Is about trusting our people to do the job well Needs senior management support and the right organisational culture to work Change is uncomfortable, to not change is fatal.

Questions?