The only change made to the Fire Authority's previous IRMP Strategic Plan is an update to the section stating the Authority's new Response Standards. The Authority has included two new sections in the 2006/07 IRMP Action Plan that were not included in previous year's Action Plans. The first states what the Authority's IRMP priorities are for the period covered by this plan, whilst the second gives details about some of the significant risk reduction initiatives it is planning to undertake. The Authority hopes that you find these new sections both informative and useful.
Summary of the improvements included in IRMP Action Plan 2006/07
Over the past twelve months the Service's IRMP Team has made excellent progress with the community risk assessment for Shropshire. This put the Authority in a position whereby it could look at putting new risk based response standards in place for the county. Instead of the old nationally prescribed standards which were based upon the risk to buildings, the Authority's new standards relate to the risk to life; not only in fires but also in road traffic collisions which, because of the amount of roads in Shropshire, represents a significant risk to those living in and passing through the county. The Authority believes the new standards will help it to improve the Service it is able to deliver to you. The new Response Standards, together with the proposed Resilience Standards (the minimum levels of emergency cover during times of high demand), represent significant building blocks that will enable the Authority to make good progress with the emergency cover reviews for Shrewsbury, Telford and eventually the rest of the county.
Other issues the Authority has included in its IRMP Action Plan this year involve making better use of the wholetime firefighters who are not always required to ride the front-line fire engines, as well as proposed changes to the way the Aerial Appliances are crewed. The latter has provided quite significant efficiency savings which will go towards helping the Authority meet the problems facing the Retained Duty System in Shropshire which is its number one priority for service improvements.
Having completed more than three months of consultation with all stakeholders (the outcomes from which are available in the documents section below) , the Fire Authority is certain the improvements included in this year's Action Plan are another significant step towards its stated mission of 'Putting Shropshire's Safety First'.
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